"The Beginner’s Guide to Hi-Res Audio"

Whenever I watch HD quality video streams, I don’t need any badges on the screen to let me know what quality I am seeing - and when the stream quality drops occassionally because of broadband issues, this too is immediately obvious. 

Clearly this analogy does not apply for Hi Res Audio, seeing how people are looking for badges to get a confirmation of what is streaming, because, I suppose, their ears are not telling them this. If so, why bother?

@ Kumar. I think we are just seeking an additional data point to make sure that it is working. Otherwise, your point is sensible.

From what I read about this search it seems to me that a lot of angst is generated when the data point is not available; angst that must be coming in the way of just sitting back, trusting ones ears and enjoying the music. There are enough more real things happening around all of us to save the worry and the energy to deal with those.

Further to the preceding - I believe that this Hi Res thing is being peddled just to sow dissatisfaction among vulnerable users of technology which has peaked in terms of what it can objectively deliver, such that they spend more money to pad the pockets of these peddlers. 

Instead of doing what none of the peddlers of hardware and services are doing to address the big issue which causes much more aggravation - distracting sound level changes from one track to the next when playing playlists while using the random shuffle feature. Having to constantly move the volume control around to deal with this is very aggravating and damages the listening experience.

Atmos is a different case; that does sound very different from HD/SD, but there too personal preference may mean that it isn't an improvement. But it at least does not need labels to announce itself; the sound does that job.

I guess it’s a case that people want to know that they are getting the quality of audio they are paying for. Whether it’s actually needed, or not, becomes a separate question. 

Some say in some circumstances, that they can hear a difference between HD (16-bit) audio and UltraHD (24-bit) audio.. I’m not one of those people. I have been quite happy in the past with the lesser 320 AAC lossy audio, so I’m more than happy with the Amazon HD standard.

It’s not actually costing me any more to have the higher quality Amazon audio anyway on Sonos… (24/48 Atmos/UltraHD audio in some instances) …and as long as it all plays without interruption and sounds good (to me), then I’m okay with that, especially as a Prime Movie/Music Unlimited annual subscriber, this ‘merged’ Amazon music service is actually costing me £50 (per year) less than before.

Anything can be said, but no one has even claimed to have picked this difference in a controlled level matched blind listening test, using the same source file in the 16 bit version and comparing that with the 24 bit version. Not even on the most accurate headphones, which may perhaps be able to pick the difference between 16 bit and lossy 320 - in even a quiet domestic environment using the best/most expensive speakers out there, this too has not been demonstrated, room acoustics will come in the way.

Perhaps this is all pickable if the tester is the being in the HMV logo of many years ago...with training!

On the other hand, the psychological reasons for hearing all kinds of differences are well known and not just in the world of home audio. And of course, where sound levels are not accurately matched between the alternatives, the reason isn't even psychological.

Pretty much, this ^. That is all. And as a psychologist, lectures about psychology are even further drivel to my ears, or eyes.

Why can’t the music industry standardize these designations and require compliance. Not sure who or how it would be done, just want transparency and honesty not marketing speak. 

Because it worked so well with the CEC consortium, and the various issues many manufacturers have had implementing that?

I get where you’re coming from, and support it, but getting various companies to pay attention to a “standard” as opposed to their own bottom line, and marketing strategies seems like a false hope. 

Won’t work probably because it is snake oil to start with, in terms of what is audible about it. As opposed to the HD and beyond video side of things where there is a universally adopted standard definition for things like HD Ready, HD, 4K etc,