First of all, I totally agree about compression running rampant these days, especially for drum kits. My wife is a drummer, so I know what drums really sound like, and only a few recordings give you a hint of their dynamic range. In fact, she and I both lament that a lot of modern recordings don't even use real drums any more, only those electronic travesties, for ease of recording.
To expand about about differences I've heard with hi-res on the DAC1, sometimes I think I hear a difference, in that some hi-res recordings seem to reveal something I've never heard before, but then I go back to a CD and hear similar things. Or I find an awesome recording on CD that sounds better than anything I've heard on hi-res. For example, oddly, I still haven't heard a piano recording superior to the ancient Telarc CD of Malcom Frager playing Chopin. That old Soundstream recording even forces an odd conversion to 16/44, and it still sounds great.
As for Kijanki's comment that the s/n ratio of most amps is specified at 1W, I say check again. All of the obvious ones I've checked reference full power, and most can't break -85db at 1W into 8ohms. JA's measurements in Stereophile are very interesting in this regard. (His measurements are the only reason I read the magazine.)
To expand about about differences I've heard with hi-res on the DAC1, sometimes I think I hear a difference, in that some hi-res recordings seem to reveal something I've never heard before, but then I go back to a CD and hear similar things. Or I find an awesome recording on CD that sounds better than anything I've heard on hi-res. For example, oddly, I still haven't heard a piano recording superior to the ancient Telarc CD of Malcom Frager playing Chopin. That old Soundstream recording even forces an odd conversion to 16/44, and it still sounds great.
As for Kijanki's comment that the s/n ratio of most amps is specified at 1W, I say check again. All of the obvious ones I've checked reference full power, and most can't break -85db at 1W into 8ohms. JA's measurements in Stereophile are very interesting in this regard. (His measurements are the only reason I read the magazine.)