Does HiRez really sound better?

It's not a cost savings, electroslacker. There are 2 things driving it:
1. the perception that with much listening being done in high noise environments, resulting in quieter portions of the recording being lost in the (ambient) noise floor.
2. the psycho-acoustic phenomenon that causes us to perceive slightly louder playback as being "better".

"2. the psycho-acoustic phenomenon that causes us to perceive slightly louder playback as being "better".
Swampwalker (System | Threads | Answers | This Thread)"

Once you figure out what's going on, it doesn't work anymore.

I have some (compressed) CDs that are at least 3 times louder than the average (uncompressed) CD. Example: Radiohead Amnesiac. That's not "slightly louder." Hel-loo!

Zd542,

The 'Loudness Wars' on CDs has seriously reduced dynamics and micro-dynamics which are potentially much better on CDs as opposed to cassettes. Additionally, CDs benefit from zero wow & Flutter and a much lower noise floor.

The areas I notice the most obvious improvements with hi-rez files as compared to CDs are: dynamics, micro-dynamics, an even lower noise floor and a very high detail level. With your previous comments on the importance of most of these qualities in your music listening, I would think hi-rez music files are likely a very good choice for you.

Tim

Does hirez really sound better,........?
I noticed over the years any thread started with List the best sounding
HiRes music and virtually every thread on this topic stalls , there is more
chat about componets and wire then accual information of the HiRes file
itself.
Potential profit and mark ups are large with no physical product to produce
,package and distribute,.. this business concept of HiRez downloads looks
great on paper however accual consumer feed back over the past few
years has been underwhelming.