Summary
For the music buffs, getting one best High-Resolution audio player is the best reward of ears. This post lists best 8 hi-res music player reviews, including the portable audio device and software on Windows/Mac/Android for you. Pick up the best one for your ears.
Best Hi-Res Audio Player (Portable and Software) in 2021
High Resolution Audio, also named as hi-res audio, is any audio format beyond the 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD standard). The higher the bit depth, the clearer the sound will be. When you rip a CD to an MP3 file, you will find the music loses something (liveliness and realism) in the process by comparing the difference. So High resolution audio (HRA) can be regarded as the ultimate sonic selection for digital music fans.
For the hi-res audio format, there are two types of file formats including uncompressed files and lossless compressed files. Uncompressed files are including PCM, WAV, AIFF, ASD, while lossless-compressed files are including FLAC and ALAC. The uncompressed audio files would take up around 50% more storage space on your computer or hard drive than lossless compressed files while they theoretically sound the same. In order to enjoy the high-res music tracks, you may need high-res player or software. Just keep in mind, hi-res player and software does not always support all the high resolution audio formats, when you find the high resolution audio music, you should consider your Hi-Res audio player compatibility.
The better the Hi-Res audio player, the more detail and resolution it can retrieve from the sound of your music. If you are a music lover or audiophile, you must be eager to know more Hi-Res audio players to drive your Hi-Fi/Hi-Res headphones and IEMs for better enjoy your favorite music anywhere you go.
1. Audio file types support: hi-res audio player cannot support all the high resolution audio files, so when you buy a high resolution portable audio player, you may consider it to at least support ALAC, DSD and FLAC as those are the most common codecs the high-resolution download sites use.
2. User interface: you need to consider the user interfaces of the Hi-Res audio player as it connects to your using experience. With the good user interface, you can easily find what you can do with this player and accomplish a certain tasks like creating a playlist with ease.
3. Storage capacity: High-res DAPs may have both internal storage and expandable storage via microSD card slots. As the high-res music files are larger than the common music files like MP3 and AAC, you need to consider at least 32GB internal storage and one microSD slot for a hi res DAP.
4. Battery: you may also need to consider the high-res audio player's battery as the longer the playtime the better the battery is. Most of the Hi-Res audio player can play around 10 hours before charging. There would a clear battery indicator showing the percentage of the battery left for the best high-res audio player.
There are more things you may need to consider when buying a hi res audio player like transferring songs function, Bluetooth, DAC (digital-to-analog-converter), native DSD playback, etc.
Digital Audio Players (DAP) and Hi-Res audio players are very popular nowadays. If you appreciate the details in sound, and can easily tell the difference in sound quality between a regular MP3 and a lossless audio format, you must be very interested in Hi-Fi players or Hi-Res audio players. Portable Hi-Res audio players are great for audiophiles, if you are one of them, you should pay more attention to the following part.
No. 1 Hi-Res audio player - LOTOO PAW GOLD
Price: $1799 for 128GB
Not Sony NW-ZX2, not Astell&Kern AK380, and the first recommended Hi-Res audio player is Lotoo Paw Gold. Though Lotoo is still new to most Hi-Fi music fans, it has been praised for its reference level sound quality that will have fellow audiophiles grinning from ear to ear. With the simple interface and limited functions, you will know that this fantastic Hi-Res audio player is only designed for providing the reference level music quality. You can handily play DSD and any other lossless audio files with Lotoo Paw Gold.
No. 2 Hi-Res audio player - Astell&Kern AK300
Price: $689 for 64GB
Astell&Kern 300 is a well designed and expensive Hi-Res audio player. It features with a single AK4490 DAC chip and supports 24-bit/192kHz bit to bit playback. This high resolution audio player also supports DSD. When we talk about Astell&Kern product, you may not worry about its outlook and various features. This Hi-Res audio player is equipped with a 4-inch display with a resolution of 400×800. It supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.0, standard 3.5mm single ended out, 3.5mm optical out and 2.5mm 4-pole balance output.
No. 3 Hi-Res audio player - Sony NW-ZX2
Price: $799.99 for 128 GB
Just like Astell&Kern 300, Sony NW-ZX2 is also an all-featured Hi-Res audio player. Sony NW-ZX2 is more than just Sony NW-ZX1 + PHA 3. It can offer high quality sound and a good user experience. This Hi-Res audio player is compatible any popular regular and lossless audio format. This the unit works well with almost all headphones. Excellent Sony build quality and easy-to-use Android UI make Sony NW-ZX2 one of the best Hi-Res audio players.
No. 4 Hi-Res audio player - Cowon Plenue 1
Price: $449 for 128GB
As Cowon's flagship music player, Cowon Plenue P1 is a refreshingly focused unit. It is a Hi-Res audio player and nothing else. You can't use it to use various apps and watch movies like Sony NW-ZX2 does. But it can play on a league of its own and the best sound quality. With the excellent implementation, an advanced 10-band EQ with almost endless tuning possibilities, and the great BBE+ (jetaudio 7), this high resolution audio player can you a 100% true-to-life experience.
