Established 1968
Established 1968
When you purchase or stream songs from platforms like iTunes or Amazon, you are typically buying MP3s, also known as “lossy” compressed files.
Audio Bit Rate is a term used to compare the amount of data in digital music. Kbps stands for kilobits per second and is a measure of bandwidth, indicating how much data can be transferred in a given time.
For example, the audio bit rate for a CD is 1411 kbps, whereas the average MP3 download is only 256 kbps. This difference explains why digital media files often sound flat and lack depth.
Hi-Res Audio downloads typically have an audio bit rate of around 4608 kbps, allowing for more digital information and providing a clearer, more accurate reproduction of the artist's music.
When you purchase high-resolution downloads, they often come in several formats to ensure compatibility with your device. These formats may be lossless compressed or uncompressed, with the uncompressed versions being about 50% larger and requiring more storage space.
Uncompressed files
PCM – the basic audio file format for digital music, whether it's MP3, CD-quality, or high-resolution.
WAV – the main audio format for Windows-based computers.
AIFF – the main audio file format for Apple computers.
DSD – the only non-PCM-based file type listed here. This format stores audio in a fundamentally different way than PCM.
Lossless-compressed files
FLAC – a popular lossless audio option, however, it’s not compatible with some music playback software, including iTunes.
ALAC– aka Apple Lossless, the main lossless audio option for Apple computers.
WAV – the main audio format for Windows-based computers.
Resolution Options
Besides choosing the file format, you can also usually have a few resolution options.
For digital audio files, there are two key pieces of information: “word-length” and “sampling frequency.”
CD has a word length of 16 bits and a sampling frequency of 44,100 Hertz (a Hertz equals one cycle per second). You typically see resolution specs abbreviated so that CD-quality files are listed as 16-bit/44.1kHz.
High-resolution audio, using higher word lengths and sampling frequencies, captures more detailed snapshots of the musical waveform, producing a more accurate “picture” of the performance. However, this also means much larger file sizes. For example, a 24-bit/96kHz music file will occupy about three times more hard drive space than a CD-quality file.
DSD is a digital audio format that processes the music signal as a stream of single bits rather than multi-bit chunks, differing fundamentally from PCM. While less common, some websites offer DSD music downloads, and a growing number of audio components can play DSD files.
