According to a study carried out by Queen Mary University in London, people are able to distinguish the difference between standard audio quality and Hi-Res audio quality.
The study compared data from more than 12,000 different trials from 18 studies. Participants were asked to determine the difference between samples of Jazz and Classical music in different formats.
Dr Joshua Reiss from QMUL’s Centre for Digital Music in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science explains why the study was conducted. Reiss says that the motivation behind the study was based on the constant discussions that have been going on in the music industry regarding whether or not the use of Hi-Res formats are really necessary and whether they actually make a difference. Reiss says…
“Our study is the first attempt to have a thorough and impartial look at whether high res audio can be heard. We gathered 80 publications, and analysed all available data, even asking authors of earlier studies for their original reports from old filing cabinets. We subjected the data to many forms of analysis. The effect was clear, and there were some indicators as to what conditions demonstrate it most effectively. Hopefully, we can now move forward towards identifying how and why we perceive these differences.”
The findings of the study are somewhat interesting, as it validates the entrance of Tidal – Jay Z’s high-fidelity streaming platform — into the music streaming market. After launch, the service experienced widespread skepticism as many said that there is no need for the Hi-Res audio, because it doesn’t sound any different.
Those people opted for rival services Spotify or Apple Music which have a much lower sound quality and cost half the price. It is believed that Tidal hasn’t experienced as much success as its competitors in the music streaming market because people didn’t see the value in paying for a platform that had high-fidelity audio quality and lossless sound. However, it seems as though people can in fact distinguish the difference between sound quality. This means that there is hope for Tidal, and maybe it was the price that was more a determining factor.
Reiss says…
“Audio purists and industry should welcome these findings – our study finds high-resolution audio has a small but important advantage in its quality of reproduction over standard audio content.”
((Image by Tess Watson, Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0))
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