this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2023
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Hi All, I recently got myself some proper headphones and DAC but now I realise I don't have much high quality music , my collection is mostly flac but only very few higher than 48k. So where do you get your music? does it even matter beyond that?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I guess I'll have to ask the question... what exactly are you looking for? And why would you look for anything higher than 48k?

I'll talk a bit about sample rate and DAC converters since you asked about it, and in case anyone is interested.

Short answer is: there is no proof whatsoever in any controlled measurement tests conducted to say that sample rates beyond 48kHz (arguably 44.1kHz) make any difference at all to what you hear. And if you look at the ADC/DAC process, you can pretty easily see why it really is like that. Basically, mathematically speaking, you will get the exactly same analog signal after the conversion, as long as your sample rate is at least twice as fast as your highest frequency. Naturally, in order to make sure this works, you need an anti-alias filter, which is why the standard has been set at 44.1kHz for so long. So modern devices reliably have had filters with a good enough slope to make 44.1kHz viable for decades now, never mind anything beyond that. Here's a short explanation about the process

Why do some people talk so much about higher sample rates, then?

Higher sample rates do matter considerably in the following cases: you want to process your audio heavily, especially if you want to slow it down, extend its length and other time or frequency processes? You definitely want a higher sample rate. You want to synchronize your audio with video? In that case multiples of 48kHz would be recommended, so it can match with either 30fps or 24fps which are the two major standards. 44.1kHz may lead to synchronization problems, though modern day video editors have mostly fixed this issue, and DAWs like Reaper make sample rate look like a concern from the past with their excellent conversion system.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Thanks a lot DigitalAudio and others, the conclusion and answer to my second question is that 44.1/48kHz is good enough, I'll keep collecting those then. Although I'm sure there will be audiophiles out there that strongly disagree