No. 5 Hi-Res audio player - iBasso DX200
Price: $899 for 64GB
Do you still miss the old iBasso DX100? iBasso has been into the portable Hi-Fi player market for many years. And iBasso DX200 is the successor of the old DX100. This Hi-Res audio player features a dual SABRE ES9028PRO DAC chips that supports 32bit/384kHZ PCM and DSD 512X audio formats. Similar to Fiio X7, iBasso DX200 also carries the replaceable and upgradable Amp section. iBasso DX200 is powered by an ARM Cortex-A53 8-core SoC, with 2GB of LPDDR3 and 64G internal memory. You will get a really wonderful music experience with this Hi-Res audio player.
1. Free Media Player for Windows/Mac
Free Media Player can always be your first and best choice as best audio player when you want to find a good alternative to Windows Media Player. Compared with Windows Media Player, it can play any popular audio/video format like MP3, FLAC, AAC, WAV, OGG, MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, FLV, and more on your PC. Moreover, it is compatible with 4K UHD/1080p HD video formats. Thanks to its user-friendly interface, you can easily play media files smoothly.
2. Hi-Res audio player for Windows 10/8/7
For High resolution player for Windows, here we will give you a simple introduction of Sony Hi-Res Audio Player. Sony Hi-res Audio Player is an easy-to-use high resolution music playing program. It can work with the high resolution audio system and headphone to help you enjoy high-quality music. It highly supports Sony Hi-res audio playing products like CAS-1, UDA-1, PHA-1/2/3, MDR-1ADAC, SRS-X88, SRS-X99, etc. One thing you should know first, this Hi-res Audio Player can't directly play high resolution music on your Windows without any output device. It also has the Mac version.
3. Hi-Res audio player for Mac (macOS High Sierra included)
VOX Music Player for Mac is a premium Mac music player for Hi-Res music through the popular sources. It supports the common formats including FLAC, MP3, CUE, APE and M4A. You can also playback Hi-Res audio with up to 24bit/192kHz and enjoy 5.1 multichannel audio playback for the most comprehensive and sophisticated experience.
4. Hi-Res audio player app for Android
Onkyo HF Player is a Hi-Res audio player app which can get greater control of how music sounds on your Android device with its touch-adjustable linear-phase FIR equalizer which offers 16,384 discrete bands of HD equalization with zero loss in audio quality. HF Player for Android enables playback of Hi-Res audio formats including FLAC, 192 kHz/24-bit WAV and DSD at no extra charge. You can enjoy the high resolution audio with this free Hi-Res audio player app. This app also has iOS version.
Getting the best hi-res music player is the getting the container, putting the hi-res audio files into the container is perfect. Where to get the hi-res music files? Here the 5 sites are where you can listen to hi-res music files.
1. Acoustic Sounds Super HiRez
Available file formats: DSD, FLAC and ALAC.
Music Genres: Blues, Pop/Rock, Classical, Female Vocalists, Folk, Jazz, and more.
2. HDtracks
Available file formats: AIFF, ALAC, WAV, FLAC (and DSD coming soon).
Music Genres: Rock, Classic Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classical, Country, Electronic, Folk, Fusion, and many more.
3. ProStudio Masters
Available file formats: AIFF, ALAC and DSD.
Music Genres: Alternative, Blues, Classical, Country, Francophone, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks and World.
4. iTrax
Available file formats: FLAC and WAV.
Music Genres: Acoustic/Guitar, Blues, Acoustic/Instrumental, Rock/Pop, Jazz, Classical, Country/Folk, Electric/Instrumental, World, Crossover, R&B and Christmas.
5. Native DSD Music and Beyond
Available file formats: DSD.
Music Genres: Big Band, Classical, Classical Compilation, Classical Crossover, Gospel, Independent Acoustic, Jazz, Jazz Compilation, and more.
For playing the online hi-res audio files, you could use the audio player for better sound experience. Aiseesof Blue-ray Player is the tool that can help you.
Step 1 Download, install and run Blu-ray Player on your computer.
Step 2 Click "Open File" to import hi-res music file to play audio file.
Step 3 You are able to set audio track, audio channel and audio device to playback hi-res music file as you like.
Easy, right? Get the wonderful Hi-Res Audio Player to make pleasure.
This page focuses on telling you how to pick up the best one High Resolution audio player (portable and software). In addition, you could find the hi-res audio sites to save the music file for enjoying on your hi-res player.
If you have any questions about this article, just feel free to leave your comments as below.
December 24, 2020 09:10 / Updated by Jenny Ryan to Audio, Play Audio
How to Play Audio Files on Windows/Mac
Looking for an audio player to play audio file? You can learn how to play audio file with the best audio player for Windows/Mac/iOS/Android.
Audiobook Player to Play Audiobooks on iOS/Android
Want to find the best audiobook player? You can learn how to play audiobooks on iPhone and Android with audiobook player in this post.
How to Add 3D Audio Sound to Video
What is 3D sound and where to download 3D audio sound? We will show you how to download and add 3D audio to video in this post.
