Qobuz Hi-Rez Not Necessarily the Best Sound

Great thread, all!... and timely, for me. First, I concur with so many here: the ability to have so much music available in Hi-Res these days is just wonderful. I'm a Qobuz subscriber myself, and generally find that the 192 kHz stuff (especially the more recent re-releases, e.g., The Beatles albums, Steely Dan's "Can't Buy a Thrill") sound way better, though, as with most things, there can be exceptions. Also as with most things, if you start with quality in the raw ingredients, the odds will be better that you'll get a great product out the other side. Cooking, wine-making and music are great examples (and for music, I'm thinking picky recording artists like Genesis, Talking Heads, Dire Straits et al). The converse, naturally, being "garbage in, ..."

I stream through an Aries Mini into a Weiss DAC2. The amplifier is a Jolida 302b tube. Speakers are a brand new pair of Tyler Acoustics Linbrook Signature monitors, PS Audio and AudioQuest cables. Not super high-end by any stretch, but the system is balanced and the sound really works in my space. (Tube amps are incredible. The warm-up time isn't, but... tradeoffs.)

And with all that, I have a question: when I first signed up for Qobuz back in 2020, the 16/44.1 versions would read as just that on the Weiss DAC. But beginning a couple/few months ago, even the lowest end recordings appear to be playing at 44.1 x 4 (176.4 kHz). And I'll add that just about everything sounds better playing at that higher resolution than it did prior to. I can hear it. I'm thinking that Qobuz must have done something programmatically, but no idea what it was. (I even asked their support folks, got an initial reply saying they'd ask, then... crickets.) Anyone here know? ...and thanks for the great discussions, always.

You know, @tomcy6 , I believe it does. Believe it or not, a friend (obviously, a very good one) gifted me the unit because he'd bought a Bryston, and I recall him telling me that he'd set it to sample at the highest possible rate. That would help explain things, yes. Though again, it wasn't doing that say, 3-4 months ago or thereabouts, so I'm still convinced that Qobuz did do something to enable the capability ...and (to my ears, anyway) the music definitely sounds better: less fraying at the edges, clearer note delineation, less noise/distortion at higher volume. I'll check the manual on the Weiss. More research shall be done -- and more listening. :-) 

Yes, that makes sense, @sns . Thank you. 'Come to think of it, there have been a few firmware updates to the Auralic Aries. That's got to be it. TY, again!