Focus on 24/192 Misguided?.....


As I've upgraded by digital front end over the last few years, like most people I've been focused on 24/192 and related 'hi rez' digital playback and music to get the most from my system. However, I read this pretty thought provoking article on why this may be a very bad idea:
http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

Maybe it's best to just focus on as good a redbook solution as you can, although there seem to be some merits to SACD, if for nothing else the attention to recording quality.
128x128outlier
According to all the engineers and tests and specs, vinyl does not sound as good as a CD right? But so many people would prefer the sound of vinyl and/or tubes over SS amps and a CD player. So I guess all this talk about specs and cutoff freq., etc. is just a numbers thing. Will it tell you if one amp sounds better to a person than another?
The same recording transfered to 16/44 does not sound as good as the same recording transfered to a higher resolution whether it is SACD or 24/96 (or 24/192). Can we move on and try to get recordings put out on something higher than 256k?
Kijanki, do you know what the power bandwidth is on ARC amps, particularly the VS-115. Freq. response is approx. 100K, but I don't know if that is the same as power bandwidth.
Kijanki thanx for that info on power amp freq bandwidth. I suppose that many more amps are higher freq bandwidth than I imagined but I don't know how many of these have the same number for power bandwidth? Any idea?
Bombaywalla, Bifwynne - No, I don't know the numbers, but suspect it is at about a half or less. Delivering full power at high frequencies is not really important since very little power goes to tweeter. In my Rowland 102 max power at high frequencies would damage amplifier (burn out output choke). Icepower module 200ASC used in my amp is specified at 200W at 10Hz-20kHz but it is only momentary power. FTC rated power is specified as 55W but only up to 8kHz, with warning about damage to the choke at higher frequencies. It is not really important because average power when playing music is only few percent of peak power. The reason for that is that if on average music has half of peak loudness, it means 1/10 of power (logarithmic scale) and then music also has gaps (unless one listens to sinewaves). 55W of power at any frequency above 8kHz would most likely damage any tweeter, not to mention hearing. What worries me a little is 22 deg phase shift at 20kHz (-3dB bandwidth is 65kHz). It would weaken upper harmonics summing. My amp would benefit from a little more "air" but it might also be my hearing (not getting any younger) or the fact that speaker has warm character and is never bright - even on worst CDs. It has, in the system, very clean, pronounced natural sibilants. I don't want to change it and before I audition another amp (like Rowland 625) I need to fix room acoustics.

I understand Rowland's idea behind 350kHz bandwidth in model 625 - no phase shift at 20kHz and perfect step response but 1MHz bandwidth of Soulution 710 is perhaps too much. According to reviews it is excellent amplifier with very little negative feedback but in general the easiest method to improve most of amplifier's spects (like THD, IMD, DF, Bandwidth) is to use deep negative feedback that also enhances odd harmonics (overshoot in time domain caused by amps signal delay and thus late feedback summing - known as TIM) making unpleasant bright sound that SS amps are famous for. Class D has small advantage here, being practically one stage (little delay). Less than perfect design of such 1MHz amp can cause problems including instability followed by oscillations that can damage speakers or sensitivity to RFI. I would tend to agree with Audiofreek32 that numbers are not that important and often amplifier with the best spects has the worst sound. Selecting gear for audition by company reputation or designer's name makes more sense to me.