It applies a digital fingerprint to guarantee a file was sourced from the original master recording. A new lossless codec of about one-third the size of FLAC. ALAC is compatible with iTunes and other players, and is the recommended lossless format for iTunes.ĪPE is a free and very efficient lossless codec from Monkey's Audio.ĭSD (Direct Stream Digital) The high-resolution codec that originated with SACD (Super Audio CD) and commonly used for classical recordings. Oh, and if you're put off by the nay-sayers who claim humans can't hear anything beyond 20kHz just take the opportunity to listen to some HRA tracks and see – or hear – for yourself what a difference it makes.Īs Hi-Res Audio is an umbrella term for lossless audio, there are a number of file formats that can be used to house a song.ĪLAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) and FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) are studio-quality lossless digital-audio formats of similar size and take up less room on a computer than AIFF and WAV files. Of course, it's important to choose your equipment carefully and to understand what it is that makes HRA different. Fueled by increasingly more affordable storage, better-quality playback hardware and faster, more affordable broadband and 4G downloading, HRA is arguably no longer prohibitively too expensive, nor are its files too large to download and store when compared with MP3.
There's also the fact that to listen to HRA you need the right hardware and software, with most playback devices including mobile phones, portable music players and laptops not equipped as standard to get the full benefit.Įven the world's most dominant multi-room music provider Sonos resolutely refuses to embrace Hi-Res Audio – because it says it's not mainstream enough – but others including the likes of Bose do.īut the barriers are starting to crumble.
The difference is that it’s becoming more accessible than ever.ĭespite sounding pretty amazing, it's not hard to understand the slow update of HRA – after all, the music files are a fair bit larger than MP3 or iTunes' AAC so they take longer to download and can gobble storage on mobile devices like penguins tucking into a fish supper.Ĭompared with iTunes and Amazon MP3 files too, HRA tracks are more expensive to buy and most popular digital music vendors don't even sell Hi-Res Audio tunes (yet).
It has actually been around for over a decade and has a growing number of dedicated fans willing to fork out a bit more cash for the privilege of listening to Hi-Fi quality tunes both at home and on the go. Hi-Res Audio (HRA) is lossless audio capable of reproducing the full range of sound from recordings that have been mastered from better-than-CD quality music sources, a sound that closely replicates the quality that the musicians and engineers were working with in the studio at the time of recording.ĭespite HRA recently gaining popularity, it isn't new.
Here's why, and how, Hi-Res Audio could be the upgrade that makes perfect sense for superior sonics across all your devices, including your phone.
As audiophile sound becomes more mainstream, Hi-Res Audio is looking like an increasingly attractive prospect.