16 bit files almost unlistenable now...

[MetalNuts]

Most of my best sounding albums are those ripped from Redbook CDs.  High resolution downloaded album are good but only a few can match with those well recorded 16/44 albums. 

 

The quality of recording matters more than the claimed resolutions.

[MetalNuts]

2 minutes ago, GUTB said:

 

This is just a truism that hides the reality that high resolution is better.

 

Early digital recording is mostly trash. Indeed, even modern digital recording is trash -- that's why we audiophiles are stuck in our audiophile label ghetto that use high end digital recording techniques and employ talented studio engineers. 

 

Native DSD recordings are the best digital has to offer. Unfortunately digital doesn't like 1-bit sample rate because you can't do logic operations on 1 bits (without padding, ie, DSD-Wide), so these native DSD recordings can only do small ensemble / solo type music.

 

PCM sucks and nothing is going to fix it. However, it can be pretty good starting at 176/192. Redbook sucks.

 

Disagree early digital recordings are mostly trash.  I think there are more trash analogue recordings at the time of early stage of digital recordings than the digital recordings.

 

The blame cannot be put on the digital recordings itself but on the overall encoding and decoding process.  With modern digital equipment, some of the early digital recordings sound much better than they were before.

[MetalNuts]

Just now, Summit said:

 

I don’t think what MetalNuts wrote it truism and I disagree on that PCM sucks. I think you need to understand that the quality of a recording matters more than the resolution or format. The quality of a recording depends on so much more than the final product and how it is packaged. That doesn’t mean that “resolution” and format are irrelevant, just less.

 

If the quality of the recording is bad no stereo or format going to make it sound good.    

 

Yes, that is what I meant.  A good recording, irrespective it being made vinyl, redbook, high rez files or DSD, it sound good.

 

However, resolution should be able to enhance the quality.  For music files, it may not be that obvious to someone, but I do not believe anyone will dispute the quality in photography and videos that higher resolution can bring.