Appeared:
The Androgynous on June 3, 2014
Have you noticed that since switching from listening to CDs to your Ipod or other MP3 player, the quality of the sound of your music has gone down?
Unfortunately, many people might not have even realized, or their ears finally just adjusted to the change so now it just seems normal. Either way you are likely listening to sub-par sounding music. But, even if you didn’t notice the low-quality of MP3s, audiophiles all over have been pushing for years for higher quality music downloads to become mainstream, and this year might finally be the year for that to happen.
Let’s take a step back and talk about why MP3s don’t sound that great and what High-Resolution Audio (HRA or High-Res) actually is.
The MP3 format was an amazing technological achievement and it revolutionized the music industry as well as the way we now listen to music; but, like any new product or idea, there are always downsides. MP3 made it easier to buy, store, and carry all of your music with you, in a way that we had never seen before. But, in order to do that, some of the quality of music had to go. Why? MP3 is a file format that compresses the data and in order to do that, it has to basically get rid of some of the higher resolution information in the music itself. It keeps the most important and “necessary” sounds, but you lose some of the depth and intricacies to the music. Yet, even with the “lossy data compression”, the file format has become the industry standard for downloads because it does make it simple for us to haul around our entire music collections and have it at our fingertips anytime and anywhere. Do you remember hauling around your 200 CD Case-Logic case or am I dating myself?
So why do audiophiles, many major music labels and musicians support High-Resolution Audio over MP3s?
Simply stated, it sounds much better! If you were a musician, wouldn’t you want people to hear how amazing you sound, too? I know I would! Yet, until recently there hasn’t been many options for those of us who have wanted better sounding music. Really, probably the easiest option you had was to buy actual CDs and put them into Itunes (or some other music program) at the highest quality rate available. Fortunately, the movement for HRA has been growing and over the past few years there have been some updates to the digital resolution formats for audio. Now you can actually download High-Resolution Audio files, but finding the music you want can be somewhat difficult!
High-Resolution Audio does not have a set-in-stone definition or “requirements” in order for something to be called High-Resolution unlike the requirements that are set for HD video. Yet, basically everyone will agree that HRA is music that has a higher bit depth and sampling frequency than a regular CD. A CD is 16-bit and 44.1kHz, while HRA files will have a 96kHZ or 192kHz at 24-bit. (If you want to go in to this information a bit more in depth, check out the High-Resolution Audio Wiki page and bounce around for a minute!) How much better is HRA than MP3? Here’s an easy example: the highest MP3 bitrate is 320kbps, but a 24-bit/192kHz file is transferred at a 9216kbps rate! Huge difference! Even a CD is transferred at a rate of 1411 kbps, which is significantly higher. So to simplify, HRA is a digital audio file that has higher quality sound than a CD. It is supposed to be a “lossless” file that has the ability to sound as the music sounded when it was played in real life.
Some of the HRA file formats include FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) which are both compressed in a way that no information is lost (at least in theory). Other formats available include WAV, AIFF, and DSD (which is used as the format for Super Audio CDs). FLAC tends to be the most popular HRA format available at the moment mainly because it has better meta-data support (which helps ensure that your songs have titles as well as artist information attached to them). All of these file formats have their pros and cons, but the issue you will run into is actually finding them to download (at least legally…) and then having the right player to play them on that has the capability to play the file.
So where you can download High-Resolution Audio. The first is a website called HDTracks. This is probably the best one I have seen that has the most “mainstream” music. The company calls itself the world’s largest catalogue of high-res audio files. So, this is probably where I would recommend starting if you are interested in moving on from MP3 to HRA files.
Other sites include:
- Bleep.com : which offers mainly independent music
- Bowers & Wilkins : which is a subscription service
- Linn Records
As you can see, the availability is pretty limited as of now if you are looking for High-Resolution Audio, but luckily things are beginning to look up for the HRA movement!
Sony, who seems to be the company leading the Ultra-High Definition/4K video movement also appears to be leading the High-Resolution Audio movement as well. Sony recently announced a new line of HRA products, and with Sony jumping on the bandwagon it is highly likely that the rest of the industry will feel pressure to move forward with it as well.
Another big development in the High-Res world is the Neil Young company, Pono. They are currently developing the PonoPlayer which is a new audio player that is similar to an MP3 player, but is specifically designed to support High-Resolution Audio. Pono Music is currently working on getting everything going and you will be able to download HRA music from all major music company labels from their site. You can even pre-order a PonoPlayer to help “kickstart” the movement. Check out their website and read the FAQ to get the entire scoop on the exciting new company. Pono has reportedly been set to launch later this year.
Not only has Sony jumped on board along with the up-and-coming Pono brand, but some of the new smartphones even support High-Resolution Audio right out of the box including the LG G2 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Not only that, but the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has now put its weight behind HRA. The president of CEA, Gary Shapiro stated last year that
“[t]he time is right for our organization to explore new avenues to help promote this exciting new technology. Recent market trends and research indicates that consumers are poised to embrace high-resolution audio, creating tremendous new market opportunities.”He also further promoted the technology by saying that “every major music label has expressed support for HRA, including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music group, in addition to leading independent labels.”
High-Resolution Audio appears to be the next big wave in audio and music technology, and I for one am extremely excited!
I miss having the high quality sound of CDs everywhere I play my music, yet I am not about to haul around that big piece of luggage full of my old CDs! I want to hear the deep and intricate textures of my music again yet still have the portability, accessibility, and ease of an MP3 player! I sure do hope that High-Resolution Audio becomes the standard as soon as possible, and if the trends are as they appear, it looks like 2014 might just be the year that happens!
If you would like a quick explanation from someone with a GREAT English accent, check out this video from SonyHowTo:
What questions do you have about HRA files or products? Are you excited for this new wave of better quality music to come? I’d LOVE to hear from you!
I absolutely love the Sony BDP line of players including the
Also a good deal is the 
Macklemore then came out trying to get everyone to believe that his costume was just random parts and pieces that happened to make up a costume that suspiciously resembled what old anti-Semitic propaganda portrayed Jewish people to look like, which Seth Rogen (proudly jewish) did not approve of.
lindseysmusings 