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
