What is Hi-Res Audio?

HowToAV.tv takes a look at Hi-Res Audio (also known as High Resolution Audio) with Meridian Audio education manager Hugo Fitzjohn.

What is Hi-Res Audio?What is High Resolution Audio?

High Resolution Audio (aka Hi-Res Audio or High Res Audio) is the latest develeopment in high quality sound reproduction for those looking to achieve the best music experience possible from their personal/residential sound system.


What is a High Res Audio Player? (or Source)

The main source (or media player) for Hi-Res Audio will normally be a streaming device or downloadbale files onto a hard drive to be played directly through the system from your desktop computer.

Streaming devices can include your smartphone, tablet or portable audio player, or files could be downloaded to a professional AV receiver.


What hardware do I need for Hi-Res Audio?

The Japan Audio Society has created a Hi-Res Audio standard which spells out the requirements for High Resolution Audio equipment. Approved products will bear the Hi-Res Audio logo.

The equipment - such as loudspeakers, amplification, processors and media players - needs to support a sampling frequency of 96kHz to 192kHz at 24 bit.

Hi-Res Audio Sampling Rates


Will Hi-Res Audio transmit over ethernet or wifi?

With a robust, high performance network in place (Cat6 or 4G for example), streaming high res audio over ethernet or a wifi network is unlikely to experience any problems.

High Resolution Audio files can also be be 'packed' using MQA (Master Quality Authentictaed) software to provide high-quality lossless sound in a much more streamable format.


Is there a downside to Hi-Res Audio?

One issue with considering hi-res audio content is the significantly greater file sizes (though these can be overcome using MQA - see above).

A hi-res audio file can easily be in the realms of tens of megabytes in size and, therefore, just a small number of audio tracks can easily take up a lot of space on your media player or streaming device, should digital storage capacity be limited.


Let the CIE design team help with your next Audio system

Need help setting up a hi-res audio system? The CIE Team can help!CIE's award-winning team of AV and systems integration experts provides a unique total project management service to the UK installer/integrator market.

Our AV experts offer a wide range of added-value services above and beyond the expectations of many other distributors including; System Design, Product Specification, Wiring Diagrams, Rack Design & Build, System Configuration, Training and Onsite/Remote System Support.

Our customers can access any or all of these services - many of which are totally free-of-charge - on a project by project basis; benefitting from increased skill levels, specialists in new technologies & integration or simply to increase your resource for pre- and -post sales support.

Click to find out how the CIE team can help with your next hi-res audio system design or project management


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