Do the experience. It may look surprising, but in spite of the youtube transcoding and compression I can clearly hear the difference between DSD and 96/24, at least
when the original analogue master was not or only a little processed. Processing can make things at little blurred.
By the way, I believe that Youtube can go up to 192/24 and their compression process is very clean.
No it can't. If you are a Premium Member, the very highest quality that can be selected is AAC 256 kps. For anything uploaded by someone who isn't a premium member playback is restricted to either AAC 128 or Opus or Vorbis no higher than about 160 kbps, sample rate is typically 44.1kHz and never higher than 48kHz. YouTube doesn't support lossless playback, not even of 44/16.
With regard to the sample rate when uploading music videos, YouTube states: "
44.1kHz recommended. Higher sample rates are accepted but not required (for example, 48kHz or 96kHz)". - This implies the playback sample rate of music videos will be 44.1kHz, although Youtube doesn't specifically say that. In any event, even with Premium Membership, the playback sample rate cannot be not be higher than 96kHz because that's the highest sample rate supported by the AAC format.
So, what is your experience, that you can clearly hear the difference between a 44.1kHz Opus 160 vs a 44.1kHz Opus 160? Even with the highest quality possible as a Premium Member and even if YouTube supports playback at the highest possible sample rate, the DSD master would have exactly the same sample rate as the 96/24 master!
My experience, from what you've just posted, is that if something says "DSD" and something else says 96/24, then some people will "clearly hear the difference" in these hi-res formats when in fact they are both exactly the same (low-res, lossy) format!!
Youtube uses a little compression, but this is not very audible.
So, you can "clearly hear" a sample rate difference when the sample rates are in fact exactly the same but the relatively huge difference from quite heavy lossy compression is "not very audible"?
G