Essence™ Dynamic Range Chart 1887-2013 - Essence For High Res Audio

: High Compression of MP3, WAV music files

: Moderate Compression of Hi -Res Downloads

: Uncompressed Blu-ray with Full Dynamic Range of original master recording

What is dynamic range? It’s the measurement in decibels between the softest and loudest sounds on a recording

Ever since Thomas Edison invented his Talking Machine in 1887, the goal has been to record the full frequency bandwidth and dynamic range of human hearing. Each generation has made progress in creating new storage media to make that possible but until Blu-ray came along in 2009, all of the formats compressed the sound to fit the format in order to serve a mass audience.

We’ve put together a chart showing how bandwidth and dynamic range increased over the years since that first playback system was introduced. Music is the essence of life and we are finally able to enjoy it at home with the highest level of fidelity in 127 years.

2 replies on “Essence™ Dynamic Range Chart 1887-2013“

Bob Rapoport

February 5, 2014 at 2:01 pm

Yes Kevin, HDMI’s data rate is 10.2 Gbps, its not the Blu-ray spec, its the HDMI spec. Yep Nak had to be there, its a shame that name brand is not still active, it had a lot of cache in its day.