I’d thought I could hear a difference in hires audio, but after reading up on it I’m starting to think it may have been some issue with the tech I was using, whether it be my headphones or something else, that made compressed audio sound veeeery slightly staticky when high notes or loud parts of the track played.
Personally though, even if it wasn’t, the price for the equipment wasn’t worth it for a difference that was only perceptible if I was listening for it. Not to mention it’s near impossible to find hires tracks from most bands. Most claiming to be hires are just converted low res tracks and thus have no actual difference in sound quality, the only difference being the file is way larger for no good reason.