Forking from the cables thread to a discussion of whether hi-res is audible.....

The quality of the production, recording and mastering has more impact on sound quality than the bit rate and resolution.

I think so. One possibility I've considered is that the studios that put out hi-res recordings may, on average, be more conscientious about quality.

Also, higher bit-depth has significant advantages in the recording and mixing process.

I hadn't seen this one before. Embarrassing.

http://matrixhifi.com/ENG_contenedor_ppec.htm

Speaking only on PCM:

44.1kHz perfectly captures everything <21kHz

16-Bit undithered puts the noise down past -95dBFS, down past around -105dB or better with noise shaped dither (meaning a 24Bit master must exist).

No one whose a teenager or older can hear >19kHz. And no, that paper about hypersonics by Akira’s composer has never been validated. And unless using an MQA DAC with only 1 filter, almost no good DACs have issue with Nyquist filters. Here’s the filter performance of the ~$900 Outlaw RR2160 integrated amp; and here’s the performance of the $100 AudioQuest DragonFly Black DAC.

Keeping in mind that while human hearing does have a range better than ~96dB, you listen in a room, whose noise floor is very high relative to 16Bit, most residential living rooms only allow for about 12Bit.