Alex:Correct, but there's no point in this IMO as CDs are 16 bit.
Yes, there is a point. You can download 24-bit music from a variety of sources and play from iTunes which you cannot do with any CD player. A computer and good DAC I think means SACD will probably never take off (not that it was).
The mixonline article was interesting. My own feelings about this are-
- I've seen CDs from 1982 that were very well engineered and sound is as clean as anything, so care in the engineering of the whole sound chain is important.
- I still wonder about dynamic range. Specifically, if you have an organ playing a soft flute with the swell shades shut, it's very soft; I don't know how many DBs it is. In this situation it seems there's hiss competing with the soft sound, but maybe, as the article suggests, it wasn't as well-engineered as it could have been. But was that because of the settings needed to handle the sound when all the stops are on?
When I was a student in Pittsburgh I remember recitals played on the Beckerath organ at St Pauls, which could range from a whisper to a huge wash of brilliant sound that filled that large space. I can't say I've ever heard any recording on any system that comes close that experience and I'm not sure I can say what it is that's missing. I do wonder, as is mentioned in the article, about phasing, as the sense of space is probably what I miss most, other than the issue that most speakers don't go low enough in frequency.