High-resolution audio, a recoding format that has finer temporal and dynamics resolution than the conventional CD format has been becoming popular in recent years, and it is often evaluated as being better than CD audio in terms of sound quality. However, why the quality of the high-resolution audio is evaluated as better has not yet been clarified. This paper focuses on the quantization accuracy, and investigates the difference in sound quality due to the quantization accuracy between high-resolution and CD audio. An impression evaluation experiment that refers to the Watermanʼs experimental method was conducted to obtain the impression of audio by listeners. The result of the listening experiment shows that the number of occasions when a listener felt a certain change of impression on high-resolution audio was higher than those of CD audio in three out of four songs. According to the introspection of the listeners, ambiguous impressions on high-resolution audio are provided whereas simple ones are provided on CD audio. Therefore, the high-resolution audio is confirmed to provide more complicated impressions than CD audio.

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Needs of aesthetics of sounds have spread from music to others various sounds, and design of sounds is necessary in such cases. Music is not only used only for concentrated appreciation but also expected to carry out various functions as a tool of sound design. Sound design is integrated area of music and acoustic engineering. The target of sound design is product sounds, sound signs, environmental sounds, sounds in multimedia, etc. Musical expressions, such as tonality, musical interval, and tempo, can be an effective tool for designing functional sounds. Current production process of music is supported by sound design. Researches intended to apply to sound design from unique view points are expected in Japanese Society for Perception and Cognition of Music.

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