The Japan Audio Society (JAS) announced Wednesday SCL6, marketed as MQair, from MQA and LC3plus from Fraunhofer as additional certified codecs for the Hi-Res Audio Wireless logo. The codecs join Sony’s LDAC and Savitech’s LHDC as certified Hi-Res Audio Wireless codecs for use in smartphones, digital audio players, earphones and small speakers, JAS said. Products submitted for the Hi-Res Audio Wireless logo must use certified codecs, and for functions other than wireless connectivity, they must meet the Hi-Res Audio logo requirements, it said. “Many people want to enjoy the convenience of wireless connection to headphones or earbuds -- especially 'on-the-go',” emailed MQA founder Bob Stuart. Wireless connections provide “unpredictable data rates and a codec is needed to bridge the gap,” but the bridge can significantly reduce sound quality of high-resolution content, he said. MQair, a real-time codec, can “seamlessly adapt to both the radio capacity and the music content and aims to maximise transparency,” he said. There are no implementation partners yet for the MQair, but it's available worldwide and "conversations are underway," Stuart said.

Car audio-maker Alpine is the first aftermarket brand with full Tidal integration for hi-res audio playback, it said Thursday, announcing a free software update to enable the integration. Compatible head units are the Alpine Halo11 iLX-F511, Halo9 iLX-F509, iLX-507, and Jeep-specific i509-WRA-JK and i509-WRA-JL radios, the company said. The head units can reproduce music at a 96kHz/24-bit streaming rate when tethered to a mobile or smartphone hotspot, Alpine emailed Thursday. Tidal subscribers can access select Tidal features directly on the head unit, including My Mix, curated playlists and individualized daily listening insights. Alpine said. They can also browse through featured artists, genres and moods and access control features for play, pause, repeat and shuffle, it said.

U.K.-based Lithe audio plans to make its U.S. debut at CEDIA Expo in Dallas next month, showing its line of ceiling, surface, and garden speakers, it said Tuesday. The company will feature the Pro Series Wi-Fi multiroom ceiling speaker, incorporating an amplifier and connectivity, 192-kHz/24-bit audio, support for AirPlay 2 and Chromecast streaming and Alexa and Google voice control. The speaker is available with drivers for integration into Control4 and Fibaro control systems, with support for additional manufacturers coming soon, the company said. The speaker has an optical input and two Ethernet ports; it’s also available with PoE++ and WiSA bolt-on modules. Only a power source is needed for installation, the company said. Lithe’s in-ceiling Bluetooth speaker, with a woven glass fiber woofer cone, titanium tweeter, and Class D amplifier, is pre-tuned for in-ceiling use and has voice control support. Its Wi-Fi multiroom ceiling speaker adds support for AirPlay 2 and Chromecast to create a wireless distributed audio system, the company said.

Hi-res music streaming service Qobuz partnered with jazz label Blue Note Records on a global content collaboration that will include exclusive playlists, editorial and original video content with Blue Note artists, the companies said Friday. The initiative will also feature download sales of Blue Note’s catalog. To kick off the partnership, over 200 Blue Note albums from the 1940s-1970s are on sale at Qobuz at a 30% discount through Aug. 15, they said.

Qobuz and independent record label International Anthem partnered to sponsor four album release shows at Public Records, a restaurant and live music venue in Brooklyn, New York, the hi-res music streaming service emailed Wednesday. After each show, select live recordings will be released exclusively in hi-res on Qobuz. The series launched earlier this year with artists Alabaster DePlume and Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer; recordings from that show released on Qobuz Wednesday. On Saturday, the next release show at Public Records will feature Anteloper, celebrating the release of their Pink Dolphins album, Qobuz said.

Sony introduced two Walkman portable music players based on its S-Master HX digital amp technology, it said Monday. The NW-WM1ZM2, with a gold-plated oxygen-free copper chassis ($3,699, 256 GB) has a Kimber Kable running from the amp base to the balanced headphone jack; the NW-WM1AM2 ($1,399, 128 GB), with an aluminum alloy frame, uses a low-resistance fiber cable, it said. Both players integrate a Direct Stream Digital Remastering Engine where PCM audio is resampled into 11.2 MHz DSD. The Android models, with 5-inch displays, deliver up to 40 hours of 96kHz FLAC playback on a charge. In both, Sony used a reflow solder containing gold, which it said produces improved sound localization and wider sound space.

