Tag: is lossless audio worth it

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What is lossless sound quality Part 6

Only a few third-party playback programs can exclusively bypass SRC on external sound devices.

From the author’s personal test with an Android mobile phone, once an external audio device is connected, if the playback software that follows Google’s standard music playback API is used (usually the default music playback software mobile phone), the result will be the following 24bit 48kHz.

The format will be forced to convert to 24bit 48kHz, but music with a format higher than 24bit 96kHz can be output normally. As for the KKBOX app, the speed is limited to 24bit 48kHz. If you want to play the native format on Android through an external audio device, you still need to rely on third-party music player software with USB Bit-Perfect function, such as Haibei Music. At the same time, manual settings are required, which is complicated for ordinary consumers.

Is the quality of the file important, being able to do exclusive mode and Bit-Perfect, or the sound quality of the device itself?

▲ Even if it is CD sound quality, exclusive mode playback may be clearer than SRC

Although much has been mentioned above, from the most fundamental point of view, is it important to need high quality audio files, or is it important to be able to decode and play at the native sample rate, or is the audio structure of the device important in itself and the headphones and speakers used to listen? Ideally, I’d have it all, but if I’m limited, I always have to choose.

Let’s start with the quality of the files. CD specs at that time will be set to 16-bit 44.1kHz, which is based on the sound that the human ear can theoretically hear in the 20-20kHz range. Angles are less audible, and people with better hearing can “feel” more nuance. But if you look at the listening density, the compression format will be different from original sound quality/lossless compression.

▲Compared to using a mobile phone to play lossless sound quality, playing 320K AAC with a high-end player or external DAC sounds more pleasant at first glance

For a 16-bit 44.1 kHz piece of music in the conventional original WAVE format, the overall encoding stream is about 1.4 Mbps. As for the use of lossless compression, it will vary depending on the complexity of the song and will typically be between 600kbps and 1Mbps. However, the lossy compression format will be less than 320kbps, which means that since the original file is destroyed and compressed down to 320kbps, at least almost 3 /4 of the information is destroyed, and in terms of PCM characteristics, it is equivalent to the signal. The middle of the curve is greatly reduced, returning to the sense of hearing means that the dynamics of the music are reduced, and the connection between sound and sound is broken.

It is absolutely important whether or not to use Bit-Perfect in exclusive mode. The author thinks that if you only listen to CD quality and destroy the compressed format, it is a relatively harmless situation, because the essence of the destroyed compression format is to use CD samples as a model for compression. Generally, the default value of SRC provides enough flow for CD, although the actual information through SRC is not forced to drop because of SRC, but rather because the input signal must be shared with other applications. , the sound seems to be covered in comparison.A layer of thread.

▲With the right gear, hear the dynamics and connection of native hi-res music

But if you’re pretty sure of your hearing, the key difference between playing music in exclusive mode with Bit-Perfect is playing hi-res music, because if you use SRC, it will force the original amount of information and dynamics to be in SRC.After being erased, the sound quality is the same as listening to the CD, and the original harmonics will also disappear, but the premise is that the user must have the corresponding equipment and the sense of hearing that can feel the harmonics. For example, the Vic

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What is lossless sound quality Part 5

Web-based players are often difficult to bypass SRC restrictions

What is the function of SRC? In a nutshell, it is to first convert all current output sounds from the device to a fixed sample rate, whether CD quality or high quality, etc., and perform pre-processing equal to a rate, so that the sample rate device sound can be decoded at the same time Process audio for a large number of applications and systems. But the problem of SRC is that PC and mobile devices can’t hear the real high-quality sound, and even CD-quality music will sound exhausted. After SRC, even if the music is played losslessly, it will be processed in CD-quality data The external device is equipped with a monitor panel, and you can also see that the sound quality is 24bit 96kHz, but it is processed in SRC 16bit 48kHz (Note: SRC can be set manually in the PC system for sampling).

▲On mobile devices, the app must also have an exclusive mode to not be restricted by SRC

Simply put, because SRC will convert digital audio from various applications and systems before it is decoded by the input audio device, and all sounds will be compressed into the same input signal, regardless of music, sound effects, etc. the movies etc. is boosting, cutting, or the same frequency as the SRC, the above signal processing is a kind of loss, which will eventually make the sound less than the original appearance.

▲ Although KKBOX can bypass the SRC restriction in certain versions of Android system, it will be blocked when an external sound card is connected.

In order to allow PC systems and mobile devices to play the original level of music files, they must be played in Bit-Perfect mode through the audio device’s exclusive mode, but most general-purpose music playback software and web-based music software do not have this feature. . Audio device exclusive mode and Bit-Perfect, respectively, allow the playback software to bypass the SRC mechanism and get the sole right of input from the audio output device, which is equivalent to sound effects in other systems that cannot be produced exclusively by the device. general public explains why there is only music left, and not even YouTube videos.

