Buy 24/44 Download or Rip CD

Never heard of a 24/44 file. First # is bit depth, 2nd # is sampling rate. CDs are 16/44.1. Hi-rez is usually considered 24/96 or greater. AS to whether a hi-rez file is "better" there are a number of factors that enter in.

HDtracks and Accoustic Sounds both sell 44.1/24 files; if I rip a CD of that same album, I get the same 44.1/24....

"On Amazon you can buy that particular album on CD for $13. If you rip the CD using MAX or a similar program, don't you get 24/44 files?"

You can rip the music on a CD to anything you want but you can't get any more info than what is already on it to begin with. All Redbook CD's are the same: 16/44. You can't get higher resolution than that. So, while you can rip a CD to 44.1/24, it won't sound any better than 16/44. The information just isn't there.

A far more common example is MP-3. The maximum resolution for an MP-3 is way less than a Redbook CD. Its not uncommon for someone to want to burn a bunch of MP-3 files to a CD (usually for use in a car). The problem is that a standard CD player that doesn't support MP-3, can only play CD's that are 16/44. Since you can't get more than what you originally started out with, the burning software adds neutral data to the mp-3 files to make them bigger. After burning the MP-3's appear to be 16/44 to a CD player. But since the material added to the MP-3 was not related to the music data in any way, the sound quality is still MP-3. Basically, its a trick employed to fool a CD player into playing MP-3's. So that's why if you rip a CD to something higher than 16/44, you still end up with no improvement in sound quality.