StereoNET contributor and HRA advocate Dr. Mark Waldrep Ph.D. has been actively pushing for a set of standards to be agreed upon, and for a brief moment it looked as though he may have been heard.

One of the problems is that creating a universal standard is really no single entity's responsibility. It has been widely recognised globally however by audio enthusiasts, CE manufacturers, labels and artists, and even auto manufacturers that this needs to happen sooner, rather than later.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), The Recording Academy®, and major labels took the initiative to work together to create not necessarily a set of standards for HRA, but to create a formal definition for High-Resolution Audio. Which entities, labels, and industry experts were actually involved in the process we're not exactly too sure, however Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have all been mentioned.

Released this month, a press release outlining the findings has been met with mixed views by leading industry experts.

The newly established definition of 'HRA' is accompanied by a series of descriptors for the Master Quality Recordings that are used to produce the hi-res files available from digital music retailers. While the use of these descriptors is entirely voluntary, we'll watch with interest to see the adoption of this information at the retail level.

“Thanks to this initiative, the industry can take a unified approach in offering digital music services a variety of information concerning the growing number of hi-res music titles being distributed today”. said Amy Jo Smith, president of DEG.

“Leading members of The Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing provided valuable feedback on this new High Resolution Audio definition and descriptors for Master Quality Recordings, and we're grateful for their input and expertise," said Neil Portnow, president/CEO of The Recording Academy. He continued, "When properly implemented, we believe this agreement will be welcomed by our members and the music community, enhancing their ability to improve the music creative process.”

The Definition

As a result of this study, High Resolution Audio has been defined as:

“lossless audio that is capable of reproducing the full range of sound from recordings that have been mastered from better than CD quality music sources.”

In addition to this definition, four different Master Quality Recording categories have been designated, each of which describes a recording that has been made from the best quality music source currently available. All of these recordings will sound like the artists, producers and engineers originally intended.

Matt Signore, president, Artist & Label Services, WEA, added, “We support the creation of clear and formal definitions for master quality sources. As high resolution music services continue to grow, we encourage and look forward to all partners in the music value chain meeting the definitions of High Resolution Audio, and providing easy-to-use and exciting experiences. We expect 2014 and 2015 to be years of important developments around High Resolution Audio.”

Master Quality Recording sources

The descriptors for the Master Quality Recording categories are as follows:

• MQ-P - From a PCM master source 48 kHz/20 bit or higher; (typically 96/24 or 192/24 content)
• MQ-A - From an analog master source
• MQ-C - From a CD master source (44.1 kHz/16 bit content)
• MQ-D - From a DSD/DSF master source (typically 2.8 or 5.6 MHz content)

To further expand the High Resolution Audio initiative, The Recording Academy, the DEG and the CEA are sponsoring a special High Resolution Audio Listening Experience event, which will be held at Jungle City Studios in New York on Tuesday, June 24 from 6pm to 9pm during CE Week.

Any attempt to create an industry wide accepted standard for HRA is of course a welcome development, particularly as HRA becomes increasingly mainstream with the likes of Apple's foray into lossless audio, the imminent Pono player, and an undoubtable shift towards higher resolution audio in the coming years.

StereoNET will continue to eagerly follow developments.

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