Yes, they are essentially the master files that would normally be downsampled to 16-bit fit on a standard CD. However, the audiophile industry is plagued by snake oil salesmen and relies heavily on the placebo effect to sell people fantastically overpriced equipment.

When the original engineers chose 44.1 KHz @ 16-bit as the CD standard, they did so because this allows the excess information that was originally recorded to be discarded without it impacting how it sounds to the human ear. If you are interested in reading an explanation of why there is every reason to be skeptical of hi-res audio, read this article by an engineer who worked on the FLAC and Vorbis digital audio formats.