speakers for 24/96 audio

And if they do sound so unpleasant, why when I listen to higher res stuff through a Benchmark DAC it doesn't sound noticeably better?

You can buy Tom Petty Mojo in CD or in HD and compare. There is a difference but most of the difference is due to audio compression applied to the CD master to make it "hot" - see CD loudness wars and what artists and producers try to do make the music to make it sell.

Basically they compress everything - especially drums - so that the dynamic range of peaks above RMS is usually no more than 6 to 10 db. Whereas a good recording in pop/rock may have 20 db peaks and a classical recording may have 30 db peaks above RMS.

The HD files - such as those on HD tracks are usually much less compressed than the 16/44.1 equivalents.

To add to my last comment...from a purely "technical" perspective I would agree that CD quality is more than adequate as a playback medium. The problem is NOT the CD media itself but more a problem with what the producer and mastering do to the music BEFORE it gets issued as a CD.

Of course 24/48 or 24/96 is essential in the Studio because there is much more dynamic range and signal manipulation required in that environment.

Shadorne, agree about compression but it is simply who is driving the market. Release uncompressed piano recording (about 96dB dynamics) and a lot of people will complain that on their boom boxes or shelf speakers woofers are constantly buzzing. Hi-res has different clientele so they reduced compression a bit but it is still bad. Also, as you mentioned, they try to make average loudness as high as possible because to inexperienced customer it appears as higher quality recording especially with poorly resolving systems.

I think redbook CD format specifies the dynamic range for the 16 bit format and is fairl y standardized as a result.

Not sure this is the case with other newer hi rez digital formats?

More bits enables more dynamic range and more detail together. How this happens might be highly variable in lieu of a standard.

In any case, for hi rez digital sources, I suspect a difference associated mainly with the high frequencies can be heard if done right, but that may be a big if at this juncture still.

To hear the most possible, you definitely want very good, younger ears, speakers that can handle dynamics and transients well and also have very good detail assuming the production is done well and the DAC not only reads the format but is able to output analog of similar resolution and quality.

At this still emerging stage of hi rez digital audio, I doubt it is a safe bet that hi rez source material and playback gear meets these requirements well in general, although I am sure there is some reference type recordings and better gear that do.

The first place I would listen for the difference is in well recorded massed bowed strings in orchestral music. Use a good modern RTR reference recording as a reference standard. Even older trained ears should hear a noticeable difference if the digital is not extremely well done.

I have had the opportunity to listen to RTR, vinyl, and good redbook CD recordings on a very well done dealer system using mbl 111e speakers. The difference from RTR to redbook CD was pronounced but you might not notice the limitations of the redbook CD unless compared to the RTR or even good vinyl on a similarly good system.

The SOTA wide and deep soundstage in this optimized and very resolving mbl setup provided exactly the venue size and 3 dimensonal sound quality needed to be able to hear these kinds of differences clearly. Quite an eye (ear?) opener!