Why 24-bit/192kHz music downloads make no sense

[xiphmont]

(by Monty and the Xiph.Org community)

Articles last month revealed that musician Neil Young and Apple's Steve Jobs discussed offering digital music downloads of 'uncompromised studio quality'. Much of the press and user commentary was particularly enthusiastic about the prospect of uncompressed 24 bit 192kHz downloads. 24/192 featured prominently in my own conversations with Mr. Young's group several months ago.

Unfortunately, there is no point to distributing music in 24-bit/192kHz format. Its playback fidelity is slightly inferior to 16/44.1 or 16/48, and it takes up 6 times the space.

If you just said 'Whaa?', you may want to read the whole article.

It's fairly long... but hearing, perception and fidelity are complicated topics. Shysters and charlatans exploit that nuance (and misunderstanding) to bilk unsuspecting consumers of their money, all the while convincing them they're paying for 'quality'.

Anyway, happy reading and comments welcome!

Comments

Re: I disagree with your point of view

[(Anonymous)]

This could be because of conditioning by the presence of the test. The brain can not only be influenced by external factors to believe that two identical sounds are different, but can also be influenced to believe the reverse - that two different sounds are in fact the same. Conducting any kind of test reduces the ability of the listener to discriminate subtleties owing to the unnatural and stressful testing environment (e.g. the knowledge that you are being subjected to a test and the possibility of failing), plus knowing that you are listening to the same source material through two lossless formats will be a strong influence on the brain to make them sound the same.
IMO any test where the test subjects know they are in a test is not a valid test when dealing with anything that is very subtle, highly subjective, and depends on interactions within the human brain.