Audio compression designs set to change

The audio compression algorithms we use today are designed around the understanding that we all hear sounds in a similar, relatively unform way. Now, researchers into human time-frequency acuity have discovered that individuals’ perception is actually far more accurate at certain frequencies than was previously thought, and that we all hear sounds slightly differently. It has been known for some time that we hear loudness non-linearly, but temporal and frequency perception? That’s a new one for many …

The research findings, published in a recent Physical Review Letter and covered on Ars Technica, are going to oblige audio compression technology developers and sound engineers to re-visit their designs.

We’ll follow this story and bring you updates as they appear.