NetEase Cloud Music adds Hi-Res sound quality, but it can’t even handle the most basic music library

In mid-to-late April, a piece of news that was easily overlooked came out. NetEase Cloud Music was about to launch the Hi-Res sound quality option and conducted a grayscale test at that time. Then on May 12, NetEase Cloud Music officially launched the option of Hi-Res sound quality.

As long as you are VIP members and above, you can see this red special “Hi-Res” logo in the sound quality options of some music.

Not only that, but NetEase Cloud Music also specially set up a Hi-Res area, where you can swim in the million-level rich music pool, listen to and enjoy high-quality music as long as you pay.

Are you excited? Excited?Source: NetEase Cloud Music

I have to wonder if NetEase Cloud Music has recruited a “brain amplifier expert”, or maybe a 5G enthusiast who may never run out of data for a lifetime, just trying to find a reasonable occasion to use up your 5G flow.

In the popular software such as NetEase Cloud Music, the Hi-Res sound quality option has been added. This is the same as the Arabica coffee beans that I saw Ruixing advertised that they use. It is really a ridiculous thing.

Hi-Res sound quality?sorry i heard it for the first time

However, everything cannot be one size fits all. Without any further payment, users can get better sound quality by choosing the “Hi-Res” option on the taller. How many classical music can be subdivided in this million-level music library? Anyway, in my more than 100 song lists, only 1 classical music is Hi-Res sound quality. Maybe the music I listen to is relatively small. can also understand.

After reading this million-level Hi-Res music library, it is not difficult to find that the music in the recommended column is indeed popular enough, and there are thousands of comments when you click on one, and everyone has a great time discussing.

I can’t be too sensitive. After all, for the vast majority of users, Hi-Res sound quality is better than nothing.

But the problem is that when you open NetEase Cloud Music, you will find that in addition to regular music content, there are also FM radio, live broadcast, blogs, and audiobooks, which are obviously more targeted than users who just listen to music like Apple Music and TIDAL. Guang, everyone might just go out and listen to NetEase Cloud Music for convenience. They may not notice the sound quality options. For users who pursue sound quality, can they really distinguish between “lossless” sound quality and “Hi-Res” sound quality options?

This is the current status of NetEase Cloud Music Source: Pinwan lzh

Here we must first correct a concept, Hi-Res is not any kind of sound quality format. NetEase Cloud Music’s use of Hi-Res sound quality is too ambiguous in my opinion.

It is a high-quality audio design standard proposed by Sony and handed over to the Japan Audio Association and the Japan Consumer Electronics Association. This “small gold label” that is very common on the current headphone packaging is because Sony made a logo specially to distinguish its high-standard equipment from the popular equipment on the market for the needs of the market at that time.

Hi-Res is not any kind of sound quality

Later, Sony did open source certification in order not to be said by others that it was a slap-and-done practice and to drive up prices. Generally speaking, it refers to audio sources that exceed the 16-bit bit depth of CDs and the sampling frequency of 44.1KHz, such as 24bit/48KHz, 88.2KHz, 96KHz, 176.4KHz, 192KHz FLAC and WAV files can be counted as Hi-Res sound quality, and certification is another matter. Simply speaking, as long as the Hi-Res standard is sufficient , you can get certified by paying a little money every year. Don’t think it’s difficult, even the Xiaomi iron earphones have passed the Hi-Res certification.

Hi-Res product certification requirements Source: Network

Hi-Res is, in the final analysis, a quantitative expression standard for the degree of reaction reduction.

Now that NetEase Cloud Music already provides lossless sound quality options, and Hi-Res sound quality is also added, what is the difference between the two? I originally wanted to download it and put it into professional audio software to read, but Hi-Res sound quality is the same as lossless sound quality, and it has been encrypted by ncm.

This is the file size of the Hi-Res sound quality I downloaded. Source: Photo by Pinwan lzh

The same song has a lossless size of 15 megabytes and a Hi-Res file size of 28 megabytes. Although in terms of size, the higher-definition file size is larger, but this is an order of magnitude compared with a DSD file of 400.500 megabytes. gap this. I can only guess that there is a difference between the frequency of use and the sampling accuracy, and we dare not say or ask about the others.

NetEase Cloud Music + Hi-Res = twist

Many people in the comment area said: The larger the audio file = the better the music.

This is the dumbest conclusion I’ve ever heard. Using high adoption rate and high adoption precision can retain more details in the source file, so that the amount of information can be preserved when using the equipment to play back, but you still need to watch the playback equipment, use the original 9.9 headphones and Sennheiser. Faith listens to “Hotel California”, although he can cry, but the listening experience is definitely different.

Even if the Hi-Res file in NetEase Cloud Music is 200 megabytes in size, it is possible that users will not only not cry, but will only be silent.

The problem lies in positioning: users who are still using NetEase Cloud Music or listening to songs on their mobile phones are basically listening to songs wirelessly.

For mass users, the perception is not strong; for professional users, it is scornful.

I believe that there are not many mobile phones that do not install NetEase Cloud Music as a must-have software, and I also believe that paying to become a member is also the first choice for the vast majority of users (you still have to give Taobao 88VIP a like). After becoming a member, put the Switching the sound quality from normal sound quality to lossless is also the first thing to do. After switching to Hi-Res sound quality, these mass users may have to scold the street, because it is very likely that they will not be able to hear the difference at all.

