High-resolution audio

File:High-resolution audio.svg

High-resolution audio is generally used to refer to audio files that have a higher sample rate and/or bit depth than that of Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA), which operates at 44.1 kHz/16-bit.{{cite web|last=Aguilar|first=Mario|title=What Is High-Resolution Audio?|url=https://gizmodo.com/what-is-high-resolution-audio-1252637824|work=Gizmodo|publisher=Gawker Media|access-date=17 March 2014|date=June 2013|quote=High-resolution audio is a new industry marketing term}}

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in cooperation with the Consumer Electronics Association, DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, and The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, formulated the following definition of high-resolution audio in June 2014: "lossless audio capable of reproducing the full spectrum of sound from recordings which have been mastered from better than CD quality music sources which represent what the artists, producers and engineers originally intended."{{cite web |title=High Resolution Audio Initiative Gets Major Boost with New "Hi-Res MUSIC" Logo and Branding Materials for Digital Retailers |url=https://www.riaa.com/high-resolution-audio-initiative-gets-major-boost-with-new-hi-res-music-logo-and-branding-materials-for-digital-retailers/ |website=The Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA) |access-date=21 August 2018|date=2015-06-23 }}

File formats capable of storing high-resolution audio include FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, MQA and DSD (the format used by SACD).{{cite web |title=High-resolution audio: everything you need to know |url=http://www.whathifi.com/news/high-resolution-audio-everything-you-need-to-know |work=What Hi-Fi? |publisher=Haymarket Publishing |access-date=11 October 2016}}

File:SACDlogo.svg

File:DVD-Audio Logo.svg

One of the first attempts to market high-resolution audio was High Definition Compatible Digital in 1995, an encoding/decoding technique using standard CD audio.{{cite web|url=http://hometoys.com/emagazine.php?url=/ezine/08.12/russo/index.htm |title=Home Technology eMagazine - Classic Home Toys Installment #19 The Final CD Format: HDCD |publisher=HomeToys |access-date=2012-08-05 |quote=HDCD is capable of higher quality sound reproduction because HDCD encodes the equivalent of 20 bits worth of data |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318122826/http://hometoys.com/emagazine.php?url=%2Fezine%2F08.12%2Frusso%2Findex.htm |archive-date=2014-03-18 }} This was followed by two more optical disc formats claiming sonic superiority over CD-DA: SACD in 1999, and DVD-Audio in 2000. These formats offer additional benefits such as multi-channel surround sound. Following a format war, none of these achieved widespread adoption.

Following the rise in online music retailing at the start of the 21st century, high-resolution audio downloads were introduced by HDtracks starting in 2008.{{cite web|title=Definition of:high-resolution audio|url=https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/57530/high-resolution-audio|work=PCMag|publisher=Ziff Davis|access-date=18 March 2014|quote=HDtracks pioneered high-resolution audio via download}}{{cite web |last1=Lander |first1=David |title=Norman Chesky of HDtracks and Chesky Records |url=https://www.stereophile.com/content/norman-chesky-hdtracks-and-chesky-records |website=Stereophile.com |access-date=2019-01-09 |date=2014-10-21}}

Further attempts to market high-resolution audio on optical disc followed with Pure Audio Blu-ray in 2009, and High Fidelity Pure Audio in 2013.{{cite web|title=Universal Music bets on consumer longing for quality with hi-fi Pure Audio|url=http://www.dvd-and-beyond.com/display-article.php?article=1935|work=DVD & Beyond|publisher=Globalcom Limited|access-date=4 January 2014}} Competition in online high-resolution audio retail stepped-up in 2014 with the announcement of Neil Young's Pono service.{{cite web|last=O'Malley Greenburg|first=Zack|title=How Neil Young's Pono Music Raised $2 Million in Two Days|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2014/03/13/how-neil-youngs-pono-music-raised-2-million-in-two-days/|work=Forbes|access-date=15 March 2014|quote=He’ll have some competition. Already, services like HDtracks.com have seen triple-digit growth in downloads of top-notch digital files}}

