Many people think that the city is overflowing with noise, but in reality the sounds are very limited.

In data measuring the environmental noise in cities and tropical rain forests, there were few sounds up to 20 kHz, which is the upper limit of the human audible range (which is about 20 Hz to 20 kHz), whereas there was approximately six times as much noise at up to 130 kHz in tropical rain forests.

These were natural sounds such as the rustling of leaves, calling of birds, and chuckling of rivers. People think that the bustling and busy city is overflowing with noise, such as vehicle sounds and people’s voices. But in reality, the noise in the natural world is richer, and has greater resonance with many good effects for people who live amidst nature.

Tropical rain forest environmental noises
Sounds just beyond the audible range

Urban environmental noises
Sounds at the upper limit of human hearing

Noise cannot be seen with the eye, and so tends to be viewed lightly, but there is also data saying that it affects 39% of our senses, and the ears are an important sensory organ for human beings.

Vibrations in the air, which create sound, are felt not just by the ears but systemically, such as by the skin, bones, and muscles, and water, which accounts for over 70% of the body. Humans have been bathed in abundant audio frequencies since the dawn of time and have built up unconscious protections. Modern man, however, and the urban dweller in particular, can be said to lack experience with sound on a corporeal level.

Another problem involving sound is the compressed sound source. We can also listen to music easily through the spread of CDs and music distribution. In fact, these sound sources can only be heard at frequencies audible to humans, just like urban sounds. It goes without saying that the utility of CDs and music distribution fits the lifestyle of the modern person. At times, however, shouldn’t it be necessary to listen to a broad spectrum of music with high sound quality close to the natural sound environment? Urban children in particular may grow up never having experienced natural sounds.

Difference between CD or online distributed music and Hi-Res

This new perspective, that it is necessary to experience an abundance of sounds, is the point from which our efforts to develop the “Hi-Resolution Audio System” started.

When seeking “rich sounds,” ideally one should go deep into the mountains or beside the sea where there are few human settlements. That, however, is impossible for most of us. This being the case, Hi-Res was born from the idea that if only we could bring the sound environment closer to nature.

Hi-Res is an original sound medium that creates the sound environment of nature in spaces such as the city or indoors.

Its mechanism is explained here briefly. CDs have a standard sample rate of 44.1 kHz/16 quantized bits, and the upper frequency range is limited to 20 kHz in the audible range. By contrast, Hi-Res is a system that compresses and supplies, on DVD and other media, sound sources recorded in high fidelity and broadband such as a sampling rate of 96 kHz/24 quantized bits. This allows approximately triple the volume as a CD and reproduces sounds that are close to nature with the richness of high-frequencies that exceed the upper limit of human perception, up to a highfrequency limit of 48 kHz.