[shrewdgamer]

Should a headphone claiming to be Hi-Res have Hi-Res certification?

 

[Claypole]

I believe any audio kit claiming to be 'hi res' needs to be certified and should have a 'hi res' sticker on it, but I don't suppose that will stop companies making bogus 'hi res' claims about their kit.

I think it's reasonable to assume that if a bit of kit was certified, then the manufacturer would definitely want to put the sticker on, so no sticker would mean no certifiaction to me.

I believe 'hi res' headphones need to have a frequency response all the way up to 40khz, but that's way beyond the range of human hearing, so listening to the headphones won't tell you whether they are 'hi res' or not.

 

[DuncanDirkDick]

I don't think it's defined for headphones. For mics it's 40khz. So, no

 

[tomb]

It's a gimmick, period.

 

[HipHopScribe]

Calling a headphone "hi-res" is meaningless marketing nonsense.

 

[shrewdgamer]

I believe any audio kit claiming to be 'hi res' needs to be certified and should have a 'hi res' sticker on it, but I don't suppose that will stop companies making bogus 'hi res' claims about their kit.

I think it's reasonable to assume that if a bit of kit was certified, then the manufacturer would definitely want to put the sticker on, so no sticker would mean no certifiaction to me.

I believe 'hi res' headphones need to have a frequency response all the way up to 40khz, but that's way beyond the range of human hearing, so listening to the headphones won't tell you whether they are 'hi res' or not.

So, in your opinion a company claiming their headphone is hi-res without certification is lying?

I don't think it's defined for headphones. For mics it's 40khz. So, no

I think it is, Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association invented it in 2014 and they certify headphones as hi-res, like HD 800S, ATH-SR5, etc

It's a gimmick, period.

Calling a headphone "hi-res" is meaningless marketing nonsense.

So it has no noticeable improvement.

 

[Claypole]

So, in your opinion a company claiming their headphone is hi-res without certification is lying?

I would prefer to make that assumption rather than taking their word for it. You’re not going to know by listening to them, so certification is all you could go by.

The Sony WH1000 XM4 are certified ‘hi res‘ headphones, and have a frequency response all the way up to 40khz. However, I would say that they are simply not good enough headphones to resolve the subtle improvements that a hi res source may possibly be able to offer over ‘standard’ resolution music.

 

[HipHopScribe]

The thing is, I'm sure almost every single headphone anyone would recommend on here can produce sounds up to 40khz if measured with the right equipment. Those frequencies might be much lower amplitude than other parts of the frequency response, and of course you can't hear them because you're not a dog, but the drivers of most decent headphones are likely capable of producing them. Companies just didn't used to bother measuring that because there was no cool sticker they pay to put on their box to try to convince a few more people to buy their headphones. So no, buying a headphone with a hi-res certification does not mean there's any improvement in the sound. A company calling their headphone hi-res without a certification likely just didn't want to pay for the certification even if their headphones qualify.

Frankly, I think companies convincing consumers to pay for any "hi-res" equipment or music to listen to frequencies they can't possibly hear are pushing snake oil, but that's likely not a super popular opinion on here. Hi-res on the music production side might be another story, but I've seen nothing to convince me it offers any benefits on the consumer side.

 

[madmonkey]

i have a freind who mixes music albums. he told me hi res isnt worth it. but to me it seems i hear a difference

 

[islewind]

No - as has been said, it’s a marketing gimmick.

 

[someguyontheinternet]

It's just a sticker

 

[ProtegeManiac]

If high res just means it can hit 40,000hz, then the first question you have to ask is whether whatever you're listening to even has anything well past 20,000hz.

And when it does, you actually cannot hear that far beyond 20,000hz (some can hear a bit beyond that, but not a lot). What differences you hear if the same album has a different master on the SACD copy for example has as much to do with your driver's overall movement being altered by having to reproduce more freqs beyond 20,000hz. So technically the difference you hear is actually driver distortion as it struggles to pump faster for the other frequencies.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Hi-res seems to mean high resolution. If so, response bandwidth and resolution are not the same thing and not even related, and the sticker is meaningless marketing gibberish and FUD. I know several other people have said that in this thread already, so just accept my

+1

in the spirit in which it is intended

 

[Whazzzup]

I will resolve to be as high as possible, how about that?