Wall of text incoming! As a teen I always had my "walkman" with me (still have it). I would instantly be transported to another dimension (always been a bit of a dreamer) listening to my tapes. Later on I bough a portable DAT, and after that a "mini-disc", but both these formats were a bit of a pain as you had to record your tracks on them, which I didn´t mind as I love music, but I got to a point were I had no time to do so. There were some original mini-disc stuff out there but a bit limited to be honest. So with time, I kind of forgot about portability.
Then we have PC´s and CD players as we know them today. Portable CD players were ok but best on your night table, portability had it´s issues skipping tracks and the size of the unit was also bulky. There were other players (Creative), but in general quite expensive and not to user frendly. So portability in the end got degrarded (MP3), and only rose it´s head with Apples iPod´s which really wasent a solution for degraded sound, but a solution to portability.
In the recent years new audio containers have come about to the music scene known as "Lossless" file types/compression and enconders, with higher dynamic range, along with higher bit rates and better compression encoders...
Hi-Res or HD audio In a nutshell, a "master" quality audio file compressed in a lossless container (FLAC, DSD etc.). There´s alot to this so just trying to make it simple, but feel free to look up digital audio conversion (DAC), sample rates, jitter, amplifier headroom etc.
Lucky enough, for those audiophiles and those who care for there music, in this case in a portable player (DAP), we have Hi-Res audio formats and players (DAP), converters (DAC) to reproduce them. Which is the reason of my post, portable Hi-Res audio for personal enjoyment.
To make things easy, we have 24bit (studio master quality), and 16bit (CD quality). While the purpose of Hi-Res is a better sounding audio file, with less "weight" then the original, we will use FLAC files at 24bit/44.10kHz as our standard file format. Alot will say that at 24bits most people wil not appreciate any audible difference, but same is said about other formats (CD vs vinyl, MP3 vs WAV), and some do apreciate the difference. Wont start a debate about this as it would not make any sence with regards to Hi-Res audio would it? Aside from FLAC files there are other lossless containers, but again just trying to keep it simple.
DAP/DAC players and amps can be as expensive as most audiophile gear out there, and also as feature rich as you may be willing to pay, but you also have very reasonable priced portable devices for almost any budget. There´s plenty of people listening to there music via there smartphone and via streaming (Spotify) at a cost of a monthly payment, wi-fi data transfer and no option to keep there premium downloaded songs. So, once you cancel your premium account you lose your music. Which is one of the reasons I decide to pick up a DAP/DAC portable player, known as DAP, of which some also function as DAC (digital audio converter) which you can also use on your PC. Also, while some companies (Sony, LG) try to make better sounding smartphones, there intent is not for Hi-Res audio.
After a week of diving into this new world (in part, as I have a small DAW at home), I decided to go for a pretty decent entry level DAP/DAC, in my case the HiBy R3...
HiBy R3 I paired it with there HiBy Seeds Headphones (IEM´s - In-Ear Monitors).
There are other companies/models like the Hidiz AP80, Sony NW-a45 and the Fiio M6 with similar features. Fiio also has the M5 which just came out in a smaller format (iPod size) or the Shanling M0, both at about a hundred bucks. The Fiio Mk3 is about 74 bucks and about the cheapest Hi-Res DAP around.
Alot of folks aside from the portablity, look for space saving, considering that you can fit thousands of songs in a 256GB microSD, this is a practical solution. 600+ vinyls take some space, and maybe not as much but so do 600+CD´s so the option is available for those who need that space at home.
You can buy digital downloads form iTunes, although the import format is a bit limited (no FLAC), supports AAC, AIFF, ALE/ALAC (apple lossless), WAV and MP3. But there are other online DRM free shops with more Hi-Res specific formats. I will list some below...
HDtracks:
HDtracks front page www.Qobuz.comwww.7digital.comBandcamp:
Bandcamp - direct from the artist Probably there´s more out there, these are just the one´s I use so far.
You can also rip your own CD´s to FLAC via Exact Audio Copy, which is a free app (donation if you like), but consider that it will rip to a 16bit/44.10kHz as that´s how the CD was recorded. Not sure if it "upscales" to 24bit, still learning, but it would not make to much scenes me thinks.
Exact Audio Copy:
Exact Audio Copy app Or Foobar2000 another free ripper/player:
Foobar2000 If you prefer a payware, then dBpoweramp:
dBpoweramp Music Converter Well, hope it helps anyone who is interested, and for those who are already into Hi-Res portable can share there thoughts/knowledge. Or share what albums you found to sound great in Hi-Res
Enjoy your music.
Red
