HIGH-RES AUDIO EXPLAINED
What is it? Can you hear the difference? Do you really need it?
What is High-Res Audio?
CD quality: 44.1 kHz sample rate, 16 bit resolution.
High-Res Audio: 96 kHz or 192 kHz, 24 bit.
Can you hear the difference?
It depends.
On Bluetooth headphones on the subway: No. On good speakers in a quiet environment: Yes. On studio monitors: Definitely.
It’s not about “better”. It’s about: more information.
What do the numbers mean?
Sample Rate
A CD recording samples the audio signal 44,100 times per second. That’s the 44.1 kHz. At 192 kHz, it’s 192,000 times per second.
More samples mean: The original is mapped more accurately. Fine transients – the strike of a piano key, the attack of a violin – are captured more precisely.
Bit Depth
24 bits mean greater dynamics. The difference between the quietest and loudest tone becomes greater.
16 bits (CD) have a dynamic range of 96 dB.
24 bits have 144 dB.
In practice, this means: Quiet passages remain detailed. Loud passages do not distort. The music breathes.
What is FLAC?
FLAC stands for “Free Lossless Audio Codec”. Lossless compression. The file becomes smaller, but NO information is lost.
Streaming services compress audio. Spotify uses Ogg Vorbis at 320 kbit/s. Apple Music uses AAC. This is practical for data transfer, but information is lost. Not dramatic, but measurable.
FLAC is like a ZIP archive for audio. You can unpack it and get exactly the original back.
Do you really need it?
If you’re listening on the side: No.
If music is background noise: No.
If you’re listening on the bus: MP3 is perfectly sufficient.
If you sit down, put on headphones, close your eyes and just listen – then Hi-Res makes sense.
What do you need for it?
– A DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) that supports Hi-Res
– Reasonable speakers or headphones (no Bluetooth)
– A quiet listening environment
– And: The willingness to really listen
I have worked in the recording studio for 30 years. I hear the difference between 16/44 and 24/192. Not on all tracks, but on most. Acoustic recordings. Jazz combos. Classical chamber music. It makes a difference there.
Mother Earth Radio streams in FLAC up to 192 kHz.
Experience it yourself.
