That, somehow, the "absolute sound" of live music is locked up within the grooves or pits of the discs we play and can be retrieved in its entirety if only we had a a good enough playback system is one of the enduring myths in high-end audio. Yet the art of recording is just that, an art, and it is entirely possible that a better playback system will sound worse with some recordings. And with the mainstream press telling would-be audiophiles that low–bit-rate MP3s are of "CD quality" and that even CD is overkill for audiophile sound quality, why would anyone need high-resolution recordings?

Stereophile editor John Atkinson has been recording for 40 years and doing so in high-resolution digital for 10 years. He will demonstrate why he thinks that both these arguments are false in daily seminars taking place at next weekend's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.

The Show is taking place at Denver's Marriott Tech Center, 4900 South Syracuse Street; Show hours are Friday, October 12, 12pm–6pm, Saturday, October 13, 9am–6pm, and Sunday, October 14, 9am–4pm. There are more than 140 rooms of audio exhibits, and Stereophile will be blogging live from the Show.

JA's seminars take place in Room 457. Times are 2pm, Friday October 12; 9am, Saturday October 13; and 12pm, Sunday October 14. The full program of seminars and fringe events at the Show can be found here.