what is Hi-Res high-resolution audio source and purchase guide

Hi-Res past and present

High-Resolution Audio means high-resolution music, referred to as Hi-Res Audio. It is a general term for music file types whose quality exceeds the previous CD level, and is also one of the important roles of modern digital streaming music.

The sound source specification war since the last century

 

In the 1980s, under the leadership of Sony Digital Audio Stationary Head and Mitsubishi ProDigi, digital recording quickly became the mainstream in the 1980s. In 1982, SONY and Philips jointly developed the CD carrier, making digital audio gain the favor of consumers. Soon after recording technology entered digitalization, the recording specifications of record companies exceeded the specifications of the quality of CDs sold in the market.

Limited by the storage technology at the time, if the recording is carried out according to the recording specifications, a single track may be equivalent to the storage capacity of a CD. CDs have never had the above-mentioned digital files in the market.

 

 

The first commercial music medium Super Audio CD that “exceeds CD quality” is known as SACD. As early as 1999 AD, it was jointly published by SONY and Philips. Unlike the PCM code used in CD, SACD innovatively uses DSD code, which has a higher response frequency and dynamic range.

 

As for the competitor DVD Audio that will debut later, it still uses PCM encoding, but it has a sampling frequency and sampling rate several times that of the CD specification. Both the response frequency and dynamic range have been greatly improved. Therefore, in the specification war of high-resolution music, DVD Audio has benefited from the use of CD recording technology. Many record companies and audio equipment companies do not want to restrict the patents of SONY and Philips, which makes suppliers more willing to use DVD Audio.

At that time, the DVD cracking technology was mature, so the security of DVD Audio was questioned by manufacturers. In addition, SACD has the characteristic that it cannot be read by a computer. SONY, Philips and many of its record companies began to implement SACD, gradually becoming high-resolution The war of musical specifications gains an advantage.

In 2007, after DVD Audio released its last audio source album, it ended the high-resolution music specification competition on physical media. Nevertheless, why SACD has not yet become a common specification in the market? One of the reasons is that most consumers cannot distinguish the difference in sound quality between SACD and mainstream CD, and even SACD cannot play music through CD players. It must be equipped with a dedicated SACD player. At that time, the cost of SACD players was high, which further increased consumption. People step into the threshold of SACD.

 

Since the rise of the iPod in the early 21st century, many major changes have taken place in the recording industry. Digital streaming music files have gradually replaced the traditional physical media. At this time, most of the digital streaming music files sold are destructively compressed mp3 or AAC files. Mainstream. Although there was still a huge gap in listening quality between digital streaming files and physical media at that time, the price and portability of digital streaming music files far exceeded that of physical media, and most consumers did not have the ability to distinguish clearly. Therefore, under the trade-off between convenience and sound quality, digital streaming music files gradually gain market advantages.

With the popularization of high-resolution audio equipment, some consumers are no longer satisfied with destructively compressed files. In 2008, Hdtrack, an American online music company, first launched the download of high-resolution music files. After that, digital music files that were sold at a selling point that surpassed CD sound quality were gradually opened for purchase on major online music websites.

Until 2014, the Japan Electronics and Information Industry Technology Association (JEITA) officially defined High-Resolution Audio. The video giant SONY vigorously promoted the “Hi-Res” trademark and announced the arrival of a new era of “Hi-Res”!

JEITA’s definition of high-resolution music

Sampling frequency or sampling rate, one of the two must exceed the CD specification, and no one shall be lower than the CD specification. The specification of CD is sampling frequency: 44.1kHz, bit depth: 16bit

 

• 24bit/44.1kHz (equivalent to CD sound quality/exceeds CD sound quality) → ○
• 24bit/48kHz (equivalent to CD sound quality / beyond CD sound quality) → ○
• 16bit/96kHz (exceeds CD sound quality/equal to CD sound quality) → ○
• 24bit/96kHz (exceeds CD sound quality/exceeds CD sound quality) → ○
• 16bit/48kHz (CD-like sound quality/CD-like sound quality) → ╳
• (48kHz is close to 44.1kHz and is regarded as the same level)

Japan Audio Association’s definition of high-resolution audio equipment

 

 

The Hi-Res logo was originally designed and used by SONY. Later, the “Audio Society of Japan” reached an agreement with SONY. SONY transferred the logo to the Japan Audio Association for free and used it as a certification mark for high resolution audio equipment.

Any manufacturer that is a member of the Japan Audio Association, as long as its products meet the specifications of the Japan Audio Association, can put a logo on the product, indicating that the product corresponds to high-resolution audio.

