Bit rate (20 0r 24) has a far greater effect on perceived musical reproduction than sample rate, all things being equal. I cannot really hear any difference between 24/88 and 24/44 where I have down sampled the same music file.
I was chatting about this with the Linn Records sound engineer (David - very nice man too!) and he confirmed this to be the case - lots of combo's but what really matters is bit depth. Incidentally I would argue that; 1. your speakers are the most important item relating to perceived quality 2. Now getting onto music - the vast majority of music out there is 16/44. There is precious little 24/96 available (Linn, HDD from Giant etc) and the future? Who knows? The current state of the computer audiophile art is the 24/176.4 HRX albums (Reference Recordings) which numbered a whole 4 at last count. Bad luck if you don't like those 4 records or performances. And please bear in mind a higher sample rate does not always equate to better sound or sound that you'll like more. Far more important is the performance and the skill of the orchestra, conductor and sound recording technician, not to mention the acoustics of the recording venue. 3.how the analogue output stage is handled on the DAC is what really matters. The chip set less so. -- tricka Transporter +/- Lavry DA 10 - LFD Zero - Harbeth C7 es3's "Harbethed" and lovin it ------------------------------------------------------------------------ tricka's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11614 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=57631 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
