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Good point. Next question:

does anyone have a Redbook CD playback system that resolves all the information encoded in the 16-bit words?

Almost everyone assumes this without examination. They hear something different from hi-rez playback and assume it is better, and better because of the increased information content (more information per word and more words per second).

This can only be true if the overall resolution (ability to present sounds containing information in the signal) of the playback system is greater than the information content of the Redbook format. Call this Hypothesis A.

An alternative hypothesis, B, is that no one has such a system and all reports of "better sound" from hi-rez are due to specific noise character and response differences of the different disc reading hardware used in the comparison. Further, all reports of "no improvement" suffer from similar, but less fortuitous, hardware issues. Under this hypothesis, we simply do not know if hi-rez is better.

I suspect, given the general state of ignorance of the effects of RF noise, and the proliferation of RF noise sources in consumer appliances, that the true state of affairs is closer to B than to A for most audiophiles, reviewers, and manufacturers.

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