There's been a recent discussion in a LinkedIn forum that got me thinking. The conversation centers on whether high-resolution audio (HRA) is relevant given that consumers will always choose convenience over quality when faced with that choice. Is HRA a technological solution in search of a problem? Do up and coming demographics not perceive the differences between quality audio and crappy substitutes? Interesting questions.

Since the dawn of canned sound, from wax to wire and from vinyl to virtual, recorded sound has slowly moved from lower fidelity to higher. All factors being equal, any human will instinctively pick what they perceive as more enjoyable over a lesser alternative. As engineers and pro practitioners, we know that playback which best translates the emotion and joy that a performance contains will "win" over a lower quality alternative. New portable players and smartphones that provide a high-quality listening experience, along with lossless streaming from OraStream and TIDAL along with emerging standards, including WiSA, have multiplied the convenience factor already pioneered by Sonos, Olive, and others. Convenience no longer equates to low-fidelity, removing a barrier to delivering that emotional connection of which artists dream.

There once were some oft-cited studies that purported to demonstrate that "young people" and other naive listeners can't tell the difference between a highly compressed and CD version of the same song. Subjectively, we know that's jive and more recent, well constructed studies have disproved that old supposition. When a consumer is truly interested in a topic and has the time and disposable income, they tend to vote with their wallets. That immediately eliminates younger demographics, which is where ad dollars tend to be spent since they're easy marks. We as an industry need to "educate up," as my mentors are fond of saying. Some of today's young disposable listeners will become tomorrow's dedicated connoisseurs.

Now that the readily available technology for HRA delivery is out there, easy to use, and semi-affordable, younger generations are maturing with higher resolution entertainment and will be expecting it as their buying powers increase. All we have to do is enable and support their improving perceptions.