Does HiRez really sound better?

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.

I recently did a comparison with a few experienced and knowledgeable audiophiles. I have three versions of a couple titles on my hard drive; redbook CD, 24/192 and DSD. Using my Baetis Revolution II Music server we started listening over the USB connection to the EMM Labs DAC 2x. We started with the Redbook and worked our way up to the DSD with both titles. Interestingly, we all preferred the 24/192 to the Redbook or the DSD!
Next test was to switch playback to the BNC-RCA SPDIF on the Baetis connected with Jonny Wilson's superb Boomslang digital cable to the EMM Labs DAC 2X and use JRiver to convert the DSD file on the fly to PCM. Again, we began with Redbook versions and moved up to the DSD. Again, the 24/192 won, but the BIGGEST surprise was we all chose the SPDIF connection as being superior sounding to the USB connection! As I have written on other threads, DSD can sound fantastic, but old CDs merely converted don't always benefit from the transfer. All analog CDs converted to DSD and new recordings using DSD sound best. However, converting DSD to PCM sounds superb in most cases and the rush to buy a DSD DAC may not be needed. The proof of this is Berkeley Audio whose Reference doesn't offer DSD capability and it is considered by many to be among the most sonically pleasing of any DAC available. There is no standard on DSD files and this could be an issue. For those of you that have a good DSD DAC and a good cable, try this experiment too and see what you think.

I've been recording in high Rez for 11 years when I converted to 96/24. IMHO, and to these ears, it makes a difference. Now, whether that matters to you is another story but it matters to me.

The real problem concerning hi rez is really a matter of attitude, and probably poor marketing. In the article that was referenced, the tone was negative, and the author pulled info to back up the answer he was looking for. There's a missing, fundamental, element with people that write these pieces. They're not looking to get to the truth of the matter, they look to argue a case. If it were me, or someone else here, looking for answers, we would go after them. The real focus would be the truth, and we would do everything we could to come up with the right answer, and not the answer that we want because we just know better. So if you take a step back and look at the problem defined as getting the right answers, I think you'll see that it becomes very obvious that so much more needs to be done before any judgement is of any kind is passed.

For most consumers the difference is negligible. As Raymonda says whether or not that matters is up to the individual. There will never be a consensus on this issue because it will never be widely accepted as common knowledge to be superior such as 8 track vs CD's or VHS vs DVD.