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Difference between lossless compression and lossy compression.

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Difference between lossless compression and lossy compression.

Basically, the higher the kbps, the higher the sound quality in the sense that it is closer to the original sound.

Therefore, it is easy to think that it is only necessary to collect sound sources with high kbps.

However, since the amount of data will be large, it must actually be compressed.

That’s where two compression technologies come in.

Lossless compression (lossless compression)
Rossy compression (lossy compression)
About the uncompressed sound source
Let’s explain each compression technology.

We will also look at uncompressed sound sources.

Lossless compression (lossless compression)
Lossless compression has the advantage of retaining a large amount of information by compressing the data without damaging it.

In other words, the tendency is for the kbps value to be higher.

Of course, because it is compressed, the file size can be reduced to about half.

However, the capacity is considerably higher than the Rossie compression.

Lossy compression (lossy compression)
Rossy compression is famous for formats like mp3 and AAC.

These audio files cut and compress sounds that are inaudible to the human ear, which can save a lot of space.

However, even in the sense of cutting off the sound, it deviates from the original sound.

However, it is quite difficult to distinguish it from those without loss in the ears of ordinary people and in an environment where you can prepare.

Therefore, it is still used in many software and services, taking advantage of the reduction in size.

About the uncompressed sound source
It is no exaggeration to say that the audio file is the closest to the original sound.

Windows .wav and Mac OS .aiff are famous as uncompressed sound sources.

Uncompressed sound sources are so flexible that they can store data at any sample rate and bit rate.

So it is the best file format to record first.

But it goes without saying that the file size is large because it is not compressed.

Therefore, lossless compression, which can reduce the size and preserve the original data, is now popular.Difference between lossless compression (lossless compression) and lossy compression (lossy compression)
Basically, the higher the kbps, the higher the sound quality in the sense that it is closer to the original sound.

Therefore, it is easy to think that it is only necessary to collect sound sources with high kbps.

However, since the amount of data will be large, it must actually be compressed.

That’s where two compression technologies come in.

Lossless compression (lossless compression)
Rossy compression (lossy compression)
About the uncompressed sound source
Let’s explain each compression technology.

We will also look at uncompressed sound sources.

Lossless compression (lossless compression)
Lossless compression has the advantage of retaining a large amount of information by compressing the data without damaging it.

In other words, the tendency is for the kbps value to be higher.

Of course, because it is compressed, the file size can be reduced to about half.

However, the capacity is considerably higher than the Rossie compression.

Lossy compression (lossy compression)
Rossy compression is famous for formats like mp3 and AAC.

These audio files cut and compress sounds that are inaudible to the human ear, which can save a lot of space.

However, even in the sense of cutting off the sound, it deviates from the original sound.

However, it is quite difficult to distinguish it from those without loss in the ears of ordinary people and in an environment where you can prepare.

Therefore, it is still used in many software and services, taking advantage of the reduction in size.

About the uncompressed sound source
It is no exaggeration to say that the audio file is the closest to the original sound.

Windows .wav and Mac OS .aiff are famous as uncompressed sound sources.

Uncompressed sound sources are so flexible that they can store data at any sample rate and bit rate.

So it is the best file format to record first.

But it goes without saying that the file size is large because it is not compressed.

Therefore, lossless compression, which can reduce the size and preserve the original data, is now popular.

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High resolution compatible terminal

High resolution compatible terminal

In the case of the iPhone, it does not support the output of high-resolution sound sources.

Therefore, it is necessary to prepare a headphone amplifier equipped with a DAC that supports high resolution.

In the case of Android, there are terminals that support high resolution such as Xperia.

To enjoy high-resolution sound quality, you need to check whether the terminal that plays music is also compatible.

High resolution recommended elements
We will present specific recommended high resolution elements.

ACTIVE “CT10”
Let’s take a look at the appeal of the product.

ACTIVE “CT10”
ACTIVE CT10 [Cool White] High-resolution portable audio player with high sound quality
ACTIVE CT10 [Cool White] High-resolution portable audio player with high sound quality

19,800 yen (as of 08/27 01:10)
Amazon
Rakuten

ACTIVE “CT10” is a digital audio player that allows you to easily enjoy high resolution.

ACTIVE “CT10” has the following characteristics.

Achieves smooth operation despite its compact size
Astell & Kern exclusive sound quality
Up to 400GB expansion with MicroSD card
groovers will end on June 30, 2019
Let’s take a look at each feature.

Achieves smooth operation despite its compact size
Many people support the compactness of the ACTIVE “CT10”.

It’s smaller than most smartphones and fits in the palm of your hand, making it easy to carry.

And despite its small size, it uses a “quad-core CPU” for exceptional stability.

The “Quad Core CPU” has high processing power and offers smooth operation.

The processing power is important because it is high resolution, which usually has a large capacity.

Astell & Kern exclusive sound quality
ACTIVE “CT10” is a collection of Astell & Kern technical capabilities.

