This is the quality and format that most folks growing up from the 1980’s onward are very familiar with. It was certainly a step up in many ways from cassette. Much more dynamics than we had with cassettes, and much extended high frequencies. But audio purists, music producers, engineers, and orchestra conductors would most definitely argue that there are still some rather large problems and limitations with the resolution of the CD format. Then again, many CD’s that have been mixed by experienced engineered sound absolutely stellar.

The mp3 format came in to being for some pretty basic reasons. We needed ways to make file sizes extremely small so that 1) we could stream audio over the internet. And 2) so that we could carry a bunch of tunes on a portable device. Back in the 1990’s, the web was not too fast ! Smaller files meant songs could easily be downloaded to the listener at home. So the format of mp3, was readily adopted as a means to an end.

We need to note, that mp3 is a form of what we call lossy data compression. One of my techie guru number crunching kind of engineer mentors once told me that an mp3 can throw out up to 80% of the original recorded digital data. Unfortunately, the listener doesn’t get to choose which 80% !!! Yikes. So generally speaking, mp3’s sound thin, non dimensional, and non dynamic in comparison to their counterparts.

To make matters even worse, there are multiple mp3 processing rates, which all throw out something different from each other. Some are decidedly better than others, like L.A.M.E. Yeah, thats actually its acronym !

Just a suggestion, but if you have to listen to mp3’s, and you have a choice, choose 320kbps.

A few years ago, Apple who has made streaming and downloading songs pretty much a way of life for everyone with a computer or cell phone, wanted to ‘up the quality’ of streamable and easily downloadable music files, and thus developed the Mastered for iTunes format. Files are still much smaller than CD size, and the sound delivered to the listener is much much better in most circumstances than traditional mp3s. A nice step forward.

Though Hi-res audio has been around in various forms for a quite a few years now, it is only now beginning to see the light with the general consumer. A lot of education will have to be done to get the public to realize the astounding difference it can make. Again, generally speaking, hi-res audio makes most CD’s sound small, non dimensional and thin. Exactly the same comparisons we were making between CD and mp3’s. But now, we are comparing CD’s and hi-res ! Everyone I have ever played hi-res files for has had the same response. It feels like you can walk around within the soundstage. It definitely feels like you are there, part of the performance. The negatives - file size is mammoth compared to mp3’s and much larger than normal CD file size. Secondly, the user needs to know how he or she can actually play the files. (We expect to have a video ‘how-to ‘on this in the near future.) Hopefully, the public education will continue to take place, and is currently being spearheaded on many fronts, most notably by veteran musicians, producer, and engineers. These folks want you to hear what we hear when we are live in the studios and live in the concert halls making the records. And so do I :)