Audiophilia (invented word?) is a mental disease, similar to necrophilia for example...
It's people that spend exorbitant amounts of money on equipment which provide little to no benefit over a decent common audio-replay device thinking that they have "better" years than everyone else, and show affection and attachment to that equipment, like it's the most precious thing they have in life.
I can agree that a BAD quality equipment, headphone or speaker can degrade the listening experience, but once you reach common Hi-Fi standards, there's simply no point in going further.
As for digital recording, there is a large difference between 128kbps mp3 and 192kbps, a smaller but also easily observable difference between 192kbps and 256kbps, and from there to FLAC or WAV 44Khz/16bit also a very tiny difference.
24 bit ? 96 khz ? Seriously, pointless for playback. They are only useful when transferring or mixing sound, because digital processing introduces distortion, which adds up. Using higher formats reduces that effect. But once the sound reached it's final format and gets mastered, 44khz which is double the upper limit for human ear and 16 bit resolution (65.5k signal levels) are WAY more than enough for the fidelity of our old prehistoric ear )
Actually, all these "High Def" things server ONE purpose... and one purpose only. To get more money out of the gullible buyer who "think" that if it's more expensive and has bigger numbers written on it, it MUST be better.
Yeah. Capitalism 101.