my 2 cts
- using a pc and feeding a dac via usb (through AQ forest, jitterbug or ifi filters): hires sounds predominantly notably better than cd redbook, which again sounds a bit better than mp3 files (320kB/s, slowest conversion).
- with a proper streamer (pro-ject streambox s2 ultra, running volumio, fed through a lin PSU, good fuse, power cable, AQ coffee usb, and a jitterbug) feeding the same dac, all sounds a lot better, and the 3 formats seem closer together, so that high resolution at first seem rather superfluous, but still music‘s fabric seems quite a bit more real and fluid, and the whole thing seems to come a bit more from anywhere except out of the speakers…
2 comments: this perception of mine isn’t tested on one suited track in redbook and hires versions (as it should, ie taking a non-upsampled original high res file, out if which a second, downsampled version of redbook standard is created for fair comparison), rather a general impression using a wider range of tracks (including pseudo hires upsampled from redbook).
Secondly, and this is a music‘s lover conclusions: if i buy (or record) music I try to get hires, if i listen, i take what is available (on ssd, Qobuz or Spotify (if it gets fixed again), and usually the (re)mastering is more important than the resolution of the file. I think I need to add, musical emotion is mostly influenced by the quality and balance of the hifi system, but rather least by the source file resolution.
PS: Nyquist Shannon theorem as far as i understand relies on a long sample, a rather infinitely long one; —> mathematical theorems should be interpreted within their limits.