Astell & Kern is the original brand of IRIVER Korea and has developed many audio players compatible with Hi-Fi / Hi-Res sound sources.

Due to its high sound quality, it is now one of the standard brands of high-resolution players.

ACTIVE “CT10” boasts of sound quality because it requested development support from the IRIVER group company.

Up to 400GB expansion with MicroSD card
Since the capacity is 16GB, it is a little small to put a high resolution sound source.

However, since it supports MicroSD cards up to 400GB, it can be expanded up to 416GB in total.

It is sold separately, but if you want to put a lot of music on it, buy a MicroSD card.

High resolution has a large capacity.

groovers will end on June 30, 2019
ACTIVE “CT10” was able to buy a high resolution sound source directly from the player body.

However, it cannot be used now because the distribution site “groovers” has ended.

However, ACTIVE “CT10” can easily transfer music from your computer.

Just because “groovers” have finished doesn’t mean you can’t listen in high resolution.

Difference between analog data and digital data
Analog is a line.

Digital is a point.

Digital data can be brought closer to analog (line) by arranging points in succession.

The record is analog because it records continuous sound waves in the groove as is.

A CD divides continuous sound waves at regular intervals (sampling) and applies numerical values to each division (quantization).

Then the flow consists of converting the numerical value into digital data suitable for a computer (encoding).

In this way, digital data is only one point, so in theory it is further from the original sound than analog.

However, since it is indistinguishable to the human ear, it is possible to enjoy the sound digitally without any discomfort.

Over the limits of human hearing! High resolution doesn’t make sense?

Over the limits of human hearing! High resolution doesn’t make sense?

What is the limit of the ability to discriminate human sounds?

Although there are individual differences, the human audible range is said to be 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

The sampling frequency of the CD is 44.1 kHz.

In theory, this value can be reproduced up to 22.05 kHz of the original sound, so it can sufficiently cover the human audible range.

In that case, the question arises that high-resolution sound quality, which has higher specs than CDs, may not be audible to the human ear.

Actually, there are many negative opinions from a scientific point of view, and it remains controversial.

<Reference: High Resolution Audio-Wikipedia>

However, the sound is highly dependent on experience, so if you are interested, you should give it a try.

Necessary environment to enjoy high resolution
Whether it makes sense or not, there are a few things you need to prepare for to enjoy high resolution.

The required environment is as follows.

High resolution sound source
High-resolution compatible headphones / earphones / speakers
High resolution compatible terminal
Let’s explain each environment.

High resolution sound source
There are various media for high resolution audio sources.

The easiest of these is probably the Hi-Res Audio source that is delivered online.

If you are a high resolution distribution site, you can get many sources of sound.

Note that listening with high-resolution headphones will not result in high-resolution audio.

High-resolution compatible headphones / earphones / speakers
In addition to high-resolution audio sources, prepare items such as compatible headphones and earphones.

It is quick to check if there is a high resolution mark on the product package to see if it is compatible.

Please note that most wireless headphones do not support high resolution playback because they compress data during transmission.

In the case of wireless technology, only aptX / aptX HD compatible items or SONY LDAC compatible devices support high resolution.

In any case, the high-resolution branding is a milestone.

High resolution doesn’t make sense?

High resolution doesn’t make sense?

Sound quality comparison!

What is the difference between bit, khz and kbps? High resolution doesn’t make sense?
It is quick to judge whether the sound quality is good or bad from the data.

However, there are several factors that make up sound quality.

Therefore, in this article, I explained the sound quality in a rather broken way.

If you are a little interested in sound quality, check it out.

High-resolution sound quality and CD comparison
Over the limits of human hearing! High resolution doesn’t make sense?

Necessary environment to enjoy high resolution
High resolution sound source
High-resolution compatible headphones / earphones / speakers
High resolution compatible terminal
High resolution recommended elements
ACTIVE “CT10”
Difference between analog data and digital data
Difference between lossless compression (lossless compression) and lossy compression (lossy compression)
Lossless compression (lossless compression)
Lossy compression (lossy compression)
About the uncompressed sound source
Difference between bit, kHz (kilohertz) and kbps (Kirobuki PS)
The next three units are important for measuring sound quality.

little
kHz (kilohertz)
kbps (Kilobit per second)
Let’s briefly explain each unit.

What is a bit?
bit is the number of quantization bits.

Here, it is easy to understand if you think of it as “the resolution (fineness) of the sound itself”.

The higher the value of this bit, the smaller and finer the sound can be reproduced.

In other words, it is more faithful to the original sound.

However, there is a disadvantage that the amount of data increases when the bit is large.

What is kHz (kilohertz)?
kHz is the sampling frequency.

It’s easy to understand if you think of it as “the number of data used in the expression of sound per second”.

The higher this number, the greater the range that can be recorded.

Also, kHz is one of the numbers often used to express headphone specifications.

If you look at the specification table, you will often see numbers like “20Hz to 20kHz”.

