The hi-res audio state of play has never looked so positive. It wasn’t that long ago that we could spell out several problems with high-resolution audio, from its unclear definition and lack of mainstream awareness to its expensive and inaccessible nature.
Now, however, its definition is widely accepted to be ‘higher than CD quality’ (CD quality being tied to definitions of ‘lossless’), with it predominantly available in 24-bit form. The term ‘hi-res’ is now being bandied about by some of the biggest tech companies in the world. And music streaming services Apple Music and Amazon Music are offering playback of hundreds of thousands of albums in varying hi-res quality for the basic monthly fee, with the availability of