Benjie, it sounds like you don't know which format you're actually playing back. There are many hi-res formats these days and it gets a bit confusing. As someone suggested your DAC may be downsampling. I just looked at a demonstration of the Perfect Wave DAC's capabilities on YouTube and PS Audio says it's best to set the resolution to "Native" because almost always the recording's native format is going to sound best.
As I said, there are many hi-res formats: SACD, DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD, and LPCM in 24/192. I don't think Gaucho was released in any of the above but I did see it on Chesky's HD Tracks as a 24/96 PCM release... Even if you bought that one you would need to confirm that your DAC was actually playing it in its native format and not converting it to some other format... It's silly and premature to damn the whole hi-res nation because you bought one disc that you didn't like and you don't even know what format it was made in or what resolution your DAC is playing it back in.
And I'm not saying that hi-res digital is better than vinyl playback. In my own experience it has been difficult for digital to get the timbre of the instruments exactly right and natural sounding. Nonetheless, some of the true hi-res releases do a lot of things remarkably well.
As I said, there are many hi-res formats: SACD, DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD, and LPCM in 24/192. I don't think Gaucho was released in any of the above but I did see it on Chesky's HD Tracks as a 24/96 PCM release... Even if you bought that one you would need to confirm that your DAC was actually playing it in its native format and not converting it to some other format... It's silly and premature to damn the whole hi-res nation because you bought one disc that you didn't like and you don't even know what format it was made in or what resolution your DAC is playing it back in.
And I'm not saying that hi-res digital is better than vinyl playback. In my own experience it has been difficult for digital to get the timbre of the instruments exactly right and natural sounding. Nonetheless, some of the true hi-res releases do a lot of things remarkably well.