Hi All,
I would like to agree. sure, human conciousness and physicality may not allow high frequency or high bitrate definition. However, think about this carefully. The ears are built to change analogue continuous waveform from the real world into brain signals - perhaps even recognising various shapes of sound and trying to make sense of it in your brain.
If the higher frequencies like 16kHz are represented in almost three discrete (harsh) bumps then you get some pretty distorted sound waves. You might not be conscious of it, but do we listen only with our ears? Are we as audiophiles going to limit our full enjoyment just because we cant detect the outer limit of it? The closer we get to true physical pressure waves, the more likely our full body and mind will commit to the fantasy invoked by the sound.
I am still amazed when I hear a CD versus LP when it comes to depth of sound. The LP wins just because artists are less tempted to use compression and "tricks" to make their music sound good. You can turn up the volume on an LP and often, though sounding loud, doesn't sound brash like a loud CD. I can only compare it to what I get visually when you down sample a photo, and upsample it, then downsample again. The less resampling or higher the resolution of all the steps between you and the original artist then the truer and less fuzzy. Most people might only take an impression of that image away with them as from a glance. Others will examine it and wonder what is wrong with it and then ignore it. A thing of beauty has details you can enjoy over and over.
Also, on 24 bit, admit to yourself that in concerts, orchestras, and live music, you get the musician controlling the crescendos, volume and intensity of the music. With 24 bits, they can do that again rather than have the intimate movements of quiet performance missed, or "blocky" and noisy when turned up by the listener of a CD.