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▲Although the SRC setting can be fixed to high sound quality, both compressed music and high sound quality music need to be reprocessed, and the sound quality will be damaged

Currently, there are many professional music playback software on PC or music software provided by audio equipment that can play music in exclusive mode. For example, KKBOX has also completed the configuration function of exclusive mode and Bit-Perfect version driver in the latest version for PC. Mobile devices are more embarrassing. In recent versions, Apple and Google allow exclusive and Bit-Perfect playback of built-in audio devices, but it gets complicated when it comes to external audio devices.

What is lossless sound quality Part 4

However, there are many early music recordings that also provide high-quality files in the process of being digitized, but in theory there is no such thing as high-quality digital radio at the time this record was released. How did these files come about?

 

Broadly speaking, early digital mastering music can be divided into analog mastering and CD-level digital mastering with upscaling; Since the waveform of the analog audio signal can present a real smooth curve, it can be achieved through suitable analog digital conversion equipment. Achieve the information density of the high-resolution level, but after all, we have to consider the high and low frequency limit of the radio equipment in the recording era, so the expressive power of high and low frequency is not necessarily better than modern recording.

As for the expansion of CD-level master tapes, most of them will be marked Remaster. This type of file is presented by combining CD-level sound quality files through post-production upscaling and mixing technology. However, the effects of the Remaster files in different periods appear different, but also affected by the personal preferences of the sound engineer who carried out the Remaster project. Some players think that after the Remaster, although the amount of musical information is gets bigger, at the same time, the musicality can be worse than the original CD.

The innate limitations of listening to music through mobile phones and computers and the high-quality sound you hear may not be the high-quality sound you think.
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▲Perhaps many people do not know that even if a 32-bit sound card is installed, the actual listening format is due to the SRC card in CD quality.

Coming back to music playback itself, the current mainstream of digital music playback has shifted from traditional players to PC platforms and smart mobile devices, but some people may be confused as to why music performance seems strange. heard on a computer or mobile phone. At the same time, people who are fairly confident in their hearing and can tell a CD from high-quality music on a stand-alone player have difficulty telling the difference in CD quality when listening to high-quality content on a computer.

▲To bypass SRC, you need to use playback software and sound driver mode that supports exclusive mode, but most music playback software does not have this function

The reason for the limited listening experience on mobile devices and PC platforms is that these devices are embedded systems, and the audio output on the device is shared with multiple applications, including the system itself, the browser, and each separate application. time, these sounds are often sent synchronously, so modern operating systems will provide an audio device sharing mode called SRC for audio, in order to prevent the audio chip from inserting different audio formats and not can be decoded.

What is lossless sound quality Part 3

Although the sense of sound can be quantified through data, it has always been a subjective awareness.

However, apart from the difference in the sense of human hearing, the quality of each piece of music still goes back to the original recording and after recording. production; Many years ago, Sony started promoting high-quality music. When it comes to music and sound quality equipment, the author once talked to a senior engineer at Sony about the difference high quality sound makes to the listener. At that time, the senior engineer pointed out that from the data plane, the high-quality sound format is actually a large extension of high-frequency. However, if you ditch the data specs and record high-quality music with modern equipment, you’ll be able to present deeper, more realistic low-frequency dynamics.

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▲Although the quality of the original sound is very important, even a well-recorded 320K file with a good playback and listening device can work better than directly using a mobile phone to play a high-quality file with the included headphones

However, this is also seen from the original conditions of the radio equipment, but generally the music released to the market will not be released directly after being picked up. The original audio still needs to go through steps like re-editing, post-production. , synthesis, etc.. The music post-production process will also degrade the sound quality and involve personal preferences. If the editing is excessive, the sound quality will also be affected.

However, if the WAVE format, which is commonly used in standard digital music, is used, no matter what the result of the front recording is and how damaged it is, the music will eventually be compressed into a file with a fixed format. sampling rate, but the content will also include a large amount of inaudible information. ; As for the lossless compression of FLAC, AAC, etc., the sound psychology theory removes information that can be considered non-existent, so that the file can be simplified.

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▲ The new generation of recording methods will also use the 24-bit 44.1 kHz or higher format, which can record richer details (Image taken from: Ototoy)

Before we go on to mention high-quality sound, let’s talk about the changes related to recording in recent years; With the improvement of digital recording technology in recent years, the front recording project has also begun to introduce high-quality sound recording to exceed the traditional CD sound quality 16-bit 44.1kHz sampling above 24-bit 44.1 kHz The format is used like the original master tape, although it can only be increased from 16-bit to 24-bit, but the increased amount of data per second means there is more information. If the subsequent sampling rate is increased to 96 bits, the PCM encoded sound curve of the sawtooth waveform can be improved. Close to analog waveforms.

For example, the Japanese digital music platform Ototoy will mark such music based on high-quality recordings with the HQD symbol. Before the term Hi-Res Audio, this type of 24-bit audio based on high-quality recordings and not re-pressed into CD-quality sound. The file is usually completed with a digital mastering level sound quality file, and has been in practice for many years before the appearance of the hi-res level mark. Incidentally, SACDs recorded in 1-bit format and presented in DSD format that is close to an analog curve can also be considered as mastering. It is a kind of high-quality sound quality, but strictly speaking, since the DSD format does not have the editing function, in fact, the DSD file is still converted as a high-density PCM file.

