I am getting so sick of this crap. With the exception of HD Encoding/Decoding (which supposedly really does give the equivalent of 20 bit IF the cd player has the decoding chip, & that's a HUGE IF), CD is physically limited to 16 bit. End of story.

I'm especially upset that this time Acoustic Sounds is spreading this BS. It's certainly possible that these discs do sound good, but as they are advertised to "play on ANY cd player", they CAN'T be 32 bit. End of story. Physically impossible.

http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.c ... abelID=524

A SUPPOSED explanation
http://www.different-stores.com/cal-tja ... -disc.html

Next to it there's a link for the SACD. I don't believe that a redbook with any surfacing, no matter how high quality, could sound better than the same mastering in a hi-res format.

Technically, they could do all that stuff in the mastering process, and technically a CD could (since it's merely a form of media) use alternative bit rates, encoding schemes, sample rates etc, ad nauseam, but since The Red Book audio standard is not a variable bit rate stream and specifies both bit rate and sampling rate, it really doesn't matter. As Geff says, it's still going to come out at 16/44.

; though it does take a half decent player to allow the high rez to shine. Maybe we will get it with Pono for $300, that would be pretty unreal.