Absolutely agree, bit- and sample rates beyond 44.1 khz / 16-bit sound the same to me. I always listen at that sampling rate even though some people on the forums claim that 24-bit or even 48 khz (the sample rate used for movies and video games) is superior; I could never tell.

You have made me curious about the beatles now. Never been into them, but I will try to listen to a vinyl record of theirs and compare it with a digital one. For Michael Jackson I already prefer the original vinyl over the digitally remastered albums.

I’m currently listening mostly on old speakers and an amp from 1979, plugged into a modern pre-amp and DAC. I’ve got two proper pairs of headphones, but these old speakers I bought for 5 quids from eBay can keep up with them quite well. So well that I rarely find myself using headphones. Judging by “numbers” they should be inferior to my headphones, but in reality they just sound different, not worse. Bigger soundstage, more “real”, less detailed, I’d say.

That’s so interesting, I see this as definite proof that there is a quality difference beyond 192 kbps, otherwise your ears wouldn’t hurt (duh). It’s the same for me when I listen to a 17 khz sound, my Dad thinks I’m nuts cause he can’t hear a thing, but over long periods of times it drives me insane. I’m 24 and have only been to a few concerts and festivals before, so my hearing seems to be sort of intact, although I do have a very mild case of tinnitus since childhood, it does not really annoy me or impact me in any way.

I tried one with lossless, 320 kbps and 192 kbps and failed miserably each time. All sounds the same to me.

Makes total sense, but I always thought 128 and 320 kbps for example would be easy to tell apart. It isn’t, at least for me. At the same time I also thought sample rates would not make any difference, but 32 khz (“fm radio quality” on windows) does sound worse.

I got into recordings of vinyl recently because there is something “warm” about their sound, I don’t know if it sounds “better”, but definitely different. Very interesting story about that Sony research though.

16 khz hurts my ears on high volumes, my left ear can hear up to 18 khz but it gets really hard to notice past 17200 hz or so. I’m almost 25, so it’s not that surprising. It’s definitely true, high-pitched sounds with a 32000 hz sample rate sound distorted to me, but beyond 44.1 khz everything sounds the same, even 96 khz or 192 khz audio. At the same time I have a very hard time telling the difference between 128 kbps and lossless, I tested it yesterday and couldn’t, I might be able to depending on the song or setup, but I doubt it.