Next speaker project, which I have just begun, will include Hypex fusion plate amps. Will be my first experience with Class-D, looking forward to. At the moment I have Class AB im my living room (Dayens) and in my bedroom (Vista Audio) which are both from Serbia and offer excellent value for the money.
But BTT: (or better to psychoacoustics) I myself being a victim of the “higher → better” thinking am currently ripping CD´s as long as this: Volumio running CD drive at noisy high speed - #7 by arndtinger isn´t solved sufficiently.
Despite of me claiming, that 320kBit spotify is already sufficient for a “high end” experience, this is not only including material, which is not (yet?) available on spotify (e.g. Nationalgalerie, which i was very fond of in that time) but also some CD´s which are in my opinion very well recorded or have the above mentioned remaster problem. It simply gives me a better feeling to know that I have the seemingly better quality at hand, because only the living room gear sports a blue-ray player (Cambridge CXU). Bedroom and the future project (will) only have RPi´s with Volumio.
You see: Even being conscious of the fact that there can be no audible difference (science says so), subconsciousness plays tricks on us. So don´t rely on subjective opinions, double blind tests are the only way to find the truth.
Cheers
Arnd
EDIT:PS: And of course Measurements! Floyd Toole (mentioned in Emanuele´s Article) has done great work to establish Spinorama as a gold standard for Speakers, and SINAD is well established for electronic gear. Visit Audio Scene Review, a valuable gold mine for reliable Data.
(Though a SINAD of > 100dB is well beyond the audible threshold, it gives you a good clue, how well the gear is / was constructed)
There is a second clue here: 16bit gives you dynamics of 96dB (mentioned above). You ever heard at 96dB for a longer time? Then I bet you don’t have neighbors . → Sufficient dynamics for listening @ home.