I believe you. See how I allowed for the possibility of your own unique experiences? Perception of reality is a never-ending human experience, why would you think for a moment that this would stop at musical interpretation? That somehow most people on this site or with this hobby are enjoying the exact same experiences... Do you think that you and I hear the same things in the same way? Highly unlikely. Even if we did, I am certain we would still prefer a different sound from one another.
I maintain, for the benefit of those in the community that are open-minded and looking into this topic, that there are benefits to high resolution files and formats which have very little or nothing to do with how high in frequency the files will play. The point that I am making is that the improvement is in the additional content within the finer details of the body of work. The sooner people begin looking at it from this perspective, the sooner they may begin to appreciate the subtle differences. Again, approaching fractals is the key to realistic sound reproduction. Bits being turned into a finer level of detail upon detail upon detail, bits being turned into ambience information (whether real or artificial) rather than being omitted, bits being turned into depth information to reveal the space between instruments if the recording allows for it, rather than being omitted. These are the things that are impacted the most once you get past the mental block that the whole point of high resolution files is for better frequency response. But again, this assumes you are able to unlock spatial information to begin with. There just aren't many folks who truly know how to build a setup that allows you to hear true depth. Width is incredibly easy but depth is incredibly elusive most of the time. You have to get quite a few things in lock step before you will hear something that is layers and layers deep, well beyond any physical limitations that your eyes tell you is possible. Surely, someone with so much studio experience such as yourself must have been privy to this wonderful effect enough times to know that you sure aren't hearing it in everyone's car and everywhere you go.
DACs are doing math. Op-amps are gain stages handling the low level signals. Just so we're clear on the finer points I was attempting to make with swapping op-amps to change overall quality or presentation in favor of something I (and countless others around the world) find pleasing. Op-amps can have a profound impact on the sound quality and it doesn't mean the one you removed was wrong or bad. They're just different.
