Sounds of science: Japan leads push for high-res audio

Audio purists have long complained that digitised music has to be compressed so much to fit into the standard mp3 file format that it sounds far removed from how the musician or studio engineer intended. A lot of data is lost in the compression, especially when compared with analogue formats like the vinyl record. By contrast, high-res digital music has a sampling frequency – the number of times every second that the data is encoded – around four times that of a CD. This means that more musical detail is captured, resulting in a far richer sound – provided the player is able to handle the higher quality, which most smartphones today cannot. Sony is hoping to set the agenda again with “high-res” audio.

I think (order numbers) will continue to rise. In the future high-res audio will become standard.

Taku Kurosawa, employee at Japanese high-res audio download site e-Onkyo

The Japanese tech giant is betting that music of superior quality to compact discs is about to leave the niche world of audiophiles and go mainstream. High-res audio products may have only been available in Japan for one year, but they already account for over a fifth of Sony’s audio sales in Japan, the company says. Now it is aiming to increase this figure to 30 percent by next spring. Sony might be the biggest company to take the high-res plunge, but they’re not the first, with websites such as HDtracks.com and smaller, specialist high-res audio makers like Astell and Kern already catering to discerning music fans. Some buyers are waiting for a device being developed by musician Neil Young, who is expected to release his own high-res portable player called Pono later this year.

Technology high-res audio