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GuitarSuperstar
Lead Maestro
December 7, 2021

"The Beginner’s Guide to Hi-Res Audio"

  • December 7, 2021
  • 92 replies
  • 4122 views

The 13.4.1 S2 update added hi-res (Ultra HD) and Dolby Atmos audio support from Amazon Music Unlimited. With this update, Sonos released this great article about hi-res audio and how you can listen to it on Sonos. It’s a very detailed and well-written article:

https://blog.sonos.com/en-us/hi-res-audio-guide

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    Kumar
    February 12, 2022

    4K HDR video played back on my 65” OLED blows me away.  

    OLED and HDR are very fine. However with average vision the 4K part is only likely to be relevant if you’re sitting 9 feet or less from the screen. https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-size/size-to-distance-relationship

    In many typical living room situations a viewer quite probably wouldn’t be able to distinguish 4K from FHD. 

    Agreed. And sitting close enough to pick the 4K on a large screen means turning to the left/right to catch all the action, that can get tiresome. 

    But the few times I have watched 4K streams on a 2011 make 50 inch plasma HDTV, the picture clarity is a marked improvement even on that TV as compared to HD streams. Perhaps the better mastering analogy applies to video as well. Of course, how much better than that they would be on a 4K capable screen, I don’t know. 

    The difference isn’t as marked as it is in the case of DVD to HD, so this suggests that diminishing returns for video are also now in play, and I would be surprised to see any need for 8K and higher.

    Kumar
    February 12, 2022



    Audio formats reached that point that a long time ago. It’s kind of crazy that a 40 year old standard like Red Book still represents the pinnacle of audio reproduction but it really does. 

    Which is why you see all the frantic marketing of the latest audio kit, year after year, by the odious to the credulous - the HiFi specialist media being just as culpable. And their pandering to the all too common human condition of not being satisfied with what is available and at hand in the home.

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