Does HiRez really sound better?

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

CD quality can sound almost as good as hi-res, and nearly identical on some systems, provided that:

The DAC used has minimal or no digital filtering for 44.1.

With typical low-frequency brick-wall digital filters used on most DACs, the DSD or even 24/96, 24/192 will be better.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I believe the question should be “Can it sound better?” I believe it can, however it often doesn’t. For me it is not worth the cost as I can purchase several CDs for the cost of a Hirez download.