Computer Audio Asylum

Posted by mlsstl (A) on December 28, 2023 at 16:25:24

In Reply to: RE: Ok... posted by E-Stat on December 28, 2023 at 07:15:53

I logged onto my Qobuz account and found both the CD quality and hirez versions of the Giacchino track you showed earlier. I captured the first 1 minute and 20 seconds of each version. The 44.1K version first, then followed by the 96K version on the right side of the image below. As you can see, they appear identical.

I ran some statistics on each of them in Adobe Audition. The quietest section of actual music occurs about 17 seconds into each track -- both are identical at about -34 dB from the 0 dB max. With CD's 96 dB dynamic range, this leaves 62 dB of range =below= the quietest section of music in the first minute and 20 seconds of this recording.

The only difference in dynamic range I was able to find occurred at the very obvious peaks -- the CD version peaks at -0.49 dB while the hirez version peaks at -0.38 dB. I'm not sure an extra tenth of a dB is going to add much to the startle effect. But, that is also not to say the hirez version won't have a bit more resolution, probably more due to the 24 bits versus 16 bits than from the higher sampling rate.

But this gets back to my original point on the images you posted -- what they did to your CD version was simply an artistic choice on the producer's or record company's part. In no way was it required by the CD quality file format. I've never said hirez can't be better than CD, but the example you posted has very little to do with the differences in file format and everything to do with the intentional choices made by producers and record companies.