In 2014, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) announced a specification and accompanying "Hi-Res AUDIO" logo for consumer audio products, administered by the Japan Audio Society (JAS). The standard sets minimums of 96 kHz sample rate and 24-bit depth, and for analog processes, 40 kHz.{{cite web|url=https://www.jas-audio.or.jp/english/hi-res-logo-en|title=Japan Audio Society - Hi-Res Audio Logo|website=www.jas-audio.or.jp}} The related "Hi-Res Audio Wireless" standard additionally requires support for the LDAC, LHDC, LC3plus and MQair codecs. Sony reaffirmed its commitment towards the development in the high-resolution audio segment by offering a slew of Hi-Res Audio products.{{Cite web |url=https://discoverhiresaudio.com/#productsNav |title=Archived copy |access-date=2016-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201043148/http://www.discoverhiresaudio.com/#productsNav |archive-date=2018-12-01 |url-status=dead }}{{fv|date=May 2020}}

{{As of|2021}}, some music streaming services such as Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music, and Apple Music have options to enable the playback of high-resolution audio files.{{cite news |last=Cohen |first=Simon |url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/what-is-high-resolution-audio/ |title=What is hi-res audio and how can you experience it right now? |work=digitaltrends |date=2021-05-18 |accessdate=2021-11-13 }}

{{see also|Super Audio CD#Sound quality}}

Whether there is any benefit to high-resolution audio over CD-DA is controversial, with some sources claiming sonic superiority:

• "The DSD process used for producing SACDs captures more of the nuances from a performance and reproduces them with a clarity and transparency not possible with CD."{{cite press release|url=http://www.mariinskylabel.com/page/faqs |title=What are the benefits of SACD? |work=Mariinsky Label FAQ |quote=this album is available to buy on SACD |access-date=January 1, 2014 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231035730/http://www.mariinskylabel.com/page/faqs |archive-date=December 31, 2013 }}—The Mariinsky record label of the Mariinsky Ballet (formerly Kirov Ballet), St. Petersburg, Russia, that sells Super Audio CDs (SACDs)
• "The claimed main-benefit of high-resolution audio files is superior sound quality [...] 24-bit/96 kHz or 24-bit/192 kHz files should, therefore, more closely replicate the sound quality that the musicians and engineers were working with in the studio."—What Hi-Fi?
• "...music professionals with access to first generation data have widely reported subjectively better sound, and a meta-analysis of previously published listening tests comparing high resolution to CD found a clear, though small, audible difference that significantly increased when the listening tests included standard training (i.e., with experience in listening)."—Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Volume 67, Issue 5

...and with other opinions ranging from skeptical to highly critical:

• "If [the music business] cared about sound quality in the first place, they would make all of the releases sound great in every format they sell: MP3, FLAC, CD, iTunes, or LP."—cnet{{cite web|last=Guttenberg|first=Steve|title=What's up with Neil Young's Pono high-resolution music system?|url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-57608168-47/whats-up-with-neil-youngs-pono-high-resolution-music-system/|work=c{{!}}net|publisher=CBS Interactive Inc.|access-date=18 March 2014}}
• "Impractical overkill that nobody can afford"—Gizmodo
• "A solution to a problem that doesn't exist, a business model based on willful ignorance and scamming people."—Xiph.org{{cite web|title=24/192 Music Downloads and why they make no sense|url=https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html|author=Christopher "Monty" Montgomery|author-link=Chris Montgomery|publisher=Xiph.Org Foundation|date=25 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721192024/https://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html|access-date=21 July 2018|archive-date=2018-07-21}}

Business magazine Bloomberg Businessweek suggests that caution is in order with regard to high-resolution audio: "There is reason to be wary, given consumer electronics companies' history of pushing advancements whose main virtue is to require everyone to buy new gadgets."{{cite web|last=Brustein|first=Joshua|title=Music Snobs, Neil Young Has a Product for You|url=http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-17/neil-youngs-ponos-service-and-player-is-for-moneyed-audiophiles|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317140238/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-17/neil-youngs-ponos-service-and-player-is-for-moneyed-audiophiles|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 17, 2014|work=BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK|publisher=BLOOMBERG L.P.|access-date=17 March 2014}}

