<i>But that difference wasn’t always a good thing. It was disappointing to hear a recording of Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma sound worse in studio master, as it exposed the fact that the orchestra and the tenor’s tracks were recorded separately in different environments. They sounded disconnected – something that is masked in the CD version.</i><p>That's similar to what happens with digital cameras and HDTV...you see a lot of detail that you couldn't with standard definition, and somehow a bit of the warmth and magic is lost. I remember reading an article by a television makeup artist about how HDTV changed their approach. On HD, you can now see small details like stubble, acne, and pores, so they end up putting on thicker foundation to smooth it out and make it more like standard definition. I wonder if HD audio will take a similar path, by "smoothing" out the audio to make it more like standard definition.