PS Audio’s Octave Records released Volume VI of its hi-res audio sampler disc series Audiophile Masters, emailed the company Friday. The $29 disc is playable on SACD, CD, DVD and Blu-ray players and has a Direct Stream Digital layer accessible by playing on an SACD player, PS Audio’s SACD transport or by copying the DSD tracks on the included DVD data discs, the audio company said. In addition, the master DSD and PCM files are available for purchase or download in DSDDirect Mastered 192kHz/24-bit, 96kHz/24-bit and 44.1kHz/16-bit PCM and on Octave’s 24-karat gold CDs at standard resolution. Artists include flamenco guitarist Miguel Espinoza, the Seth Lewis Quintet, classical piano and vocal group Duo Azure, and rock, pop and other tracks.

Knowles presented a new preferred listening response curve for earphone design at an AES Chicago Chapter meeting last week. True wireless stereo (TWS) earphone manufacturers have been “slow to take advantage” of the hi-res audio ecosystem, Knowles said. With more hi-res music available from streaming services such as Tidal, Amazon Music HD and Apple Lossless -- and the availability of high data rate Bluetooth codecs -- the industry is now in a position to deliver hi-res audio wirelessly “with the right hardware and tuning,” Knowles said. The company analyzed over 200 recordings -- chosen from the past 20 years of the Billboard Hot 100 to represent much of the music that headphone wearers are likely to be streaming -- and found “significant high-frequency content above 10 kHz in popular music that many earphones fail to reproduce well.” It then conducted controlled blind testing with a variety of listeners across demographics and hearing abilities to determine what makes the best sound quality, as preferred by listeners. Optimum high-frequency response is key when designing hi-res earphones, the company said. Using recently developed technology, Knowles was able for the first time to extend an understanding of user preference beyond 10 kHz to create the Knowles Preferred Listening Response Curve. By focusing on high-frequency response, the new curve gives manufacturers insight to deliver the best hi-res listening experience, it said. Company research shows earphones tuned to earlier concepts of “what sounds good severely understate the amount of high-frequency energy that listeners prefer,” it said. The curve showed listeners consistently preferred between 12 and 21 decibels (dB) of boost at frequencies beyond 10 kHz, depending on age and hearing ability, Knowles said. Designing and tuning an earphone that matches the high-frequency boost identified using the Knowles curve is expected to consistently provide a highly satisfactory end-user experience and receive high ratings from consumers, it maintained. The curve could be a powerful tool when used with hearing personalization algorithms, enabling TWS earphone designers with hearing personalization software to configure their algorithm to produce optimum sound quality across the range of hearing abilities commonly experienced by consumers, it said.

Sony introduced its next flagship wireless, noise-canceling headphones Thursday, promising more processing power and a more comfortable fit. The WH-1000XM5s have two processors controlling eight mics that are said to reduce mid- to high frequency noise and automatically optimize noise cancelation based on the environment. Users can hear Hi-Res Audio via sources that support Sony’s LDAC codec and by setting sound quality as the priority in the Sony Connect app, the company said. All music will be restored to high range sound with Sony’s DSEE Extreme technology, it said. The $399 over-ear headphones are due in stores May 20.

Astell&Kern will start taking preorders Monday for the AK UW100 true wireless headphones, the company emailed Friday. The earphones have amplifier and audio circuit technology developed for the company’s digital audio players, plus an Asahi Kasei AKM AK4332 32-bit digital-to-analog converter. They use a Qualcomm QCC5141 Bluetooth chipset with support for the aptX Adaptive codec for wireless 24-bit sound quality and Bluetooth 5.2. Four ambient modes are accessible via a tap on the left earbud. The buds use passive noise isolation to cancel unwanted ambient noise in the mid and high ranges. They can connect to two devices at a time via Bluetooth; battery life is given as six hours. The $299 earbuds are due in stores April 11.