There are simply too many different definitions, misuse of terminology, and hype happening in the high-resolution audio and music marketplace. How is a novice audio consumer supposed to wade through the confusion when the “guides” being provided by the authorities are full of mistakes? You really have to wonder about their motivations or their knowledge when the material they issue falls so far short of the truth. <\/p>\n
So here’s a partial glossary to help guide consumers…think of it as a defense against the marketing machine that’s about to hit you as you shop this holiday season. This is not meant to be comprehensive. I’m preparing a more thorough glossary for my “High-Resolution Audio | Music: A Reality Check” retailer and consumer guide to the subject (which is part of the next stretch goal for the Kickstarter campaign<\/a>). The terms below are presented in stark contrast to others that I’ve seen.<\/p>\n Analog Master:<\/strong> A recording made using analog methods including cylinders, lacquer and vinyl discs, wire recorders, and analog tape. Analog masters of older recordings and a minority of new projects recorded on analog tape are routinely used as sources for “hi-res” music files. However, the fidelity of the original analog source is not enhanced by conversion to a digital format in spite of the “hi-res” label. Whatever the fidelity of the source will be transferred to the new digital file\u2026there is not improvement in the fidelity of the new digital file.<\/p>\n Compact Disc (CD):<\/strong> Produced according to the Redbook specification, a compact disc is 12 cm diameter, 1.5 mm thick, optical disc capable of storing digital audio encoded at 44.1 kHz\/16-bit using PCM (Pulse Code Modulation). This standard is incorrectly referred to by many as “CD Quality”, which actually refers to any digital file that consumers agree sounds “as good as a CD”. Compact discs have the potential to provide very good fidelity if the engineers, producers, and mastering engineers chose to maximize fidelity.<\/p>\n Compression (Audio):<\/strong> Compression is a term that can be have two completely different meanings in audio. When used by audio engineers during the production or mastering stages of a project, it refers to the automatic reduction of audio amplitude levels (attenuation) by means of analog or digital processors. For example, if a vocalist has a very wide dynamic range, a compressor would be able to smooth out the amplitude variations resulting in added vocal presence and volume. During mastering, a particularly aggressive type of dynamics reduction called “limiting” can virtually remove all natural musical dynamics.<\/p>\n Compression (Data):<\/strong> This type of compression reduces the size of a data file. Think ZIP files for transmitting data (of any sort) from one place to another…when unzipped, all of the original data is restored. For audio, data compression reduces the size of the source file according to two different schemes.<\/p>\n Lossy Compression:<\/strong> Examples of lossy data compression types are MP3s, AAC, and AC3, which are capable of reducing the size of a file but fail to retrieve all of the original fidelity upon playback. Some data is lost in the reproduction of the compressed audio file. <\/p>\n Lossless Compression:<\/strong> Examples of lossless data compression types are FLAC and MLP, which are capable of reducing the size of a file and maintain all of the original fidelity upon playback…bit for bit accuracy. None of the data is lost in the reproduction of the compressed audio file. <\/p>\n To be continued…<\/p>\n ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<\/p>\n