I mostly listen to music on a Windows pc with a FIIO Q7, HD560 in Foobar2k, which I consider to be literally baby level gear compare with the setups and gear some users have here. Anyway, I have been checking on rebuilding my music library and I notice that FLACs with 24b-48kHz really sound different from the previous tracks I had, but above that i.e., 24b-96kHz, 24b-192kHz or even DSF tracks does not sound different at all.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, I literally just change from some Marshall Monitors and listening music in windows VLC to this beginner level gear. So, I assume my lack of knowledge and lack of higher level gear is the culprit to me not finding any difference with quality levels above 48kHz. I hope the community can help me with some insights for me to understand a little more, and tweak something’s while I get use to this hobby.
PD. I am not planning on buying more gear at the moment, maybe in the future I will get into more advance level stuff.
Hard to say. There are SO many factors starting with whether you can hear a difference at the moment. If you’re buying music vs streaming it the by all means buy it at least at 88.2khz or DSD. But find a way to audition hi res and 44.1 of the same master before you decide. Mastering is most important. For instance I prefer my 44.1/16 rip of MoFi’s A Day at the Races to any other digital copy of another master including DSD.
If you don’t hear a difference, then, unless you’re buying music, don’t spend the extra money. The reason I’d buy the higher sample rate is because if you do eventually hear a difference as you grow older, you’ll be glad you have it. Aging can significantly impact your hearing this way.
A short story: When I was 19 years old, I worked at a stereo chain and got everything at cost. So I bought the best cartridge, turntable, receiver, speakers and cassette deck we sold. Then, I started making copies of all my albums onto brand new Maxell UDXL tapes. At the time, I really didn’t hear the difference between the sound of the better equipment and mid priced, but everyone at the store insisted I’d regret not getting the good stuff. So, I did. 20 years later, when I got my new car, I found the CD player sound intolerable, but it had a cassette with Dolby, so I popped in one of these tapes and OMG, it was so much better. As an experiment, i copied one of the same records using a lesser system but onto UDXL tapes and the difference was huge.
20 years later, I heard what everyone was talking about in 1978 and was very glad I got the better equipment. In 2007, I started collecting 96/24 and 192/24 FLAC files. Learning my lesson, even though on my system at the time, I heard nothing. When I got a really good DAC, I was very glad to have the extra data.