However, users sacrifice sound quality for convenience, because the MP3 and AAC formats compress the data. The iPod created a revolution in music playback starting in the early 2000s. See lossless compression.Ī high-resolution software player, such as media players from Sonic Studio (and JRiver (are required to play the high-end music, and a good sound card or external digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is required (see D/A converter and USB DAC).

For a sampling comparison, see high-resolution sampling rates and DSD. At 192/24, the analog waves are converted into 24-bit digital samples 192,000 times per second (192 kHz), resulting in a bit rate of 9216 kbps. When analog sound waves are converted to digital for CDs, 16-bit samples are taken 44,056 times per second (44.1 kHz), resulting in stereo data transferring to the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for playback at a bit rate of 1409 kbps (1,409,792 bits per second). The above album from HDtracks is available for download in four lossless formats and three sample rates. (Images courtesy of HDtracks, It's All in the Sampling The third title with 88/24 and 176/24 resolution was taken from DSD masters (see 88.2/24 and 176.4/24). The sample size is 24 bits, but the sampling rates differ (kHz). High-res titles like these are available from HDtracks.

In addition, music played from the computer's memory (RAM) is not subject to jitter caused by an optical platter that does not rotate at a 100% perfectly constant speed. HDtracks (pioneered high-resolution audio downloads and offers music titles at CD quality and greater. Today, high-quality music is no longer bound to physical media. However, the sampling method in SACD did survive (see DSD). In 1999, SACD and DVD-Audio were two high-resolution optical disc formats, but neither took off (see SACD and DVD-Audio). In 2014, the record labels formalized the major categories (see high-resolution audio categories). It also means 'lossless' compression, whereby none of the music has been removed such as with MP3 and AAC. High-resolution audioDigital audio formats with better sound quality than CDs, which is based on the sampling rate used when an analog music file or a live performance is converted to digital data.

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