Does HiRez really sound better?

A very interesting white paper, and thank you for posting the link to it, Nonoise. In my own, completely subjective evaluations, I tend to agree with most of it but also have reservations.

I recently auditioned a pair of Harbeth 40.1s with an Audio Research DSD source. While the combo sounded fine, I was not as impressed as I expected to be. The speakers were clearly putting out everything they were being given, but it just didn't sound natural to my ears. How much was poor set-up, room acoustics, whatever source was tapped for the DSD files or combination of factors is impossible to tell.

My home system has 16 and 24 bit from 32 to 192 kHz along with 24 and 32 bit from 32 to 96 kHz DAC capability via USB input and SACD up to 192 kHz via an internal DSD conversion (or so the manual says, anyway). In trying various high resolution downloads (an Agon HD Tracks sampler and the Linn 24 bits of Christmas) at various resolutions, I feel several of those sounded better than the auditioned combo. The Linn Bach Toccatta and Fugue in A minor in 24/192 in particular was substantially better. I use my MacBook Pro with the included MIDI interface for these kinds of things and Internet radio. When playing standard 16/44.1 WAV files, they don't sound as good as the discs on my dedicated player.

My universal disc player really does the trick with David Sanborn's Timeagain SACD and also works nicely with a Mobile Fidelity SACD of Billy Joel's Piano Man. Both of those sound very unlimited; that is they seem to have a much higher ceiling and deeper stage. Several of my Red Book CDs are also outstanding but not quite to the same "unlimited" level.

That said, no matter how much I've fooled around with all-digital sources, nothing I've tried so far holds a candle to my vinyl rig. I can do A-B tests all day long and the turntable roundly thrashes CDs, DVDs, SACDs and hi-res files. Even more unlimited, an almost endless stage and utterly natural sound.

So for what my opinion is worth, I didn't hear any improvement with DSD. I do hear some sporadic improvements going from Red Book to higher resolution PCM formats. Nothing tops pure analog yet, but I'm going to enjoy testing that conclusion over the coming years.

Hirez has more potential to sound better but the dudes who put together the CD format in ancient times did a pretty good job. It can be beat but most won't care or be able to tell.

I read through the whole article. Complete waste of time. (Not you, Nonoise. I'm faulting the article itself). You read all that and then you get to the last sentence which sums it up.

"Of course, there many audio enthusiasts and professionals dispute these contentions, but we know of no scientific evidence that supports their views."

Of course not. Its just another silly paper that's put together by people that for some reason or another, just don't like high end audio. There's dozens of papers just like this one that's made using no fresh research of their own. The references they site are old, not very relevant, and are chosen to steer the reader in the direction the author wants. If you read through the paper, there's a clear bias to come up with the conclusion that they did, and its no surprise that the results are what they are. Can someone point out if any issue the author of this article presented, took any part in doing any type of research or tests themselves? I can't. It reads like one of those term papers in high school, that you had a whole year to complete, and you were sitting there copying from the encyclopedia the night before it was due. And, yes, I admit that I've done it myself, so no one needs to call me out on it. I was a screw up in High School. To my credit, though, I cleaned up my act once I got into college. I paid to have an honor student to write my papers, just like the rest of you.

I don't know if that is the reason (not liking high end audio) as Goldmund is pretty much all high end and if there were money to be made with the format, they'd be on it like white on rice.

I say this not to be contentious but there is another article over at digital audio review (John Darko's site) where he uses a software to determine how different 3 different downloads of the same song are (MP3, CD and 96Hz) and the HiRez measures marginally better, if that. He questions whether it's worth the extra cost.

All the best,
Nonoise