Help Me Understand Bit and KHz

In the studio, high bit rates and wide words have advantages during production as the music is passed from box to box, undergoing processing. Once the music is ready for distribution to the public, 16/44.1 is all that is required to deliver top quality music to the human. This is very convenient for the consumer because 16/44.1 requires less storage space and is easier to send over networks.

As is often the case with insufficient background knowledge, the public goes for the number — “24 must be better than 16, right?” It is similar to the logic that the more expensive item is always better, right?

Commercial music is often sent through what I call a “sound good box”. In many cases, such as listening to the music out on the street through ear buds and other dreadful environments, this processing is helpful.  In quiet rooms, using good equipment, this processing is not welcome. If the hi-res copy is delivered without the “sound good box” processing, it will sound better in the good environment, but this is a separate issue from 16/44.1. There have been a few reports claiming some “hi-res” tracks are actually 16/44.1 tracks that were up sampled and released as “hi-res” at a higher price. At best there will be no audible benefit for these tracks. This is pure ripoff.

I find that which commercial music gets this treatment depends on the music genre. I have not found jazz music treated like this. I suspect that neither is classical music. And probably music that is called “Acoustic” across all genres. My first careful listening comparisons of Hi Res v CD quality were of classic jazz recordings like the Miles Davis Kind of Blue and some of the Rudy Van Gelder remastered Jazz CDs. There was nothing more to be heard from the HD versions, listening to the music on “audiophile” kit, late at night alone in a quiet room. These tests done in 2011 were instrumental in my switching to Sonos kit fed by lossless CD rips on a NAS. Now of course, I don't even find any difference between CD quality and well mastered music streamed at 256 Kbps via Apple Music - perhaps because of another eight years of hearing ability degradation?!

The reason for this differing treatment of genres probably is that listeners of these two genres aren't usually found listening to it on the commute via ear buds, or in other environments that are hostile to listening to music because of other sound intrusions.

Ironically, much of the HD music rip offs seem to be of music that does not need it, from the jazz/classical/acoustic kind. That is my impression, and quite possibly a wrong one.

Why would Dr Daffy sell you his magic elixir if it doesn’t really cure your Rheumatism?  Why would the green marker company sell you their product if it doesn’t really keep the laser inside the CD?  Why would Monster Cable charge hundreds of dollars for speaker wire that costs under $10 to manufacture and sounds no different than lamp cord? 

Same concept.

As I mentioned above, higher resolutions are handy while processing a track for release. I have some friends who record local groups. If my friends want to exchange hi-res session files over the Internet, FLAC is a convenient format because FLAC will minimize the amount of data transmitted without impacting a work in progress. Ultimately, the release will be 16/44.1.

As an imperfect analogy to help you understand why higher resolution is handy during processing, consider interest calculations on a savings account. Ultimately, the bank can only pay in whole cents. Imagine the case where interest is calculated and credited to the account monthly. Each month the calculation must be rounded to the nearest whole cent on the statement. It is possible that, if all of the roundings go in the same direction, that the bank or the customer will be short or surplus by almost 0.06 by the end of the year. If the bank calculates to many decimal places on an annual basis, monthly crediting the (rounded) difference between the current (hi-res) annual calculation and interest credited so far, there will effectively be only one rounding per year.

There is a lot of math associated with digital music processing in the studio. Starting with a hi-res recording minimizes the consequences of rounding errors at each step along the way. 

@buzz   Your analogy also a central plot point of Office Space.   Not that that’s relevant in any way.