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Why Distributing Music As 24-bit/192kHz Downloads Is Pointless
An anonymous reader writes "A recent post at Xiph.org provides a long and incredibly detailed explanation of why 24-bit/192kHz music downloads — touted as being of 'uncompromised studio quality' — don't make any sense. The post walks us through some of the basics of ear anatomy, sampling rates, and listening tests, finally concluding that lossless formats and a decent pair of headphones will do a lot more for your audio enjoyment than 24/192 recordings. 'Why push back against 24/192? Because it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, a business model based on willful ignorance and scamming people. The more that pseudoscience goes unchecked in the world at large, the harder it is for truth to overcome truthiness... even if this is a small and relatively insignificant example.'"
When you can tell the difference between 44.1/16 and 192/24 in a double blind trial, come back and we'll talk.
Subjective opinions about audio quality, particularly those accompanied by words like "deaf" or "idiot", are worse than useless. Subjective listening is deeply suggestible and unreliable. Claimed differences among any acceptably well designed audio electronics virtually always disappears under rigorous and controlled testing.
To give just one example, listeners reliably prefer the louder source in subjective testing, even if the difference is not consciously perceptible. If a 192/24 D/A is just 0.1db louder than a 44.1/16 source, listeners will tend to describe it in all sorts of subjective terms... "edgier," "richer," "more forward," "cleaner impact," "deeper soundstage" etc when in fact it is simply a little louder.
My favourite audiophile rebuttal quote:
"If your hifi costs more than your music collection you have missed the point." - Unknown Source