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▲Currently, high-resolution music is divided into analog mastering transcription, CD-quality mastering scaling, and high-quality native sound mastering, among which the scaling effect is still the worst

What is lossless sound quality Part 2

The principle of these audio compression methods is to preserve places that are easily heard by the human ear as much as possible.

 

 

In conventional fixed bit rate (CBR) mode, the audible data in the audio is removed and is easier for the human ear to hear. The more information that is withheld, the less information that is withheld when the part is inaudible. As the complexity of the sound increases, the degree of deterioration in sound quality becomes more apparent. For example, when listening to pure voice Performances and performances combined with background music, pure compressed music for vocals, sounds less degraded than the original file.

As for the lossless sound quality offered by the current streaming platform, there are many formats, but in fact, strictly speaking, these formats, including flac and ALAC, belong to lossless compression (non-destructive data compression) in place of lossless sound quality in a strict sense. The performance is almost the same as WAVE, but the file size is small, the decoding speed is fast, and at the same time, it can be used in streaming services. Therefore, it is also the representative format of lossless sound quality entering the era of non-optical disc media, and it is also the current music streaming service.

In addition, Tidal’s MQA is a more controversial format, because although MQA is general lossless audio reduction, it focuses on making high quality music files higher than CD quality so that they are similar to files. CD-quality flac. original high-quality sound format, but the point of controversy is whether the higher compression ratio can maintain the same real listening experience as the original high-quality sound quality has been controversial, and MQA requires a specific device to perform the hardware decoding. many devices are still only able to do MQA decoding through software.

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▲Today’s so-called High-Resolution Audio generally refers to sound quality above CD, but to be certified, the device must support 24-bit, 96kHz format processing capability.

However, since MP3 and AAC are previously planned destructive music compression formats, their purpose is to compress CD-level sound quality into smaller files, so most of the encoding specifications are presented in one presentation. 16-bit 44.1 kHz or 16-bit 48 kHz CD-level audio, but MQA is a format with a reduced file size that blocks high-quality sound. Basically, the MQA format will be equivalent to PCM 24-bit or top music.

In fact, with that said, current music file formats that don’t emphasize high-quality streaming services, whether presented in MP3 or AAC, are called lossy-compressed music, while high-quality, lossless streaming quality is compressed without loss. music. As for the music heard by traditional vehicles like vinyl and CD, it is called lossless music. In theory, non-destructively compressed lossless music and lossless music should have the same sound quality.

Does lossless sound quality have to be good? Does compressed sound have to be bad?
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▲ Although Apple Music has released lossless sound quality, its marketing focus is on spatial audio

When the Japanese audio industry started promoting high-quality music, many people jumped up and said that high-quality sound was useless. When Apple Music launched the premium sound format, its executives also said that he was one of the people who couldn’t tell the difference, noting that Apple launched the premium sound service to serve one of those hundred people. ; Before we talk about high-quality sound, let’s go back and talk about the current state of digital music on today’s playback devices. .

What is lossless sound quality

There is no comparison, no harm, if lossless sound quality and high sound quality are necessary, and what differences in hearing can Bit-Perfect bring without going through SRC

mp3

CD

KKBOX

flac

spotify

high resolution

dolby atmos

Apple

apple music

CAA

360 reality audio

SRC

spatial audio

Bit-Perfect

Although lossless sound quality and high-quality streaming services have been on the market for a while, as have true wireless earphones, Apple isn’t the first to make waves in the market, with Apple’s launch of so-called high-fidelity compressed sound quality. in Apple Music, in fact, after the lossless compression commonly known in Taiwan’s audio industry, lossless sound quality and high sound quality have instantly become a hot topic discussed by many people, but if the benefits of lossless sound quality are really obvious, the author will spend some space from the theoretical concept to the practical level. The differences are briefly described, but the following arguments focus on being easy to understand, so some of the descriptions are not entirely accurate.

What is lossless sound quality? What is the sound quality of the music we usually listen to?
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▲ Both AAC and MP3 are destructive compression, while FLAC and ALAC are lossless compression

Before we go into the details, let’s talk about what is called lossless sound quality; From the author’s concept and cognition, the so-called lossless sound quality is a relative word rather than an absolute word. The main source is the relative word born due to the emergence of the MP3 music compression format. ; After the music industry entered the digital format, digital music files were generally recorded through PCM encoding, and WAVE files were generally used on CDs. The time and space situation of MP3 was Due to the fact that the capacity of the hard disk was generally not large at that time, in order to be limited in the limited space, a large amount of music data is stored in the storage space and you may need to compress the files. .

The reason why MP3 cannot be called a lossless format is because its essence is to compress the original WAVE file with a limited bit rate by combining concepts such as the psychology of sound. In bitrate compression mode, compared to the original WAVE file, the bitrate is at least 1:4 to 12:1. The higher the bitrate, the greater the amount of information retained. For example, AAC format also uses similar audio psychology for compression, but the efficiency is better than MP3. Therefore, the lossless sound quality of most streaming platforms today is mostly AAC as the mainstream.

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▲ Although the waveform of digital music in PCM format will appear jagged, but as the sampling rate increases, it will be closer to the analog arc curve