16, 24 or 32 bit. kHz and mb. What does it all mean?

[chrisrock]

Ok so while the subject of "High Quality" audio is topical at the minute, I (and I assume others) don't really understand what it means when I read about bits, kHz and MB when it comes to quality of music.

I am going to be auditioning some new equipment over the nex couple of weeks and would like to better understand what the system will do with the feed I put into it.

Can anyone please answer any of the following questions?

are all CDs recorded in the same quality format?

can I stream higher quality audio from the likes of spotify or other similar?

is it possible to get a lossless version of music onto an ipad/iphone?

what is the best quality music (apart from vinyl) I can purchase.

I read on the description of one particular streamer(can remember which) that it could play music up to 7 x the quality of cd. How is this?

sorry if theses are all questions covered many times before. I am just a little confused by it all and probably need it explaining in laymans terms. :read:

Many thanks

Chris

 

[rs6mra]

See what you make of this blog: http://www.whathifi.com/news/high-resolution-audio-everything-you-need-to-know

 

[BigH]

Ok so while the subject of "High Quality" audio is topical at the minute, I (and I assume others) don't really understand what it means when I read about bits, kHz and MB when it comes to quality of music.

I am going to be auditioning some new equipment over the nex couple of weeks and would like to better understand what the system will do with the feed I put into it.

Can anyone please answer any of the following questions?

are all CDs recorded in the same quality format?

can I stream higher quality audio from the likes of spotify or other similar?

is it possible to get a lossless version of music onto an ipad/iphone?

what is the best quality music (apart from vinyl) I can purchase.

I read on the description of one particular streamer(can remember which) that it could play music up to 7 x the quality of cd. How is this?

sorry if theses are all questions covered many times before. I am just a little confused by it all and probably need it explaining in laymans terms. :read:

Many thanks

Chris

I will try to answer yours questions:

are all CDs recorded in the same quality format? Yes apart from sacds. However the quality varies considerably due to mastering and compression and many other factors.

can I stream higher quality audio from the likes of spotify or other similar? NO not yet (spotify) but there are some new high quality streamers but they are about £20 pm.

is it possible to get a lossless version of music onto an ipad/iphone? Yes as long as you have enough memory.

what is the best quality music (apart from vinyl) I can purchase. I would say BluRay Audio but not much available yet or high res downloads.

I read on the description of one particular streamer(can remember which) that it could play music up to 7 x the quality of cd. How is this? Thats debatable, sounds like marketing, depending how you measure quality, could be 24 bit? or 32 bit.

 

[CnoEvil]

Upsampling vs Oversampling: http://www.audioholics.com/audio-technologies/upsampling-vs-oversampling-for-digital-audio

The "sample rate" (kHz), tells you how many times the original signal has been sliced up.
The "bit depth" (eg.32 24 or 16) tells you how much is recorded on each slice (ie.The resolution).

 

[tino]

Once you've got your head around bits, sample rates, bit rates etc., you probably need to take a step back and think about realistically what format are you likely to end up purchasing either as a physical format e.g. CD, a download format, or as a streamed service. It's easy to get carried away with the prospect of buying equipment that will allow you to listen up to 24(bits)/192(kHz) HD audio, but the reality (at present) is that higher resolution music is less widely available and considerably more expensive to purchase than conventional CD 16/44 music (£18 for a studio master vs £10 or less for a CD). Make sure during your demoing that you listen to and are happy with music played at lossless CD quality and lossy streamed MP3/AAC quality @ 160k - 320k as you'll probably end up spending most of your time listening to that. Then make sure that the equipment you are looking at has some degree of future-proofing for higher resolutions. Be careful because some equipment have inputs that might be limited to 24/96 e.g. optical inputs, or they may resample your hi-res music to a lower quality e.g. 24/48 quality without you knowing. If you want to connect to a computer at some point worth making sure the USB supports asynchronous USB up to at least 24/96 or 24/192.

 

[tino]

PS The lossless format for Apple devices is called ALAC whereas the rest of the world 😉 uses FLAC ... make sure you know which is which. As far as I know iTunes or iOs devices do not natively support the more common FLAC format (although there are workarounds).

 

[jjbomber]

Think of auditioning systems as test driving cars. The salesman can bore you to tears with all the 'Petrolhead' facts, but the idea of a test drive is to see which car you enjoy driving the most. That is the car you need to buy. Now apply the same logic to music. Forget about bits, watts, hertz etc and just go with your ears. The one you enjoy listening to, the one that gets your feet tapping, that's the one to have.

 

[jcbrum]

Click this link, it might help you.

JC

 

[ClaudioC]

Hi, I am a bit confused: If the amplifier can decode 24bit/192kHz audio through digital connection, how can you connect a laptop tto utilise that? The use of an adapter such as Turtle Beach Micro II (or in my case TERRATEC AUREON DUAL USB), doesn't mean that the adapter's DAC decodes the digital data fom the PC? if this is limited to 16bit / 44.1 and 48 khz and the amplifier goes up to 24bit/192 kHz, will the music be played above the adapter's rate?

Thanks.

 

[jcbrum]

No.

The DAC employed does not control the rate at which the file is played. That is controlled by the software employed to play the file. The DAC merely converts the digital stream to an anlogue signal. It is necessary to provide a digital signal to the DAC which is within it's capabilities.

JC

 

[ClaudioC]

Thanks.

Please excuse my ignorance but I am trying to make it clear as I plan to buy a new integrated amplifier this week.

If I understand well, if I play a 24/192 song on my laptop using JRivers (supported), through my Aureon ( up to 16 bit/44 kHz support) to my amplifier's digital in (supports 24/192), the end result will be played at 24bit/192 kHz). Correct?

Thanks

 

[ClaudioC]

Thanks.

Please excuse my ignorance but I am trying to make it clear as I plan to buy a new integrated amplifier this week.

If I understand well, if I play a 24/192 song on my laptop using JRivers (supported), through my Aureon ( up to 16 bit/44 kHz support) to my amplifier's digital in (supports 24/192), the end result will be played at 24bit/192 kHz). Correct?

Thanks