by Dan Moren

High-resolution audio on iTunes? Don’t hold your breath

As seems to happen with some regularity, there are rumors once again about Apple investigating high-quality¹ music for iTunes. Kirk McElhearn explains why this is probably not the case:

[The new Apple TV] only handles audio at 16 bits and up to 48 KHz. So if Apple were planning to start dealing in high-resolution audio (generally considered to have a bit depth of 24 bits, and sample rates higher than 48 KHz), you’d have thought this device would be able to handle such audio.

…

Most people couldn’t care less about high-resolution music. For the most part, it’s a marketing ploy, and hardly anyone can tell the difference between CDs and good-quality compressed audio.