[Pm@c]

So I currently listen to my music in flac 16-bit/44.1.
 
Space is not an issue for me. Should I re-rip my music to 24-bit/192? Is there any point? I want the highest quality sound, and I only plan to rip like 10-15 albums this way, so I could care less if the album is ridiculously big.
 
Im running the Xonar Essence STX with DT770s (60ohm). 
 
Ive always been a little confused because ive always ripped with EAC + FLAC, and its always said the sample rate is irrelevant.
 
Or is this all just a useless question? Are CDS produced at 44.1? Or higher?

 

[J.Pocalypse]

If it were me, I'd rip a CD at 16/44, and then the same CD at 24/192 ( assuming the CD has been made up to that spec. ), and do an A/B test.

 

[thuantran]

The only thing you would gain is space as even if they said the CD was mastered using 24/192 when printed to the CD they have been downsampled to 16/44.1 and this is a lossy process. You can't get the information back by ripping at 24/192.

 

[Roseval]

 
By design a audio CD contains 16 bit / 44.1 kHz sample rate audio.
If not it doesn’t comply with the CD audio standards (Redbook) and won’t play
You can convert it (or rip) to 24 bits.
This will simply add 8 zero bits to each sample.
As the sample rate is 44.1, the highest frequency on a CD is 44.1/2=22 kHz (in practice slightly less). This is inherent to the Shannon/Nyquist sampling theorem.
Ripping or converting to a higher sampling rate won’t add audio > 22 kHz because it is simply not on the CD.
Sometimes CDs upsampled to a higher rate do sound different.
This is because some DACs do change their sonic signature when feed with higher bitrates.
Some calls this different sound an improvement, others a design flaw…
A bit more on ripping: http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/KB/Ripping.htm

 

[J.Pocalypse]

What about SACDs?

 

[thuantran]

You have to have a SACD decoder on computer first to rip it that way, otherwise you simply read the CD side and what was said applied. Supposedly, a SACD decoder is available on Mac/PC, I believe it should be ripped to 24/96 from reading this article on wiki. I do not own or have any experience with SACD so take it with a grain of salts.

 

[Snag1e]

As others have already said, cds are 16/44.1 and there would be no point to rip a standard redbook cd at anything higher. However If you have any hdcds (20/44.1) some programs such as dbpoweramp will allow you to rip these at 20 bit, they are actually stored as 24 bit audio, with the last 4 bits null. I don't think that it is possible to rip sacds to 24 bit audio using just a computer, (you can however rip the redbook layer at 16/44.1)..... 24 bit sacd rips, while possible, appear to be complicated. Requireing a moded player among other things....such as the oppo method.

 

[Pm@c]

I listen to ALOT of Dream Theater, and so the only way to get those at higher than 16/44.1 would be if DT released digital versions that hadnt gone through the compression?

 

[Snag1e]

Yea, or you could find a 24/96 vinyl rip of it....if they pressed the vinyl off the full resolution master, and it is ripped on a nice setup by someone who knows what they are doing these can sound pretty good. It might be hard to find a vinyl rip of it though.........I just checked, and I can only see one for their newest album........
Oh, you could also buy an up converting dac, such as the Cambridge audio dac magic......

 

[thuantran]

There's a hdcd decoder for current foobar version for that matter, so you can use it to rip hdcd.

 

[jman1503]

This has been helpful for me too, thanks guys!