I didn't participate in the survey, but downloaded and listened to the samples. I was not able to tell the difference either through my pretty revealing bookshelf setup or my Grado RS1 headphones. The external DAC is a Benchmark HGC2 that doubles as headphone amp. I could not tell an ounce of a difference.
Now I am sure some critics will resort to the "I need a great recording I have more emotional engagement and I am more familiar with". I have done that repeatedly. When some of my favorite recordings, which I had ripped from CD at the usual 16/44 became available sometimes as high as 192/24 I got them. Sometimes I have liked them better because -I assume- they were somewhat remastered etc; but as a rule I find it very hard and mostly impossible to tell a difference. Certainly the difference is not worth 15$ an album for my 4000 album collection :-D In audio we often run into diminishing returns. Most of the time the gatekeeper is not the sampling rate or the number of bits per sample - it is the recording studio. I kinda laugh when they put out some old Motown album as 192/24, because it probably warrants 192k MP3 at most from a recording quality point of view (and I love Motown music). I personally think that 20bits and 44.1kHz is something that gives me the *psychological* assurance I am surely can't be possibly missing out on anything. Just like plopping $500 on RCA connectors. In our hobby it is natural to invite in some borderline irrationality. It is all good. ...pablo Server: Virtual Machine running Ubuntu 12.04 + LMS 7.7.3 on VMware Player System: SB Touch --optical->- Benchmark DAC2HGC --AnalysisPlus Oval Copper XLR->- Creek Destiny Power Amp --AnalysisPlus Black Mesh Oval->- KEF LS50 Other Rooms: 2x SB Boom; 1x SB Radio; 1x SB Classic-> AudioEngine5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ pablolie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3816 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=101766 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
