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According to the Wikipedia article about sampling rates a simple CD uses a sampling rate of 44,100 Hz. Is there a notable difference (with ordinary speakers) to the sound quality if I have a bigger sampling rate? This would in mean that the quality of internet streaming can be better than CD quality in certain cases? If yes, what are the charateristics of the differences?

varantir
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    This doesn't seem to be [a notable claim](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/2506/what-is-a-notable-claim), nor a claim at all. – HDE 226868 Jul 12 '15 at 20:30
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    You might ask this question in [** Sound Design SE**](http://sound.stackexchange.com/). But this needs more research. You need frequency characteristics for your speakers, not just saying "ordinary" speakers. Also, add some examples of streaming content so that the characteristics can be compared. As written this question is too vague. – user3169 Jul 13 '15 at 04:41
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    @HDE226868, sampling rate is one of the two biggest controversies in the audiophile community (the other being bit depth). – Mark Jul 13 '15 at 06:51
  • I did not know about Sound Design SE. I will check the answers! – varantir Jul 13 '15 at 07:24

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The usual formulation of this question is "Can a double-blind A/B/X test distinguish between 44,100 Hz audio and a higher sample rate?"

The answer is a very clear "no". Probably the best demonstration is this test by the Audio Engineering Society where participants were asked to distinguish a recording on Super Audio CD (effectively 100KHz) or DVD-A (192KHz) from that same recording passed through a 16-bit/44.1KHz ADA filter. 554 trials produced a success rate of 49.8%, no better than guessing at random which was which.

Mark
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