Whether or not you agree that 24/96 audio sounds better, there's no doubt that the lossless downloads offered by sites like HDtracks.com will sound better than the same songs as mp3s from Amazon.

But that advantage has just ramped up to a whole new level.

HDtracks have recently released 2012 remasters of Green Day albums like "American Idiot". They're analogue masters, they're available in 24/96 lossless and they have more dynamics than the original CD releases - the song I tested in the video above registers a very respectable DR10 versus the original CD's wimpy, over-compressed DR5. And the mastering engineer may surprise you !

The difference is noticeable - maybe not a complete revelation (this is a Chris Lord-Alge mix, after all) - but some people have tried to tell me in the past that music like this or Foo Fighters "needs" a crushed, distorted loudness-war sound.

It's not true.

Even Green Day sound better with more dynamics.

This is exactly the kind of re-master I was hoping for when I first heard about the Apple's Mastered For iTunes guidelines - lets hope there are many more to come !

In this video I use a great new ITU Loudness Meter plugin called LCast, made by MeterPlugs. To try it yourself, click here.