Interesting point. No physical sound reaches our brains. Sound waves are converted to electrical impulses by our auditory system. From there on it is a matter of perception and interpretation when the brain determines was 'heard'.
We 'hear' what our brain decides we heard.
Sound, in the absolute sense, does not exist for us, only our impression of what occurred. Our brain 'creates' a sense like when we read a book. As we read our brain 'creates' a visual. Sometimes it is vague, other times it is pretty complete and realistic. Perhaps this is why the book is (usually LOL) better that the movie? Because we cast each character perfectly and can create the images of scenery we think are 'best'.
If we all hear the same thing there would probably be only one type of speakers. But since what sounds good to me might not be to your liking, there are a myriad of speakers and not just to meet different price points. There are no speakers on earth that are for some people, unaffordable.
What does this have to do with digital and analog recording and playback?
I read a study a few years ago where subjects were played the same song four times. Each recording was digitized at a different sample rate from MP3 on up. After each song they were given a set of seemingly random questions that were related to neither the music nor to each other. From their answers the psychologists assessed the mental state of the subject on a spectrum from anxious to peaceful and relaxed.
Their conclusion was there is a statistically significant correlation between the sample rate and the psychological sense of wellbeing of a person.
I find this conclusion credible. While we may not be able to elucidate in a meaningful way a difference between analog and digital recordings or between recordings digitized at varying sample rates, the mind is capable of considerable feats of perception.
Too bad I did not save a copy of the paper. I will search for it.
