The gold standard for top end audio is HiRes Audio (24bit/96kHz or higher) and although the available music has been limited in comparison to the catalogue available in CD Quality this has gradually been increasing over the past couple of years. 2021 saw Apple Music launch its ‘Lossless’ service which joined Amazon Music, Qobuz and TIDAL all offering CD Quality and 24bit/96kHz or higher streams.
Spotify’s much publicised announcement that it would launch its CD Quality ‘HiFi service’ in 2021 did not come to pass. With the general trend in music streaming moving towards better audio quality and its main rival Apple Music going lossless, it can only be a matter of time before Spotify rolls out lossless as well. We are also getting innovations such as Spatial Audio from Apple, Dolby Atmos and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio which are giving us a more realistic sound stage to listen to.
When it comes to radio the move to higher audio quality has not mirrored the improvements in music streaming. DAB radio in the UK and elsewhere continues to optimise an increasing number of channels at the expense of audio quality and in many stations the move to digital is a distinct downgrade relative to FM. Internet radio has by contrast had some interesting experiments in CD Quality broadcasting with some mainstream broadcasters such as Czech Radio, community supported stations such as Radio Paradise, local radio stations such as Le Son Unique and Radio Kemonia and ‘enthusiast’ stations such as Radio BluesFlac and Magic Radio leading the way. A list of over 50 CD Quality Internet Radio stations broadcasting a wide range of music and audio content can be found here.
HiRes Internet Radio technologies
At present there are two approaches to delivering HiRes Internet Radio:
- Conventional Internet Radio – Enhance existing Internet Radio servers and software to deliver 24-bit/96kHz and 24-bit/192kHz streams, and
- MQA encoded HiRes streams using BluOS
Conventional Internet Radio
This approach has been taken by SuperStereo Radio Chile which has upgraded its seven channels from CD Quality (16-bit) to 24-bit HiRes using vinyl and SACD sources and Mother Earth Radio which now broadcasts 4 24-bit/192kHz streams from vinyl sources.
A recent newcomer is Radio Calico which has taken the bold step of using HiRes originals sourced from Qobuz to stream 24-bit originals (where available) in 24-bit 48kHz HiRes and upsampling 16-bit CD Quality originals when 24-bit originals are not available.
MQA encoded HiRes streams
MQA technology takes HiRes streams and using proprietary signal processing ‘folds’ and then ‘unfolds’ audio files to make them small enough to stream. MQA refer to this as ‘Music Origami’ and a full explanation can be found on their website here. TIDAL launched its HiRes audio streaming service using MQA but now streams both FLAC and MQA encoded tracks. Since MQA going into administration and being bought out by Lenbrook, TIDAL has said that it whilst it will continue to support MQA its main HiRes offerings will be in FLAC.
Radio Paradise has partnered with MQA and BluOS to provide their four channels as additional MQA encoded streams to users of Bluesound, NAD Electronics DALI Loudspeakers, Monitor Audio and other BluOS partner products. Radio Paradise currently streams 16-bit/44.1kHz originals using its MQA encoder but has the capability to stream in HiRes. For further information on their MQA service go here.
How to listen to HiRes Internet Radio
To listen to Mother Earth Radio and SuperStereo Radio Chile you can listen either via their sites web player or use a media player such as foobar or VLC. Listening to Radio Paradise’s MQA enabled streams requires BluOS enabled HiFi hardware and details of how to configure your kit can be found here.
Note: FLAC streams are variable and often over 2000kbps. When streamed in the home a wired connection will be preferable to wireless. Mobile users should ensure a good 4G or better connection to guarantee optimal streaming.
To get further information on:
How to listen to lossless FLAC internet radio with free media players go here.
How to listen to lossless FLAC internet radio with your browser go here.
To find out more about CD Quality Internet Radio go here.
The future of HiRes Internet Radio
Until Radio Calico started broadcasting no one had created a HiRes internet radio station using 24-bit source material and ‘conventional’ internet radio streaming technology i.e. not using MQA encoding. Hopefully, this will be the first of many stations to start HiRes transmissions.
HiRes Internet Radio Stations
(All FLAC streams checked as live – September 2022. Audio stream quality is as measured using foobar.)
