The Truth About High Definition Audio
My passionate in life is the recording, production and playback of high definition, multi-channel music. As the owner of a small audiophile label (AIX Records) and the only exclusively HD digital music download site (iTrax.com), a classically trained composer (I received my doctorate in music from UCLA in 1985), a guitar playing musician and an audio engineer with 25 years of experience, I have never ceased wanting to push the boundaries of recorded music…to improve the quality of the listening experience. Even now, I can vividly remember refusing to go outside for recess in kindergarten because I wanted to continue listening to a monaural recording of Burl Ives. I was hooked to music and audio at an early age.
It wasn’t until years later as a teenager that I got my first rim-drive tape recorder and many years more that I saved up enough money to purchase a Nagra IV-S stereo location machine. But during all these years of trying to make better and better music recordings, there has never been a better time to marry state-of-the-art technology with wonderful music making and deliver it to quality-conscious music fans. The arrival of high definition, PCM digital audio and the formats to deliver it are the best things to happen to audio recording in a very long time. If only consumers were getting the straight story. Instead wanna-be labels and producers are promulgating a lot of marketing hype about around “HD”…and pushing recordings as “HD” that are definitely not!
For example, about a week ago I received a press release about the newest incarnation of MP3, not coincidentally named MP3HD. These days marketing types have stopped using “new and improved” for the latest version of laundry detergent. The preferred buzz letters these days are “HD”…regardless of what it means. In fact another example closer to home, HD Radio, deliberately avoids stating what the letters “HD” stands for in their name because the truth would be counter productive to their bottom line (thankfully most people know that HD Radio stands for “Hybrid Digital” not “High Definition”…the fidelity of the signal coming out of a new HD Radio is less than a standard FM radio).
So here’s the truth. High Definition audio cannot be achieved by merely transferring an older standard definition recording (no matter how good it is) into a large bit bucket. An analog tape from the late 1950’s or 1990’s or a standard definition compact disc master doesn’t have the same specifications with regards to dynamic range, signal to noise ration, frequency response, harmonic distortion and accuracy of pitch as a high definition recording made today. And to those that stick their noses up at specs and say that it’s the euphonious sound that makes a particular track “high definition”, they refuse to acknowledge that technology has actually improved during the past 50 years and we can make more accurate tracks. They discount the empirical facts regarding audio fidelity. I acknowledge that vinyl and tape can sound great but not as great as a properly done HD PCM track. They sound different. And many will prefer that sound…but not for fidelity reasons. Recording at 96 kHz/24-bits using PCM digital audio recording equipment blows away the finest vinyl and analog tape recordings…if the format is used to its full potential.