![]() AIFF: Created in 1988 by Apple, AIFF-or Audio Interchange File Format-is similar to WAV in that it offers lossless and uncompressed audio content that accurately represents the original in very high-quality sound.But music quality comes at a price, and in this case, the huge files make WAV cumbersome to store and use. Uncompressed WAV files were used to create CDs and are still one of the most widely used formats due to the superior sound quality. Again, a true hi-res audio listening experience relies on near-perfect alignment of the right parts. Each file type has its pros and cons, and the pros can quickly flip to cons when file formats meet an unsupportive device or streaming service. The file format of your audio content will play an outsized role in its sound quality. Its long-awaited lossless service, Spotify Hi-Fi, has yet to be released.ĥ Common high-resolution audio file types Notably absent from this roster, at least for now, is streaming heavyweight Spotify. Apple Music entered the lossless audio game with its own hi-res streaming music service, joining the ranks of Amazon Music HD, Tidal, Qobuz, Primephonic, and Idagio. If you can do without the bells and whistles, there are more affordable models like Sony’s latest iteration of the classic Walkman, the NW-A55L. Some, like the Astell & Kern A&futura SE180, come with DAC (digital-to-analog converter) to use in conjunction with your smartphone and headphones. The latest crop of high-resolution portable music players are compatible with FLAC, MP3, AAC, DSD, and other formats. Mac users in particular have easy access to hi-res audio via Apple Music. You can easily shop for and download high-resolution music on your computer, which generally has more compatibility with high-res audio file formats than portable devices. Generally, as long as you have the storage, you can listen offline or play high-res audio content from the music services that offer it. But some formats, like WAV, can’t be played natively and require workarounds. iPhone users can play FLAC AAC, AIFF, MP3, Apple’s own ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), and others. ![]() ![]() Android phones are much less fussy when it comes to compatibility and work with a range of hi-res file formats such as MP3, FLAC, AAC, WAV, MP2, OGG, and FLAC. Where can you play hi-res audio?ĭepending on your listening preferences and budget, there are plenty of ways for you to hear high-resolution music. In the end, the Adele lamenting lost love over your AirPods is a very compressed Adele, without all the nuance of the original recording. The scope and richness of the original recording are diminished in order to shrink the audio file to make it easier for streaming and downloading. This file reduction is known as lossy compression. When you listen to audio through services like Spotify, which uses a mid-quality file format known as Ogg Vorbis, the audio file you hear has been compressed to make it easier to stream. Similarly, high-resolution audio can also make a huge difference in how you experience a podcast, enhancing voice clarity and adding extra polish to music and effects. That’s why, with high-resolution music, you hear every artist intended breath, squelch, and bump with a depth and crispness you can’t get from lesser audio formats. The higher the bit depth and sample frequency of the track, the better it is at relaying to the listener all of the information from the original recording. ![]() For perspective, most high-resolution audio content is in the range of 24-bit/96kHz and can even go as high as 192kHz. So in the CD-standard measure, there are 16 bits per sample and 44,100 samples per second. ![]() In that figure, bit depth refers to the amount of data in each sample sample frequency, or sample rate, refers to the number of times per second a sound is sampled. The standard measure of CD quality is 16-bit/44.1kHz. Their definition: “lossless audio capable of reproducing the full spectrum of sound from recordings which have been mastered from better than CD quality (48 kHz/20-bit or higher) music sources which represent what the artists, producers, and engineers originally intended." What are the benefits of high-resolution audio?Ĭompared to compressed audio files like the commonly used AAC and MP3 formats, hi-res audio formats provide a much higher quality listening experience. While the concept of high-resolution audio has been around for quite some time, it wasn’t until 2014 that the Recording Industry Association of America joined with the Consumer Electronics Association, Digital Entertainment Group, and the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing to officially define high-resolution audio. High-resolution audio, sometimes referred to as HD or hi-res audio, delivers sound quality that’s as close to the original source recording as possible. ![]()
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