Jordan O'BrienThere have been many claims about what the ‘future of sound’ will be. Will it be Dolby Atmos? What about DTS:X? Auro-3D? Well, the future of sound may not have anything to do with 3D object-based surround sound formats. In fact, CE Pro Europe caught up with Meridian Audio’s director of marketing, Rayner Sheridan, who believes that the true future of sound will be High Resolution Audio.
Performance is king in the custom installation industry. We all understand how important resolution is when it comes to TVs and projectors; no client wants to be watching their favourite movie in anything less than perfect clarity. Indeed, custom installers were specifying 4K TVs before native content was even available, because they knew, with the content on the horizon and the visual performance it offers, that it would be just the kind of premium quality solution that their customers would expect, even demand.
In our view, precisely this same principle should apply to high resolution audio in the home. High resolution audio is a pure and accurate reproduction of the sound the artist recorded in the recording studio. It offers a clarity, subtlety and depth to music that goes far beyond anything we currently listen to, including CD quality tracks.
Over the last decade, thanks in large part to the popularity of the iPod, MP3 has become the dominant format. The small size of MP3 files enabled us to fit 20,000 songs onto our iPods, which we wouldn’t have been able to do with a larger file format, so naturally it became the standard. But with the advent of MP3, we sacrificed the quality of the music we listened to, for the convenience of having so much of it.
MP3s, because of their compressed file size, lose up to 90% of the sound that was recorded in the studio. This eliminates many of the nuances that can add so much character to music. More than that, this compressed version of the original is, most definitely, not the way that artists intend for us to hear their music. They want us to have the full experience of their music, their lives and careers are dedicated to making it as good as it can be. Only with high resolution audio can one truly appreciate their music.
Systems such as Meridian’s Sooloos can open up a whole new profit centre for installers now and in the future
The opportunity
A recent report from the Consumer Technology Association showed that 86% of consumers now use streaming services in their home, so clearly for many customers, convenience is a priority. They want easy access to their music and playlists.
Convenience, however, is no longer a barrier to prevent custom installers from specifying high res audio systems, thanks to the growth of high-fidelity streaming services and higher broadband speeds enabling higher resolution streaming.
Services such as TIDAL and Qobuz now offer easy-to-use interfaces, similar to streaming Apps like Spotify, but with music of a much higher quality. With the growth of these services, a significant barrier has been broken down in the specification of high resolution audio systems. These streaming services offer great convenience with the added benefit of high resolution audio.
Some custom installers might wonder whether there is any point installing high res audio systems and if customers can even tell the difference between high and low res audio. Comprehensive research indicates that most people can tell the difference between low and high res audio. With a much higher dynamic range and frequency range, there is a clear and audible difference between high res and low res audio.
But, asking if the customer really cares, or knows, actually misses the key points in the hi-res audio debate that should really concern custom installation companies.
Our industry is all about delivering premium quality. By offering a premium quality audio solution, installers are positioning their advice, their business and their reputation in exactly the right place to deal with their customers.
This positioning also makes sense from a financial perspective. High resolution audio is a higher value product, so can offer higher profit to installers who take advantage of this potentially lucrative business opportunity.
Even if people aren’t always able to tell the difference between the two formats, it is the duty of the custom installation industry to educate customers, to provide them with information on the latest technology and offer them a premium service. High resolution audio offers installers the chance to return to the core principles of the CI industry: offering the best technological solutions and unparalleled customer service.
Consumer demand for high resolution audio is certainly growing. A recent report from the Consumer Technology Association showed that 53% of customers who bought an audio product, in store or online, were interested in high res audio. This clearly shows a significant interest in the consumer market for high resolution audio and installers who offer it as a service will find themselves well positioned to take advantage of this growing demand.
It also further demonstrates that in the coming years we will continue to see the growth of high res audio, as it takes its position as the dominant technology in the audio market.
Performance, convenience, ease of use are key factors in convincing consumers to choose a high resolution audio system. Another very important aspect to consider is future-proofing. With the innovative developments such as MQA, a technology that reproduces the sound exactly as it was recorded in the studio, high resolution audio is undoubtedly the future of music in the home. Custom installers who provide their clients with high resolution audio systems can reassure them that they are prepared for the next generation of music and that their system will be more than capable of handling the technological developments of high resolution audio.
Meridian Audio recently completed a home cinema project with Dawsons AV for a client who was a music aficionado and used his home cinema for listening to his favourite albums. He was aware of MQA and interested in what options might be available for high resolution audio in the future. The solution that we specified, already providing fantastic performance with our in-wall DSP loudspeakers, is easily capable of supporting high resolution audio in the future, to give the client the very best experience when listening to music.
The eco-system through which the audio travels is essential to maintaining the high resolution. Every component must be optimised for high resolution audio, including the source, whether that’s an audio core or NAS drive, through to the end point, the in-wall or free-standing loudspeaker. A distributed audio system such as Meridian’s Sooloos is crucial in maintaining the resolution of the audio across the system and provides an effective backbone for a high resolution audio system. Sooloos also offers a very easy to use interface, bringing together services such as TIDAL with existing music libraries, so that the client’s whole collection is in one place.
High resolution audio is the future, it’s how music should be listened to. Custom installers who embrace this technology and begin educating their clients on the benefits it can provide, can expect to generate greater profit for their business, set themselves apart from the crowd by offering a premium service and have happier customers with a high performance, future-proofed audio system.