This image is from RME a sound card maufaturer. And the image is of the analog output after dac. So still in the electrical domain. Short comings of a playback system has what to do with the accuracy of a recoding medium? There are SO many factors that stop and audio signal reproduction from being perfect. But the signal domain is the easiest to make better. Transducers that have to fight the law of physics for accuracy are the obvious weak point. But as with anything rubish in = rubbish out. Before you even get to the weakest point of an audio system the transducer (the speaker) transistors and amplification have their own short comings the accuracy of an amplifiers transient response is measured by its slew rate. A square wave is impossible for a speaker cone to reproduce in theory the rising and falling edge is describing an instantaneous movement. A speaker cone can't do this, inertia says no. And this is called distortion. As every part of the system introduces its own distortion the accuracy gets less and less. To accept distortion at the signal level in the persuit of accuracy is counterintuive. But if your system can't take advantage of this extra accuracy, go ahead and use a lesser format, no sense in the extra file size. If you want a reference quality signal, use the high res formats. To be clear here I'm not saying I want to listen to digitally encoded square waves, a square wave is a tool for showing the accuracy of input=output. A square wave being the hardest analog waveform to capture and reproduce. I am objecting to the idea that hi res formats have no advantage over what we are used to as consumers. It is the content distributors that are taking advantage saying that 24bit/96k is more expensive. The bandwidth and storage does not make this a more premium product you should be paying for the album not the format. But why limit choice because the masses can't see the benefits. If you buy the album you as the consumer can choose the format. I'm not sure if all this arguing stands up to pick whatever format suits your needs. This argument should be if I bought the album why can I choose the format most applicable to my playback needs/desires. And if your concern is that company's charge more for the high res, that refeclts poorly of the distribution company. If you think it's a waste of space just download the lesser format. If I had a choice I'd download it as it left the studio/mastering house.
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Frequency response and dynamic range are low hanging fruit in high res audio debates. They are not the only factors in accurate reproduction of an input wave. What is rarely considered is the temporal resolution of the format. Which is the formats ability to describe change over time. To plot a graph but depth is the y axis resolution and sample rate the x axis. Again I'm talking to temporal resolution. Transient response is directly effect by this. The link below shows the advantages of hi res audio formats inside the human hearing range. So if accuracy is of concern high res formats DO hold more information about the original wave form. If file size is of concern hi res is not applicable.
http://www.eirec.com/DPimages/digisqwvtest.jpg This is an example if transient response of different sampling rates.
http://www.eirec.com/DPimages/digisqwvtest.jpg Here is an example of higher sampling rates being useful INSIDE the human hearing range. This example shows transient response. Frequency response and dynamic range are low hanging fruit in high res audio debates. To argue that you can't hear it is a mute point when accuracy is the point, this is a reference quality format. Temporal resolution is the next area to persue if accuracy is of concern. If file size is of concern then high res is not aplicable. What is everyone arguing here? That if they any hear it on their setup it is of no use?
More to it than frequency response and dynamic range. The goal should be for the most accurate reproduction of the input waveform. Here is a pic of transient response for different sample rates. http://www.eirec.com/DPimages/digisqwvtest.jpg
http://www.eirec.com/DPimages/digisqwvtest.jpg
Okay here is a picture of what I'm trying to explain. And the author of this picture used a frequency much further inside human hearing range. This is transient response test I guess. My main argument is for the verbatim capture of the input wave. It will make the sound at 10k but it isn't the same wave that went in.
Good an audio nerd. I am making the point about the square wave close to the nyquist to point out the short comings of a format for accurately reproducing an input. Square waves in the real world are rare but I am arguing for a format that produces the most accurate representation of the intended signal. Imagine the situation where i have my guitar cab set up and I have a square wave (distortion) coming out of it and I far mic it up so as to capture the room a give a feeling of space. To really feel like your there you would want the resulting complex wave made up of the 18k direct sound from the cab and the room response a recording medium that can't do that accurately is second rate especialy when the formats are out there. And the higher the sample rate the further from the nyquist that 18k is and the more samples that can be used to describe the resulting wave an the more convinced my brain is that sound is real.
Okay now actually look at the response on Matlab. As you get closer to the nyquist freq there are less samples to describe the wave. And while you get a bastadised 18k signal it's a far throw from what you put in. Anf while most are crying your splitting hairs the frequency response and dynamic range arguments pale in comparison to making the exact wave you put into the encoder come out. On the right system with the right recording the tiniest nuance in a room reverb helps trick your brain into believing the sound as actually happening. And this is not important to all listeners. But people saying that it makes no difference and is not important as a format to release music in are thinking only of their current needs and experiences. If you have actually heard a good recording on a good system in a good room you will know what I'm talking about. If listening experience has been laptop speakers, headphones and your mum and dads mini system then I totally agree any more than 320kbs mp3s are overkill. But to say that high res formats gave no place in consumer land is to show your lack of understanding of different people and different needs. In the age of iTunes you surely you buy the album and download it in whatever format u see fit. If u think audiophiles are wackos go get ya 320's. I would like to get it as I came fr the studio. The best it can be is as it came from the studio.
There has been a lot of talk about quantative aspects of but little about the qualitative. What does a 18khz square wave look like wher recorded and reproduced in 44.1 kHz. How is phase affecte?. Phase of an audio signal reaching the ears helps you perceive distance and position. How many samples are used to represent the frequencies at the higher end of the audible range. What is the quantization error difference between 16 and 24. And if the author can't hear the difference between 4bit audio and 12bit audio I question what he/she is listening on. The aliasing would be HUGE.
This test is flawed in a few ways. The and the error lies in the source material. The why would there be a perciveable difference between the same inferior input shown to both encoding formats. Changing between encoding formats is a topic of its own but the problem here is similar to getting a 640x480 compressed jpeg and putting it into a 1920x1080 lossless format and the same source into a 1280x720 lossless file and saying. What's the difference? They both look crappy! Many people have an opinion on high res audio formats but they are so many places to go wrong. Audio should be given a little more credit for it immersive ability. When done right it can take you places. Something to consider is that our eyes can only see 1 octave of information our ears can hear 10 octaves. Whilst these high res formats aren't needed for every application they do make a big difference when the source material can take advantage of it. I feel in 2014 music should be released in the best format available from the studio and if u want a crappier version so u can shove 5000 songs on your iWhatever that's your choice.