<Analog>

A. The high-frequency frequency response performance of the recording microphone: it must be able to correspond to audio above 40kHz.

B. The high frequency playback performance of the amplifier: it must be able to correspond to audio above 40kHz.

C. High-frequency playback performance of speakers and headphones: must be able to correspond to audio above 40kHz.

＜Digital aspect＞

A. Recording format: FLAC or WAV file, sampling frequency above 24bit/96kHz.

B Input/output interface: It can correspond to files above 24bit/96kHz.

C. File playback: It can correspond to FLAC/WAV 24bit/96kHz and above files (if it is a recording equipment, it can correspond to one of FLAC/WAV).

D. Signal processing: It can process signals above 24bit/96kHz.

E. Digital-to-analog conversion: It can process signals above 24bit/96kHz. Others are based on the evaluation criteria of each manufacturer, and after auditory evaluation, it is determined whether the product is sufficient to bear the “Hi-Res” logo.

Purchase instruction of Japanese Hi-Res audio source sales website

Based on the fact that Chinese people’s familiarity with Japanese is not so high compared to English, this article introduces several ways to purchase Hi-Res audio sources in Japan for the reference of music lovers.

＜Mora＞

 

If you want to buy a few specific songs, you can check the desired album songs on the album page, and then go to the bottom of the page <select 択した曲を买い物かごに入れる> (add the selected songs to the shopping cart), then Go down to the shopping cart page.

 

After entering the shopping cart page, you need to check out directly, click on the “ご购入手続きへ进む” shown in the red circle in the picture (enter the purchase procedure).

 

If there are other albums to be purchased, you can choose ＜买い物を続ける＞ (Continue shopping), return to the album page to continue selection; If you choose to give up the purchase, you can click ＜Cancel＞ to cancel the purchase, or ＜今は买わない ＞Save it to the shopping cart and wait until the next purchase.

After entering the purchase page, you can drag to the bottom of the page to choose various payment methods. The most convenient is credit card payment. Of course, you can also choose to use other methods such as mora music card or WebMoney to pay in Japan.

 

After selecting the payment method, press <purchase confirmation する> (confirm purchase), you can purchase.

 

 

The above screen will appear after you press <purchase confirmation する> (confirm purchase), indicating that the system is in the process of payment. This screen may last from tens of seconds to several minutes, please wait patiently.

 

 

Next is the page that is ready to be downloaded. You must wait a few minutes for the preparation time.

 

When the above screen appears, it means that it is ready to download. Press <ダウンロード> (download) next to the song you want to download to start downloading.

 

Mora does not have the function of downloading all songs at the same time. Whether you are buying an album or a single track, you must click to download one by one.

 

The above screen appears after the download is complete, which means that the purchase procedure is complete.

 

 ＜OTOTOY＞

 

The OTOTOY purchase interface benefits from the English + Japanese presentation, which is simpler and easier to use than Mora’s pure Japanese interface.

 

First, select the audio source format you want to download on the album page, and then press <Add to Cart> to add the entire album to the shopping cart.

 

If you want to purchase a single song, you can select the audio source format you want to download behind each song, and then press <Add each of tracks to Cart> to add the selected song to the shopping cart.

 

After adding a song to the shopping cart, the number of songs that have been added to the shopping cart will appear in the <Cart> section on the upper right, and you will enter the shopping cart after pressing it.

 

As shown in the picture above, when you enter the shopping cart, pull down the page to the picture below.

 

 

Then click on the <Check out Total ￥2500 (Include Tax)> shown in the red circle to start the checkout procedure.

 

After confirming the checkout, immediately enter the page for selecting the payment method (as shown in the picture above), and pull the page down to the picture below.

 

The more convenient payment method in Taiwan is <クレジットカードのお支払い　 Total ￥2500> (Pay by credit card), of course, you can also choose to use other payment methods.

 

After selecting the payment method, enter the screen above, click <OK する> (OK) in the red circle to purchase from the payment method just selected.

 

After the purchase is successful, the OTOTOY server will first send a message to the inbox to inform consumers that the OTOTOY server is preparing to download the link. The registered mailbox will also receive a letter with the same content, and then OTOTOY will send another message. Inform that the download link is ready to be completed (as shown above).

Then click the URL link in the red circle above to start downloading. Considering the information related to the exposed account, the text has been whitened out. In fact, there will be a URL link in the red circle.

Because OTOTOY will consolidate all files into one compressed file, you don’t need to click to download them one by one, but the server preparation time will take longer than Mora.