I'm not sure why this exists either. Most consumers benefit far more from improving the acoustic system (speakers, headphone, room) than the playback system.

I'm not sure why this exists either. Most consumers benefit far more from improving the acoustic system (speakers, headphone, room) than the playback system. Once you have $200 headphones or $500 speakers and $500 room treatment, you might be able to hear a difference with lossless or 24-bit audio, assuming that the source material was recorded properly and not overly processed. But until then, a fancy music player or even FLAC audio isn't going to help much.