Not entirely silly. Yes, the purported benefits of this high-fidelity audio are imaginary or even include undesirable traits. However, when most "remasters" of pop music today involve the dynamics being boosted to "loudness wars" standards for a target audience of people listening to the music through earbuds in the street, the 24/192 downloads or SACD releases are often the only way to hear the album with real dynamic range.

I’m not sure how big that market is these days, though. I recently decided to move from a block in the city to a house in the surrounding countryside purely to get a quieter listening environment and let me really enjoy the high-dynamic-range recordings I have – I listen to a lot of classical music, especially the avant-garde with its even greater range, e.g. the Ligeti cello concerto starting from pppppp. Yet even among my friends who are really obsessed with such music, seeking a better listening environment seemed an extreme measure to take.

So, people who a generation ago would have invested in higher-end equipment (not audiophile snake oil, just better speakers) and who would have sought silence are now giving in to listening to music on their phones or cheap computer speakers. It’s a big shift.