The Case for High Fidelity Music

Hifi. What does it mean? Well, it's an abbreviation for high-fidelity, but what does that mean?

Fidelity refers to the quality of something. You might see the term "High Definition" in day-to-day life: Think HD video versus 480p. Think 12 megapixels versus 2 megapixels. There's a huge difference. Do you remember your first digital camera? I do. It was about $600 and it had 2 megapixels, but I thought it was amazing. A digital photo. Wow. I could take a picture, and then see it, right then, and then transfer it to my computer in a matter of minutes, ready to share or keep. Here's another throwback: do you remember when Youtube allowed 720p HD streaming for the first time? And then quickly after, they added 1080p. Insane! Then over time, we've moved up to 4k displays like the Retina display...wow. Now that is a beautiful looking screen. We never knew what we were missing until we experienced it.

Let me say that again.

We never knew what we were missing until we experienced it. A phenomenon has occurred in the audio industry -  one of the biggest ironies of the audio industry to date. We now have the capabilities to capture (as in, record) audio in higher qualities than we've ever imagined. We have the computer power and hardware capabilities to capture far beyond what the human ear can even perceive. The irony is this: the most common format to consume audio is streaming mp3s, a format created in the early nineties! If it's not that, then it's CD, surely that's better than Mp3 - oh wait...that was created in the late seventies and standardized by the late eighties. And you know what, it's still better than mp3!

WAKE UP, PEOPLE. This is pathetic! We can record audio at 2x, 3x, 4x...5x the quality of MP3s and CDs. Not only can we, we actually do. I do, and every engineer I know does. It's the standard to record at 24 or 32 bit resolution and at least 44.1kHz sampling rate. Many record at 96kHz, which is over 2x the quality of 44.1kHz...that is, on paper.

The video industry has continually tried to improve the quality of video. The audio industry is one of the few that has actually gone backwards, demanding lower quality for consumers in order to "save space" on computers. The irony is, most of the market is or will be dominated by digital markets. We can stream HD movies (which are gigabytes apiece) nearly instantly on Netflix, but Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, etc., are streaming MP3s, which are only 10MB or so. I'll give you a hint - an uncompressed, high quality WAV file is still less than 10% the size of an HD movie. For some perspective - the soundtrack alone in that HD movie is likely a WAV file. A 2 hour long WAV file. That doesn't include the actual video itself, and we can still stream it instantly. So why can't we stream a 4 minute WAV file for music? The truth is, we can. It's just that companies fail to see its importance.

Why do people discount high fidelity audio? Let's look at the primary factors:

1. The files are "too big."
2. Their device can't play it.
3. They've never heard the difference.
4. They can't hear the difference. 

I've pretty much already debunked #1. In an industry moving towards streaming media, there's no excuse for streaming HD files. If we can have entire warehouses full of server racks housing millions of hours of youtube videos, porn websites, instagram photos and videos, and facebook content, we can have servers full of HD audio.

Let's move on to #2. Quality drives industry. When Youtube enabled HD video, suddenly there's a huge push for people to make videos. It drives people to be a part of the buzz. That drove people to want to buy HD cameras, and HD monitors/displays/screens on which to enjoy those videos. This drove Apple and other manufacturers to make portable HD video players. Remember the first iPod Video? This drove people to make HD Laptops, tablets, TVs. That drove Apple to make the Retina. It goes on and on. Smart industries look at what people want. It's obvious that people want quality, but why don't people care about audio quality? Industries would follow if they felt like people wanted HD audio. Why don't people want HD audio?

You guessed it. #3. They've never heard the difference so They don't know what they're missing. People listen to music on their iPhone speakers, their laptops, their clock radios and iHome devices. They listen on tiny earbuds and Beats headphones. All of these things have terrible sound quality when compared to the technology we have available! It's absolutely ludicrous that people aren't all over the HD audio market. They're obsessed with HD video, so why aren't they obsessed with hearing their favorite music in the best way possible? They love going to the movie theater, and they love going to concerts, and the sound system is always rumbling their chest...but yet they don't care to enjoy high quality music on their own time?

I'll give you a hint: when your favorite singers, bands, and artists make music in the studio, they are likely listening to it on speakers that cost thousands of dollars, in rooms that are designed for critical music listening (that cost far above the price for the speakers) and they are purposely making their record for high quality sound reproduction. Yet, you dwarf this intent by listening to it on an iPhone speaker. How enjoyable is it to watch The Dark Knight or Inception or any visually stunning movie on a 1x1" screen? Not at all, really. But that's the equivalent of what people are doing to music. No wonder the industry is hurting right now - people are being conditioned to accept what is in front of them, which is mediocre audio quality at best. The final issue is that some people can't hear the difference between mp3 and WAV, or between a phone speaker and a car system. They can't hear the difference between $100 Walmart speakers and $10,000 studio monitors. Or at least they don't think they could hear a difference. But I assure you - everyone that walks into my studio, musician or not, audiophile or not, is stunned by the quality of sound coming out of my Barefoot MM35s, emanating into my control room. They're listening to a high quality, industry standard pair of speakers in a very high quality listening environment, designed and treated specifically for the reproduction of music. I hear comments like "Wow, if this was my place, I'd just listen to music all day long." Those types of statements make me proud, but also very angry, because I see the potential for people inspired by sound, who want to sit and listen to music again!

So it hit me: HD audio can turn music listening into a hobby again. It can drive industry. It can force companies to produce high quality speakers at affordable costs. It can force companies to promote HD audio being sold, distributed, and streamed.

You might think, "well, I can't spend that much money," and that's fine. The good news is, you don't have to. For a very modest cost, you can invest in a high quality pair of speakers and a high quality amplifier, a few cables, and you'll be on your way to listening to music better than you've ever heard it. It amazes me that the new generations coming up may never experience audio as I do. They may never hear music how it was intended to be heard. It's saddening. I want people to hear music as the artist intended. I want them to hear and feel the music like they're standing in the room with the band. I want people to invite their friends over to sit and listen to music, like I used to do as a kid. I truly believe that can propel the industry forward. I believe it could be the next big wave in the music industry.

And you might ask: is audio quality really that important? Isn't it all about the music anyway? Isn't a good song going to be a good song, regardless if it's listened to on a phone speaker of a $10,000 sound system? Well, allow me to offer an opposing situation. Imagine this: you see trailers on your Facebook for the new Star Wars movie. You're excited. You can't wait. It's going to be epic. Now imagine when it came out, you've waited for it, you're excited, and yet they tell you the only option you have is to sit and watch it on a Nokia phone from 2007. 

Does it change the fact that the movie is good? No. Does it alter your first impression of the movie? Absolutely. Does it distract you from the awesomeness of the movie? Yes. Does it turn the movie into a distraction itself, because the way you're consuming it in a way that is "convenient for them?" Yes. Is it hard to focus on it, because it's so small and uninspiring? Absolutely. Do you want to watch it again? Probably not. Do you want to buy it? Definitely not.

Movies were intended to be played in a theater. From day ONE. That was always the intent. And guess what, that's what we do. We watch movies in theaters and pay good money for it, because it's totally worth it. It's still good on Netflix, but we'd usually prefer to see blockbuster movies in theaters if we have the chance, and film companies make most of their money from opening weekend. So when Star Wars comes out and you're sitting there watching the movie on this huge screen in surround sound, I want you to think for just 10 seconds: what if my music listening experience could come close to this awesome, except in my own home, where I could watch movies, Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, DVDs, listen to my music, stream my Apple Music or Spotify Playlists, all with incredible sound quality? And then realize: it can.

*drops the mic*