This indicates the range of supported ranges.

The lower the number on the left, the better the bass can be heard, and the higher the number on the right, the greater the playback range.

What is kbps?
kbps is the so-called bit rate.

Also known as “bits per second” or “kilobits per second”.

Unit that expresses how many kilobits of data can be transmitted per second.

Kbps can be calculated using the following formula.

kbps = bit x kHz x number of channels

The number of channels is the number of speakers, for example, in stereo, it is “2”.

In theory, the higher the number of processed bits per second, the higher the sound quality.

High-resolution sound quality and CD comparison
Let’s compare CD and high resolution sound quality from a data point of view.

little kHz kbps
16 bit CD 44.1-48 kHz 1,411.2 kbps
High resolution Exceeds 44.1 kHz / 16 bit
Those that exceed CD specifications are defined as high resolution.

Specific examples are as follows.

44.1 kHz / 16-bit: CD specifications
48 kHz / 16-bit: CD specifications
44.1 kHz / 24-bit: high resolution (the number of quantization bits is greater than the CD specification)
48 kHz / 24 bit: high resolution (the number of quantization bits is greater than the CD specification)
96 kHz / 16 bit: high resolution (sampling frequency is higher than CD specification)
96 kHz / 24-bit: high resolution (both higher than CD specs)
96 kHz / 12 bit: not high resolution (low number of quantization bits)
32 kHz / 24 bit: not high resolution (sample rate is low)

What is digital audio?

What is digital audio?

Digital sound is nothing more than a combination of numbers. With a certain algorithm, sound, such as air pressure, is converted into data streams and encoded for further processing and playback. Depending on the algorithm used, the music file has one format or another, one or another extension.

Remember that along with digital sound, there is analog sound, which is represented by a continuous electrical signal that reflects the change in the sound wave. The analog to digital sound conversion is a setting of the numerical value of the amplitude at a given time with a given density of values. Consequently, the more values that are recorded, the more reliable and accurate the image of the digitized sound fragment is recreated. With such digitization, very voluminous data matrices emerge that, depending on the format used, differ in the sound quality / volume ratio of the final file.

Perhaps the main advantage of digital audio over analog is the ability to store and copy data indefinitely without losing the original quality (whereas when copying from one analog medium to another, a decrease in recording quality is quite noticeable).

The most widespread and popular digital audio format today is MP3 (MPEG Layer 3). It was developed, after a series of intermediate formats and investigations, started in 1987, by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany.

The developers of the format were faced with the task of simplifying and reducing the cost of shipping long musical fragments. As you know, one minute of a stereo signal from a CD (16 bit, 44.1 kHz sample rate) takes up about ten megabytes of memory. At the same time, unlike text or graphic files, the audio signal cannot be compressed without loss of quality. Thus, modem transmission of an uncompressed composition from an audio CD lasting 3 minutes at a data transfer rate of, say, 24 kbps will take several hours. Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute managed to achieve multiple file size compression: on average, one minute of a compressed audio signal in MP3 format takes about 1 megabyte. The principle of compression is based on the elimination of “unnecessary” sounds from the music file, to which the human ear is immune, or that duplicate each other.

The main factor that determines the relationship between file size and sound quality within a given format is the bit rate. Bit rate is an indicator of how much information a second of sound encodes. The higher it is, the less distortion and the closer the encoded composition is to the original. The most common on the Internet are compositions with 128 and 192 Kbps bitrates. The maximum bitrate supported by programs and devices that work with MP3 is 320 Kbps. In practice, only an expert or a professional who works with sound can notice the differences between an MP3 file with a 320 bit rate.

To optimize the size of MP3 music files while maintaining decent quality, a variable bit rate (abbreviation VBR – variable bit rate) is used. In this case, the encoding program divides the file into fragments of different spectral saturation and encodes them with a suitable bit rate. Most modern MP3 players support variable bit rate playback. A significant advantage of MP3 files is that they can contain the name of the artist, the name of the track and the album, the year of its release, etc. The set of this data is called ID3 tags. Most modern gamers can read and display them on the screen.

In 2001, Swedish Coding Technologies and Thomson Multimedia developed the MP3 Pro codec. It is MP3-based and as a result is fully MP3 backward compatible and only partially forward compatible. It uses SBR (Spectral Band Replication) technology, so the codec provides good quality at low bit rates. However, the encoding quality at medium to high bit rates is inferior to that of most other codecs. For this reason, this format is mainly used for broadcasts on the Internet and demonstrations of fragments of new musical compositions.

Another type of MP3 was the development of MP3 Surround, recently introduced by the creators of MP3: the Fraunhofer Institute. This format repeats all the characteristics of multichannel sound, while still being compatible with standard stereo MP3: information describing the spatial characteristics of the sound is recorded on an additional track. By playing files of this format on special equipment capable of reading this track, you can obtain surround sound that conforms to the Surround 5.1 standard.