High-resolution files that are downloaded from niche websites that cater to audiophile listeners often include different mastering in the release{{snd}} thus many comparisons of CD to these releases are evaluating differences in mastering, rather than bit depth.{{cite web|url=http://productionadvice.co.uk/nine-inch-nails/|title=Nine Inch Nails' "Hesitation Marks" - Audiophile, or AudioFAIL ?|date=4 September 2013|website=Production Advice}}

Most early papers using blind listening tests concluded that differences are not audible by the sample of listeners taking the test.{{cite web|title=Audibility of a CD-Standard A/D/A Loop Inserted into High-Resolution Audio Playback|url=http://drewdaniels.com/audible.pdf|publisher=J. Audio Eng. Soc.|access-date= 24 March 2015}} Blind tests have shown that musicians and composers are unable to distinguish higher resolutions from 16-bit audio at 48 kHz.{{cite news |url=http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2015/08/21/on-a-teste-la-musique-en-haute-definition_4711583_4408996.html |title=We tested ... the music in high definition |author=Nicolas Six|newspaper=Le Monde.fr |date=21 August 2015 }} One 2014 paper showed that dithering using outdated methods{{efn|Rectangular unshaped dither, rather than the industry-standard triangular or shaped dither.}} produces audible artifacts in blind listening tests.{{cite web|title=The Audibility of Typical Digital Audio Filters in a High-Fidelity Playback System|url=https://secure.aes.org/forum/pubs/conventions/?ID=416|publisher=J. Audio Eng. Soc.|access-date= 9 November 2015|last1=Jackson|first1=Helen M.|last2=Capp|first2=Michael D.|last3=Stuart|first3=J. Robert}}

Joshua Reiss performed a meta-analysis on 20 of published tests, saying that trained listeners could distinguish between hi-resolution recordings and their CD equivalents under blind conditions. In a paper published in the July 2016 issue of the AES Journal,{{cite journal|title=A Meta-Analysis of High Resolution Audio Perceptual Evaluation|journal = Journal of the Audio Engineering Society|volume = 64|issue = 6|pages = 364–379|publisher=J. Audio Eng. Soc.|date = 2016-06-27|last1 = Reiss|first1 = Joshua D.|doi = 10.17743/jaes.2016.0015|doi-access = free}} Reiss says that, although the individual tests had mixed results, and that the effect was "small and difficult to detect," the overall result was that trained listeners could distinguish between high-resolution recordings and their CD equivalents under blind conditions: "Overall, there was a small but statistically significant ability to discriminate between standard-quality audio (44.1 or 48 kHz, 16 bit) and high-resolution audio (beyond standard quality). When subjects were trained, the ability to discriminate was far more significant." Hiroshi Nittono pointed out that the results in Reiss's paper showed that the ability to distinguish hi resolution audio from CD quality audio "was only slightly better than chance".{{cite journal|publisher=Nature|author=Hiroshi Nittono|title=High-frequency sound components of high-resolution audio are not detected in auditory sensory memory|journal=Scientific Reports|year=2020|volume=10|issue=1|page=21740|doi=10.1038/s41598-020-78889-9|pmid=33303915|pmc=7730382|bibcode=2020NatSR..1021740N}}

Some technical explanations for sonic superiority cite the improved time domain impulse response of the anti-aliasing filter allowed by higher sample rates. This reduces the energy spread in time from transient signals such as plucking a string or striking a cymbal. {{cite web|last1=Story|first1=Mike|title=A Suggested Explanation For (Some Of) The Audible Differences Between High Sample Rate And Conventional Sample Rate Audio Material |date=September 1997|url=http://sdg-master.com:80/lesestoff/aes97ny.pdf |publisher=dCS Ltd|archive-date=28 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091128021651/http://sdg-master.com:80/lesestoff/aes97ny.pdf|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last1=Robjohns|first1=Hugh|title= MQA Time-domain Accuracy & Digital Audio Quality|url= https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mqa-time-domain-accuracy-digital-audio-quality|website=soundonsound.com|date=August 2016|publisher= Sound On Sound|archive-date=10 March 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230310175409/https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mqa-time-domain-accuracy-digital-audio-quality|url-status=live}}

• High fidelity
• Loudness war

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Category:Sound