There's a well-known principle in auditory research that has shown that listeners typically perceive a recording played back at a louder volume as better in quality than the same recording at a lower volume. That's because the louder the playback, the more pressure generated by its sound waves. At a difference of just a few decibels, the listener may not necessarily be able to tell that one track is being played louder than the other, but subtle sounds in the recording will suddenly start to vibrate their eardrums more forcefully. The result will be that the louder track seems to have more clarity, breadth, and "impact," when in fact the only real difference is that it's being played a little louder.
Modern technology update:
Spatial surround codecs Dolby Atmos and DTS X need to be bit streamed to your AV receiver for them to work properly. You can't player decode them and output as PCM, as you could with older codecs.
Fun Fact. "HD", audio has been available on DVD since 2001 (at least), be it PCM or uncompressed DTS. E.g. Rurouni Kenshin SVWB-1316, Akira PIBA-1268, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, AVBA-14393. But if you're influenced by adverts, I suppose your ignorance could be understood. Imagine having been to space, and someone who hasn't, hands you a photo of our sky. As someone who owns, and by extension seen the renewals of Macross Plus, Perfect Blue, Cowboy Bebop, DYRL? (Yeah. THAT sleeve) ect. ect. this is the overwhelming feeling I'm left with after reading such talk.