The biggest problem occurs in the transmission link. For the general public, using wireless headphones is definitely the first choice for NetEase Cloud HD sound quality users. However, the protocol of most true wireless headphones is not high-definition, and few can achieve Hi-Res sound quality. . Taking the LDAC with the highest transmission efficiency at present, it can support up to 96khz/24bit format, and the transmission rate can also reach about 990Kbps. However, the types of wireless headphones equipped with this technology are few and expensive, and the domestic LHDC technology can be comparable to Hi . -The high adoption rate and bit rate of Res sound quality, but there are relatively high requirements for the front-end equipment system.

Mainstream wireless protocol transmission rates and specifications Source: Network

Not to mention ordinary people, even “golden ears” like professional audio users may not be able to hear the difference, because the limit of the human ear is 20KHz. For mass users, it may be necessary to see Hi-Res open his mind to indicate that he has changed.

The fact is, most users still use SBC format wireless headphones that only support 44.1KHz sampling rate and 328Kbps bit transmission rate to listen to music. At present, a considerable number of headphones are equipped with aptX family barrels, but they are only close to CD quality level. In addition, the transmission rate is only 600Kbps bit rate.

For Apple users, the AirPods series currently only supports AAC, not even the lossless format of its own Apple Music, let alone a third-party music platform. There are rumors that Apple will release its own lossless Bluetooth transmission protocol at WWDC. This can be expected.

There is only one particularly partial song in my playlist that supports “Hi-Res” sound quality Image source: Photo by Pinwan lzh

For users who are critical of professional audio, the “Hi-Res” function of NetEase Cloud Music is better than nothing.

Except for some users who do buy high-end true wireless earphones, in order to make it easier to go out and listen to the sound, most enthusiasts will choose a portable decoding amp all-in-one machine to solve the problem that the mobile phone does not have a 3.5 earphone port. Generally, such users are classical music lovers. NetEase Cloud provides very few Hi-Res classical symphony repertoires. For example, the common classical music such as “bolero” does not have Hi-Res. It may be in a few days. This version is off the shelf, and I don’t even have the qualification to experience Hi-Res.

Let’s take a look at the Hi-Res file size in Sony Music APP Source: Photo by Pinwan lzh

Besides, there are already Sony Music APPs on the market that support the quantity and audio quality of classical music, so why buy another member for NetEase Cloud Music, which does not support the complete music library?

In addition, there is also the Haibei Music APP, which is well-known to HiFi users. It not only has built-in Sony Music directly, but also can directly open the USB exclusive mode by using Haibei’s own small tail. This one-stop solution is impossible for NetEase Cloud Music. Professional features provided.

Audio manufacturers have begun to provide a complete set of solutions from software to hardware Source: Pinwan lzh photo

Of course, it does not mean that for HiFi users, the Hi-Res of NetEase Cloud Music is completely useless. For a very small number of enthusiasts (such as me), they are usually lazy and use Android with a global system that can bypass the Android SRC problem. HiFi player, which can make the best use of NetEase Cloud Music’s “lossless” and “Hi-Res” high-definition file formats.

It can be said that the Hi-Res format added by NetEase Cloud Music can not be perceived by ordinary users with one ear, and because of listening habits and music library problems, it is difficult to become the reason for HiFi enthusiasts to “re-pay”.

What is NetEase Cloud Music doing?traffic

On May 24, NetEase Cloud Music released its financial performance report for the first quarter of 2022. The report shows that its paying users have increased significantly, its gross profit margin has increased, and its net loss has decreased. largest source of income.

All kinds of “breaking bone” membership prices are indeed very attractive to new users. To be honest, it is difficult to judge whether this kind of customers are exchanged through profit promotion plus “bundled” sales and Hi-Res and other selling points. to listen to music.

The problems brought by later are obvious. Such users are likely not to become frequent customers of NetEase Cloud Music. According to the financial report, the monthly active users of NetEase Cloud Music online music service in the first quarter decreased from 183.1 million in the same period of the previous year to this year. 181.7 million in the quarter, a net loss of 1.4 million.

This is still a loss after everyone is at home and spending more time online, indicating that NetEase Cloud Music alone is not enough to attract more users by listening to music. Another report shows that the vast majority of users browsed the comment area while listening to the song.

The comment area is still the golden sign of NetEase Cloud application, which can bring a steady stream of traffic to NetEase Cloud Music; Hi-Res sound quality may not give ordinary users a strong perception of sound quality, but look at opening this sound quality file outdoors Under the position, the traffic of dozens or hundreds of megabytes running in the background at every turn, and then discussed in the comment area, the traffic perception is too strong.

NetEase Cloud Music users’ feedback on Hi-Res Source: Photo by Pinwan lzh

In the end, I advised NetEase Cloud Music to have less useless “innovative” functions such as so-called seamless playback and double-speed playback, and less publicity similar to “Luckin Arabica”, and more to solve the copyright problem of the music library. Ideas and actions to increase the amount of music.

Since the domestic music streaming media peers should not be able to do anything, they should be rotten and rotten. In the end, you may have a very comfortable life, but you can’t “lie down”, right?

Hashtags: NetEase Cloud Music NetEase Music