Qobuz Hi-Rez Not Necessarily the Best Sound

@soix makes a good point. I also find that newer music which has been natively recorded in hires, then mastered at a high sampling rate does often sound better than the "CD quality" version on Qobuz. Music from the 70s, 80s, 90s has been subjected to digital processing from analogue and upsampled. And the provenance of the source must be considered; eg, is it an original analogue master or is a later generation used, or maybe it’s a remaster that’s being used as the source and converted to hires for streaming.

This is another possibility where the album was not subject to the Loudness Wars.

Unfortunately it is rare we can make A to B comparison based on resolution alone.  They tell us very little about the mastering process and what if any changes were made from one release to another.

In a perfect world the masters are released at a high resolution and otherwise untouched as they lower the bit rates.  That is rarely the case, especially for old, remastered stuff.

This is true thsts why your digital cable choices and Ethernet hub truly can transform your digital ,the synergistic Ethernet hub is retail$2k $1700 I have a Uptone ether regen and makes a nice improvement but the synergistic research hub comes with a decent power cord and sonically makes everything less sharp and more natural sounding expensive yes but well worth it 

also buy a holosprings May kte dac ,or Denafrips Terminator + 12 th anniversary 

fantastic resolution and I have found the best 2 dacs under and betters anythjng at $12k that is says lots ,I have heard most everything and compared head to head in 

our multi state audio members in New England , I am upgrading soon 

it took me over $4500 k just in digital cables and still need the synergistic hub ,and dac but will be a done deal for me , then reference speakers I am almost 65 time to stop the merry go round and just enjoy.

Hi res format on no way assures best sound. A music file can start at low res and be resampled to higher resolution format. In that case the higher res format may sound lesser. It all depends. But it can be similar to starting with a low resolution video and then presenting it on a large hi quality hdtv. Say like an mtv Video from the 80s. Putting a digital version of that poor quality video to start with on a big high res tv is not necessarily going to make it look better. If it is digitally remastered well to hi res video somewhere first then maybe. So bottom line is high res format does not necessarily = better sound.

+1 @mapman . Very well stated.