More HiFi spectra - look at the difference

What I would like to start with is a convincing (at least for me) demonstration that you do need your HiFi system to have a wider bandwidth than 20-20kHz to reproduce sounds correctly. It is a simple test, the rattling of a bunch of keys infront of a microphone. Here is the spectrum, just look at the sounds above 20kHz... to get a realistic reproduction of the very fast rise times of this rattle sound you need a bandwidth above that of the human ear's perception. [Spectra are from SoundScope software, mon/left channel Red, right channel Green]



Now to get a hang on what sort of bandwidth the music industry is actually delivering to us, and to understand why almost all of their recordings are useless when it comes to actually hearing the original instrument sound, look at these limited bandwidth offerings

The CD



iTunes current version AAC



ITunes early version - when they had DRM on the tracks



MP3 lossy compressed download



A couple of tracks from Spotify - Spotify seems to have a variable quality... the second one is terrrible!



And just yesterday I read in the paper that the BBC claim to be transmitting HD Audio on the internet, it is NOT HD, but simply MP3 at 320kbps and for Radio 3 only. Look at these spectra for Radio3 and the terrible quality of Radio 1. If they transmitted HD Audio in lossless format this would need 2000kbs, but anyway that is only what is needed for IPTV/iPlayer, so why is radio the poor relation?



Finally what we all need, a track delivered at 24bit/96kHz, look at the improvement



My belief is that the music industry has lost the plot, they over compress tracks, they refuse to move forward and use new wideband technology, and if they carry on this way they have no future growth potential. With us all having much wider pipes for our broadband today, now is the time for the industry to redefine its offering.