Don't get fooled into thinking that any of these new venues/suppliers are giving you anything that is even close to a Hi-Resolution music file. The so called 24/96 and 192kHz Masters that Pono/HDTracks/Apple and others promote are only "up sampled" from analog tape. These are the same Masters that have been around for decades. Every few years they get a bug up their ass and re-issue to the masses the same old compressed and low resolution music they have the rights to.
Do you really think the Stones, Beatles, Floyd, Monk, Coltrane, Sinatra, Evans, Basie etc, etc. recorded anything over 14-16 bit? Let alone 24/96kHz! Yet these Flim Flam promoters want you to believe that they have files that will produce music in the ultra sonic realm.(22kHz or more for hi res) all they have done is increased the file size (adding eight zeros to increase the word lenth from 16 to 24) but not the resolution. You cannot get high frequency music to magically appear when artificially up sampled when it was never on the master to begin with. IMPOSSIBLE! This whole diversion/misdirection borders on being a criminal act.
Even the new music which might be done with digital workstation is highly compressed and down sampled for release to a 16 bit 44.1kHz resolution.
There are only a handful of true sources that record and master in true 24/96 or 24/192 and DSD. THEY ARE NOT PARTICIPATING IN THIS MOVEMENT WITH Apple, PONO, Sony, etc. They are audiophile labels that produce music that the masses have never heard of, by bands or groups/individuals that are unknown, except by us audiophiles. If they listened, they would probably think....what is this crap!
IMO, the broader public and the major labels really could care less about the small audiophile market that can and would appreciate what a Hi-Resolution system can sound like and only a limited amount of people are willing to spend the money to support it.
All of this is just a big money grab by the major labels and a few well connected individuals and manufacturers to sell the same old music and the newer compressed low fidelity music wrapped up in the debatetable (insert buzzword) hi res, hdaudio, high definition, Super Hi Rez, blah, blah blah format.
How many times are we supposed to re-buy our music collections and the sound may not be any better. Now you won't even have the physical media to hold onto and possibly re-sell if you don't like it.
