There is already too much "horse manure" written about vinyl LP versus CD and which sounds better so why do we have to suffer an equal dose of "ordure" about the quality of so called High Resolution (Hi-Res) digital downloads.
Some people claim that Hi-Res music files are of higher quality than the poor old CD. 24 bit 96 khz or 24 bit 192 khz recordings sound so much better than CD - well they don't. No one has been proven to hear the difference between HiRes and CD quality sound reproduction when all other listening parameters remain the same. Before you buy Hi-Res music, or the equipment that plays it, please read the following as it could save you a lot of money.
http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/audio_emperors_new_sampling/
It is possible that some Hi-Res music has been mastered more diligently and that a higher quality master has been produced than for the CD equivalent. But if you convert this Hi-Res master to 16 bit 44.1khz or CD quality files you will hear no or very little difference at normal playing volumes.
If you do not have digital equipment that will play Hi-Res files you can easily convert the music to 16 bit 44.1 khz using dBpoweramp or Audacity (Audacity is free). I have done this with some Hi-Res music bought from the web. When I have played back the "Hi-Res" and CD quality versions to my friends they could hear no difference but of course this was not a scientific test.
You can download samples of open source Hi-Res music from www.archive.org for free. Just put 24/96 in the search box.
You should also consider this, a lot of pop music has been poorly mastered on CD since the around 2000. Sound engineers have compressed the music to make the softer parts of the music as loud as the loud parts. This has been part of the loudness wars to make the music stand out more on a "juke box" or on the radio and TV. 45 Single records in the sixties were mastered in a similar way. The music loses its dynamism and sounds tiresome.
A lot of jazz, classical and folk music CDs have been produced without being compressed and in fact they have been mastered very well. You may not be able to hear much difference between a HiRes master and an ordinary CD. Save yourself some money and ignore all the hype and humbug. A well mastered CD should sound as good as a well mastered Hi-Res music file and of course as good as our old friend the vinyl LP.
Sit back relax and enjoy the music no matter what the source is.
There is so much humbug and hype written about Hi-Res music that all I can say is buyer beware - so caveat emptor.
