Tim Cook and the team at Apple are in the midst of their annual WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) in San Francisco. The opening address was streamed on Monday of this week and featured a number of announcements. Among them was the new Mac \u201cYosemite\u201d operating system, the new iOS 8 system for all \u201ci\u201d devices and a new addition to the programmers toolkit called \u201cSwift\u201d. <\/p>\n
Noticeably absent from the presentation was any mention of high-resolution music or any changes happening to the iTunes web site. They did make a phone call to Dr. Dre and the big announcement about Apple\u2019s acquisition of Beats dominated tech news. Still the move up to HRA that some anticipated would coincide with the WWDC week didn\u2019t occur.<\/p>\n
The new \u201cremastered\u201d Led Zeppelin albums are available on HDtracks. I would be very interested in running the spectral analysis on a few of the tracks, although I just can\u2019t justify purchasing anything from HDtracks. They\u2019ve gotten enough of my money over the years. If someone does acquire those files and wouldn\u2019t mind chopping a couple of 30\u201d chunks out of them and sending them to me\u2026I\u2019d be happy to report my findings. Given the \u201cprovenance\u201d of these albums, I would be surprised to find the fidelity improved over previous versions. They may sound somewhat different because of Jimmy Page\u2019s involvement and new state of the art tools, but the actual sonics are locked at the time of the original recording.<\/p>\n
The next opportunity for Apple to reveal any plans to support high-resolution audio will have to wait until their September event. There are already rumors about the iPhone 6 but I have yet to hear or read anything about support for 192 kHz\/24-bit PCM audio. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised given the current \u201cbuzz\u201d and the moves that Samsung and HTC have made in that area.<\/p>\n
As I write this, I\u2019m at 35,000 feet winging my way to Boston for my son\u2019s graduation and for a few days of relaxation on Cape Cod (Not to worry, I will still be posting everyday\u2026it\u2019s become part of my daily routine). I charged up the HTC One M8 Harman Kardon phone last evening and am enjoying Patrice Rushen playing from the AIX recording \u201cPiano, Bass and Drums\u201d from 2001. It sounds amazing\u2026and I\u2019m using the Harman Kardon ear buds that came with the phone! I feel like my audiophile credentials are fraying at the edges when I talk about listening to music using a cell phone and ear buds, but I can assure you that this experience bears not resemblance to the iPod and cheap hard ear buds of yesteryear. Kudos to HK, Sprint and HTC\u2026this is impressive.<\/p>\n
If a Smartphone costing $400 can produce fidelity that equals or even exceeds the likes of Astell & Kern, Colorfly, Fiio X5, Geek Wave and Pono AND provide all of the additional capabilities that a Smartphone provides, competition among these companies is going to be more challenging.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019m spoiled. I\u2019ve got over 50 AIX Records tracks loaded on my HTC One phone\u2026and these are the real deal. Of course, I\u2019m biased but with strains of Laurence Juber playing \u201cStrawberry Fields\u201d in DADGAD guitar tuning playing in my head\u2026I\u2019m in sonic heaven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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