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My "listening space" seldom exceeds an inch from my head. Either AirPods Pro or Sennheisers right in/on my ears. That's going to be the target audience of the majority of these changes.

I choose 'phones because my music taste diverges too much from my wife's to make open air play an option, if I want to maintain peace.

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You're right that wearing headphones sidesteps that issue entirely. It's only an issue when there is an acoustic space for the waves to interact with.

I'd also agree that Apple's choice seems to be targeting headphone users as a result of their product ecosystem.

Interestingly, people in the other discussions are pointing out that Airpod Pros and Airpods Max are incapable of higher sample-rate audio due to their codec. So it seems for now that Apple headphone users aren't going to experience any difference and that the hi-res issue only applies to stereo systems that have the capability. But then I'd just reiterate my original point that there's functionally no benefit to hi-res audio if your listening space is working against you (which most people's rooms are).

I absolutely agree with your both posts. I would also claim that the differences between headphones is far, far greater than hi-res audio vs high bitrate compressed audio, thus it's nearly pointless to even discuss hi-res even for headphone users.

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