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Today someone asked if MP3 could be considered Hi-Fi...

Posted by DevillEars (A) on May 4, 2007 at 07:32:29

I thought about the question for a while and replied that I guessed it depended on how one defined the two terms used in the question.

1) MP3

Firstly, mp3 is a compressed digital audio file format that is based on a "lossy compression algorithm".

The compression algorithm is used when encoding and one of the ways it achieves it's compression levels is by "dropping" (or "losing") data - hence the term "lossy" (as opposed to "lossless").

Although some psychoacoustics have been taken into consideration when designing these algorithms, some of the digital data (ie: bits) lost can and do have an impact on the accuracy of the reconstructed analogue signal when compared to the original source.

In addition, the "accuracy" of the reconstructed analogue waveform is impacted by the "data rate" (also known as "sampling rate").

The analogue waveform reconstruction process is based on "binary data" and, if the reconstructed waveform is examined minutely, the curves are comprised of "steps".

The size of these "steps" in relation to the curve is linked to the "data rate" - the higher the "data rate", the smaller these "steps".

So, in summary, analogue signals that have been reconstructed from mp3 files differ from the original source in two areas:

- due to inaccuracies from data loss in compression
- due to "stepping" in waveform reconstruction

2) HI-FI

The term "Hi-Fi" is a contraction of two words:

- High
- Fidelity

:and, literally, implies that the sound reproduced is a highly accurate reproduction of the original.

What has happened, however, is that common usage (largely due to "advertising speak") has seen the term debased and applied to any equipment that reproduces music/sound - with no regard to the accuracy of reproduction.

(Go check out the chain stores' so-called "hi-fi" shelves and see the various mini-systems made of plastic and festooned with LED's, graphic equalisers, ultra-mega-super-bass-boost and covered with little reflective metalised strips proclaiming power outputs in the bevawatt range...)

In this context, even Hi-Fi can no longer be considered Hi-Fi - just mass-market junk!

3) Summary

So, in absolute and literal terms, the answer to the question posed has to be a solid and definite "NO"!

In common parlance, however, the answer is not so clear-cut, as we are beginning to see a convergence of audio and computing, with the long-term resultant integration of the two.

Hi-Fi equipment is beginning to show the impact of this with new products offering inputs to support PC integration like:

a) USB ports for flash memory card read/write
b) iPOD docking
c) USB ports for digital audio feed
etc, etc..

If we accept this as an inevitable shift driven by a market that is more interested in portability, convenience and downloadability than in optimal sound quality, then the answer is not quite so clear-cut...

Hi-Fi may well eventually be debased and become MP3 as us "audiophiles" get swamped by the masses and will eventually become a distant memory as the masses opt for the "Fast-Food" of audio - a convenient musical take-away!

The future of "Cordon Bleu Audio" (where one actually gets to sit down to, and enjoy, decent quality music reproduction) is becoming bleaker by the day...

DevillEars

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