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RE: High Resolution - Fact or Fiction?

I've done these tests on a number of occasions, starting with 176/24 and downsampling to 44/16. Then I upsample back to 176/24 and compare the original and the processed file. That way, the entire real-time playback chain is identical throughout the comparison and the only difference in the complete record - playback chain is the two passes through the sample rate converter. I use the 64 bit SRC software in iZotope RX 2 Advanced.

I listen for tonal balance, musical transients and soundstage. There are a lot of controls available with the iZotope SRC and you can set them so that 44/16 sounds pretty good, but no setting will allow all of the original tonal balance, musical transients and soundstage to make it through the 44/16 "knothole", but the differences are subtle, and not a reason to avoid buying 44/16 recordings, unless they are not available in higher resolution.

I digitize cassette tapes at 88/24. I have found that these digital transfers sound better when played at 88/24 than after downsampling to 44/16. In a sense, 44/16 isn't as good as a good cassette tape.


Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar


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