Focus on 24/192 Misguided?.....

Lots of technical info (on paper), but what really matters is how it sounds to each person. If you cannot hear that 24/192 WAV or FLAC sounds better than redbook CD, you may want to start selling off that expensive gear and get a boombox to listen to. My LINN Akurate DS playing 24/192 WAV or FLAC will sound better (everything else in the system being the same), than almost any CD player you put next to it.

According to all the engineers and tests and specs, vinyl does not sound as good as a CD right? But so many people would prefer the sound of vinyl and/or tubes over SS amps and a CD player. So I guess all this talk about specs and cutoff freq., etc. is just a numbers thing. Will it tell you if one amp sounds better to a person than another?

If you have not heard a properly setup DAC with hi-res files, you owe it to yourself to do so... before you spend any money on a CD player... you will be happy that you did. Not to mention the benefit seeing your entire music collection on an iPad and being able to make playlists, etc. Why would anyone want to search through a bunch of CDs, put it into a device that could only add noise and jitter and eventually will fail (drive, optics), and hear a few songs that you may like by one artist on that CD. Instead, if you like Chris Issak for example, have every song he every recorded in AT LEAST the same quality, and most times better quality sound than the std. CD, all at your finger tips. How can you beat that?

OK guys.... here is a link to this study, no wait.... here is a link to this paper, no, i mean, her a link to this test a dude did a while back that says you are wrong... etc. etc.....

SO WHAT!!!!!!!! How is all this arguing about studies and technical data and technical specs going to tell you how ANOTHER PERSON will interpret how a certain CD player playing a std. redbook CD sounds vs. a DAC playing a digital file !!!!!!!!!!!

All this talk about tests and links to this study and all this technical stuff....

REALITY: All that means nothing when you have people that like and dislike things based on their own opinion of what "sounds good". Many feel tubes sound better than SS.... HOW CAN YOU TEST THAT? YOU CANNOT. The listener has their opinion of what sounds good. So posting links to these different things is POINTLESS.

I concluded that you are wrong...

A LINN Akurate DS is around $7,500 new. Only other things you need are a NAS and an iPad. So, less than $10k retail, easily. Sure that setup you described was expensive, but you do not need a "dedicated computer" at all. I am using a $350 NAS with a 3TB HDD loaded with 24/96k and 24/192k WAV and FLAC files. The only IC's I need are a pair of RCAs into my amps. So, I am talking about a DAC (no moving parts) and yes, a HDD in a dedicated NAS, but compared to the alternative? Really?

Kijanki.... put aside the technical and go listen and enjoy your system. But using ALAC (compressed) and a Benchmark DAC1, you could be doing much better.

I guess if you are happy with 16/44 then that is all that matters, but there is a whole lot more to be had.

To summarize....

I guess we have concluded just the opposite - that 24/192 is a VERY GOOD idea actually, as it SOUNDS GREAT and hard drive space is fairly inexpensive.

Using dbPoweramp (very cheap program) to rip your CD collection into 24/96 or 24/192 FLAC/WAV is easy to do and once the up-front work is done, you can sit back and enjoy music at least at or above the quality level of your current CD playback system all in the comfort of your listening chair.

Also, we have concluded that all the specs, tests, charts and measurements will not tell you how good a component will sound (especially how it will sound to a given person), as that is 100% personal opinion which cannot be measured at all.

Note: For what I would consider a "budget friendly" choice for a DAC solution that will play up to 24/192 files - the "Wyred 4 Sound" model DAC-2 is a very, very good piece at $1,499 and has many connection choices and built-in volume control.