[Xperia Z3 General] RockStar2005:
Hey abhinav,

Yeah I did. It's A LOT to talk about in one post though. lol But I'll try..........................................................

Basically, I've come to the conclusion that there's 2 sides to this Hi-Res story. I've mentioned all this already on xda, but to sum it up............ Hi-Res is both total BS but also completely worth it too (the majority of the time anyway), but it depends on a couple different factors.

How it's BS: Read that article. As far as I know, the stuff about 24/192 and 24/96 is true, which I'm not happy about in a way b/c I don't like feeling "scammed", but I also like knowing I can always (if I didn't wanna get more storage space) downsample my songs to CD-Quality FLAC and it will STILL sound the same (at least, that's what all the experts say). Though it takes some extra effort to do that, esp if you wanna do it for free.

Why it's not BS and still worth purchasing: A few different sources I've read over the last month or two have made it clear that the reason why Hi-Res albums tend to sound better than mp3s/AACs and even CD-Quality FLACs is not because of the "wider soundstage" that comes from higher bit depths and higher frequency samples (i.e. 24-bit/96 kHz), but from how the producers/engineers have a tendency to "give more attention to & put more care into" these albums vs mass-marketed mp3s and even CD-Quality album releases. But to get these improved albums, you have to buy Hi-Res.

As mentioned in this article:

Nevertheless, there could still be value to high-resolution audio, and the Boston Audio Society study offers a clue as to why. Toward the end of the paper, the authors suggest that sound engineers often put more care and attention into higher-resolution recordings than they do to mass market CD releases.

Dr. Sean Olive, President of the Audio Engineering Society and Director of Acoustic Research for Harman international, agrees. “I’ve heard some wonderful CDs, but I’ve also heard some wonderful 24/96 files,” Olive said. “I really think the difference is how well they’re recorded and mastered.”

So you may in fact get a higher quality experience from select high-resolution recordings. But that has more to do with how the master file was produced than anything else.

I recently purchased some Fleetwood Mac albums in Hi-Res and compared them to my CDs. The Hi-Res versions simply had more PUNCH and I found myself more excited listening to them vs my CDs. But I'm told or have read that this is simply b/c of the reason I just mentioned. The new 2014 Led Zeppelin remasters are a great example of this too. Jimmy Page even confirmed in interviews that he remastered each album not only as best he could, but for each media version as well........meaning he used the best settings for the mp3 release, the best for CD, the best for Hi-Res, etc. Not exactly sure what that means, b/c it should just be great across the board, but then again, mp3s are cr*p compared to lossless, so yeah. lol When I compared certain Hi-Res songs to their mp3 counterparts, the difference was significant. Obviously more so than CD-Quality tracks. The bass wasn't muddying up the sound anymore like it sometimes did on certain tracks, each individual instrument/vocal was distinct but still in cohesion with the other instruments....... no more "stepping on each other's toes" like on the mp3 version. Even lil and not-so-lil guitar fills were now pushed more to the forefront.

Also, esp if you've spent money on premium equipment, you're not gonna REALLY hear what it can do listening to mp3s. Not IMO anyway. Does that mean go and spend a fortune on HDTracks.com, or Pono Music, etc? No. Just do what I do....... buy them in spurts. I get maybe 2-3 albums a month (give or take), or have been, and just slowly build from there. I'm only buying the Hi-Res tracks/albums from bands that are truly my favorites, so that makes it a lot more affordable. Fortunately, when Pono Music FINALLY opens shop early next year, they'll let you buy INDIVIDUAL tracks instead of having to buy the entire album. This will save ppl A LOT of money over time. Now some bands have albums that are just great all the way through, so those albums I'll just buy straight.

So yeah, the equipment does matter too. For me, it's b/t $200-$300. That's what I spent for what I had and what I have now essentially, and it worked out great! (That's of course NOT including the price of the Z3 since I pay that off monthly with T-Mobile.)

Anyone who says that Hi-Res is BS only knows half the story IMO. I can't say they come out better 100% of the time, but so far I've downloaded 11 Hi-Res albums myself, and in all cases, they sounded better to me. Some even more than others.

Hope that helped.

RockStar2005