Kana Inagaki

An equivalent of the television industry’s big push for the so-called 4K TVs is happening in the audio industry. From artists, music labels to device makers, the buzz word these days is “high-resolution audio.”
For both the TV and music industry, the most vocal backer behind this new format is Sony. Since last September, the Japanese maker has rolled out more than 25 audio devices that play high-resolution audio including a $700 Walkman.
But what exactly does the phrase mean?
If 4K TVs claim to capture details from beads of sweat to rain drops, high-resolution audio promises to grasp deep bass tones to high-pitched sounds, including the moment when the singer takes a breath.
But who can tell the difference?
The tricky part about high-resolution audio is the ongoing debate on whether people can actually tell the difference. When it comes to comparing compressed music files on an MP3 player and high-resolution audio files on an expensive portable music player, many people would likely be able to notice the difference in sound quality. But it’s a tougher comparison when asking people to listen to the difference between CD quality music and high-resolution audio files.

2 thoughts on “Kana Inagaki

  1. shinichi Post author

    What Is High-Resolution Audio?

    By Kana Inagaki

    http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/07/21/what-is-high-resolution-audio/

    An equivalent of the television industry’s big push for the so-called 4K TVs is happening in the audio industry. From artists, music labels to device makers, the buzz word these days is “high-resolution audio.”

    For both the TV and music industry, the most vocal backer behind this new format is Sony. Since last September, the Japanese maker has rolled out more than 25 audio devices that play high-resolution audio including a $700 Walkman.

    But what exactly does the phrase mean?

    It’s actually only in June that the industry agreed on a definition. According to the Digital Entertainment Group, the Consumer Electronics Association, and The Recording Academy, high-resolution audio means “lossless audio that is capable of reproducing the full range of sound from recordings that have been mastered from better than CD quality music sources.”

    The common definition came after Sony launched a massive marketing blitz from last year featuring high-resolution audio. Other rivals such as Onkyo and Pioneer already had similar high-end devices on the market, but terms had varied and there was no major industry-wide consensus as was the case with TVs.

    And what is high-resolution audio in numbers?

    High-resolution audio is measured by bit depth and sample rate that are used in digital audio recording. The higher the number of bits, the closer the audio file is to the original sound. So in those terms, high-resolution audio typically refers to 96 kilohertz at 24 bits or something higher. In contrast, CDs have a sample rate of 44.1 khZ at 16 bits.

    The ability to store more of the original sound data also mean that high-resolution audio files are heavier than compressed music files, meaning slower downloads and shorter battery life for your portable music players.

    Still confused?

    If 4K TVs claim to capture details from beads of sweat to rain drops, high-resolution audio promises to grasp deep bass tones to high-pitched sounds, including the moment when the singer takes a breath.

    4K TVs, or ultra high-definition TVs, are TVs that have four times as many pixels as the industry-standard high definition.

    In the words of David Chesky, the founder of HDtracks, a U.S. digital-music store that offers high-resolution audio files: “High-resolution audio is like watching “2001: A Space Odyssey” on an 80-inch 4K as opposed to watching it on a 15-inch black and white TV.”

    But who can tell the difference?

    The tricky part about high-resolution audio is the ongoing debate on whether people can actually tell the difference. When it comes to comparing compressed music files on an MP3 player and high-resolution audio files on an expensive portable music player, many people would likely be able to notice the difference in sound quality. But it’s a tougher comparison when asking people to listen to the difference between CD quality music and high-resolution audio files.

    And for hard-core audiophiles, they say that even high-resolution audio doesn’t come close to the warmth of vinyl records.

    “It’s hard to describe but analog recording is smooth and natural while digital recording is too crisp and lacks warmth,” said Tento Koyama, a 19-year-old university student who was recently trying out Sony’s high-resolution audio Walkman.

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