Why high bit-rate and HD audio are all about buzz, not music

[iMore.com]

High bit rate ? kilobit per second ? and HD audio ? 24bit vs. 16bit ? are getting a lot of attention lately, whether it's because streaming services are offering more or less kbps or upcoming devices are promising higher fidelity sound or Apple is rumored to be adding those features to iOS 8 and the iPhone 6. The truth is, as far as it's been explained to me and I'm able to understand it, is that higher bit-rate and higher bit audio is more about marketing than it is about music. Yes, the quality of the mastering matters incredibly, as does the quality of the transcoding, but for most audio, with most modern codecs, we're well past the levels where things become transparent to the listener. Why is that?

Full story from the iMore Blog...

 

[acerace113]

Most of my music is 16bit/44.1khz/320kbps mp3 or 256kbps acc iTunes purchased songs. I do have the odd 16/48/256 song and some older songs I have are 16/22/128. One song I have is in a flac format and another is a 192kbps OGG file.


Sent from my iPhone 5S or Jailbroken 5th gen iPod Touch using Tapatalk