Was reading through a site I found in my bookmarks and came across some Apple news I missed: Apparently they're talking about allowing some 24/96 file downloads. Audiophiles everywhere are thrilled.

And that got me to realizing that I don't really understand the differences in the sampling rates as they apply to real world listening. So I was hoping some of the smart people here might be able to explain it in lay terms.

Obviously I know that 24 bit is better than 16 bit and 96 > 44.1 and all that... what I don't know is what releases already have that higher rate... how many have it natively rather than being upsampled... and how someone like me might find it either for download or for ripping.

I recall being excited by the Apple Lossless encoding, being able to compare to FLAC and WAV from my CDs (Regular old CDs are Redbook, right? Meaning my entire collection is 16/44.1?) But now I've come to find out that apparently there's plenty of music out there that's better? Have I been wasting money?

Or... is most still sold in only 16/44.1, meaning I haven't really missed much, other than a few select recordings of artists I probably wouldn't have bought anyway?

As I understand it, 24/96 is DVD audio, and SACD is somewhere in between. Is that correct?

In terms of real world application, is 24/96 really noticeably different in a 2ch setup? Or is it primarily for multiple channel recordings? I've only ever listened to music in stereo and haven't really been convinced that surround audio is better. (And if it is, wouldn't that mean that for those purposes we'd want better rears?)

I guess the quickest way to answer me might be simply to recommend a piece of media that is a nice 24/96 recording and let me hear it for myself. I typically rip my CDs into Apple Lossless and play them from an AppleTV, letting my own DAC handle things for the main room (and its own to output analog to the multi-room amp) but I have a BRD player that I could use for comparisons... though I'd give Apple a shot to see if it could rip it into 24/96 too.

(Or do I already own a good one? I bought both the CD and the BRD of the Dave/Tim Live at Radio City. I have the BRD here still unopened)

From there, the question will become whether the AppleTV plays 24/96 (apparently older Apple devices will play the file, but not necessarily at that rate), then whether I'm able to tell a difference, and then finally if I should upgrade. I was thinking about possibly ditching the AppleTV for an Auraliti or something else that would more easily interface with my Crestron controls. (As it is now I end up listening to my music streamed from iTunes half the time because I don't feel like turning on the TV or another iPhone app to control the local files on the ATV. If the AppleTV turns out to be adequate, though, there is software I can buy that opens up an API to those apps.)

Bah. I type too much. I'm about 60% sure I understand this stuff, but I want to be positive.