Hi-Res Audio

Hi-Res Audio (High-resolution audio) is a high-resolution digital sound.

Unlike HD (high-definition video), there is no single standard for high definition audio.

In 2014, the Digital Entertainment Group, Consumer Electronics Association, and The Recording Academy, together with music labels, officially defined Hi-Res Audio: “Lossless sound that can reproduce the entire spectrum of recordings, and was prepared and transferred from a better source, than a CD. "

Simply put, Hi-Res audio refers to music files that have a higher sampling rate and / or bitrate than a CD that is defined at 16 bit / 44.1 kHz. The sampling frequency (or sampling frequency) refers to the number of times that a signal per second is received during the analog-to-digital conversion. The more bits, the more accurately the signal can be measured in the first case, so the transition from 16 bits to 24 bits can provide a noticeable leap in quality.

Hi-Res audio files typically use 96 kHz or 192 kHz and 24-bit sampling rates. There may also be 88.2 kHz and 176.4 kHz files.

Hi-Res has one drawback: file size. One track can be tens of megabytes in size and several albums can quickly eat up free space on your mobile device. They can also be downloaded over Wi-Fi and mobile Internet for a long time.

Hi-Res audio file formats

There are several basic file formats that support high-resolution digital audio:

WAV (WAVeform Audio File Format): The standard format for all CDs. Excellent sound quality without compression, which means a huge file size (especially Hi-Res files). It has poor metadata support (album cover, artist information, and song title).

AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format): This is an alternative to Apple's WAV format, but with better metadata support. The format is lossless and without compression (also large files), but not massively popular.

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec): This lossless audio compression format supports Hi-Res sample rate, takes up about half the size of the WAV format and saves metadata. It is free and widely supported (only not in Apple products). It is considered the preferred format for downloading and storing music albums in Hi-Res.

ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec): Apple's proprietary lossless compression format. It also plays Hi-Res sound, saves metadata and is half as much WAV. Used on Apple devices.
DSD (Direct Stream Digital): Single-bit format used in Super Audio CD media. Its sampling frequency can be 2.8mHz, 5.6mHz and 11.2mHz, which is many times superior to a regular CD. The format is not widespread.

MQA (Master Quality Authenticated): This is a new format introduced in 2014, used mainly for streaming music in Hi-Res. MQA files can be packaged inside any lossless compression container such as FLAC, WAV or ALAC. To decode MQA files, you will need compatible hardware — a network audio player, portable music player, or software.

What is the advantage of Hi-Res audio?

The main advantage of high-resolution audio files, of course, is superior sound quality compared to compressed and standard audio formats. To illustrate why Hi-Res should sound better than MP3s, let's compare their bit rates. The highest quality MP3 file has a bit rate of 320 kbps, while a 24-bit / 192 kHz Hi-Res audio file has a data rate of 9216 kbps. The music CD is 1411 Kbps.

Using lossy compression means that data is lost during the encoding process and resolution is sacrificed to a smaller file size. This affects the sound quality - MP3 format (and the like) does not fully reveal the potential of our favorite songs.

However, for most people, the MP3 format sound is good enough, especially when listening to music on the go, in the background, etc. For audiophiles, even CD quality is not enough, so many music connoisseurs still prefer the pure analog sound of vinyl records.

Therefore, Hi-Res files 24 bit / 96 kHz or 24 bit / 192 kHz are designed to more accurately reproduce the sound with which musicians and recording engineers worked in the studio.

Hi-Res Audio in INOI

All of our devices running Android 8 and above support Hi-Res Audio.

To enable this function, you need to go to "Settings", select "System", then "About phone", 5 times click on "Build number", you will turn on "Developer mode". Next, go into this mode in the "System", turn on the LDAC audio codec for Bluetooth.

You can always enjoy the quality of music with INOI!