Onkyo HF Player app plays high resolution audio on iPhones

Onkyo is on a mission to bring high resolution audio to Apple devices via its new HF Player app for iOS.

The free to download app brings a whole host of EQ features to your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch but if you're prepared to pay a one-off fee of £6.99, you can unlock the ability to listen to music at up to 24bit/192kHz resolution.

This upgrade offers users the ability to play music files in FLAC, DSD, WAV and AIFF formats, though DSD-IFF and DSF formats are converted to PCM before playback.

The Onkyo HF Player app also offers an HD phase-linear equalizer, offering 20,000 bands of equalization adjustment in 64-bit mode, should you want to add your own touch to your tunes.

This feature is only compatible with iPhone 4S or later, iPod Touch 5th gen or later, iPad 2 or later and iPad Mini, and will require iOS 6 or later. The app has been optimised for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

High-res audio is finally getting some traction in the mobile market, following the launch of the LG G2, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and the launch of a new high-res audio Sony Walkman (amongst other Sony HRA products).

Without the high-res audio upgrade, users are still able to have control over the EQ of their music.

There's a non-HD phase-linear FIR equalizer, which offers 16,384 discrete bands of equalisation to play around with, without compromising audio quality.

From this, listeners can manipulate the frequency curve by simply using their finger, allowing you to alter bass, mid-bass, mid-range and treble response.

Users can also save different presets which can be accessed during another listening session to save time.

Onkyo has even gone as far as securing the services of some professional musicians. Most notably Leo Nocentelli (The Meters) and Tim Lopez (Plain White T's) to create presets which have been created and optimised for use with Onkyo's own range of headphones; the Onkyo ES-HF300 on-ear and IE-HF300 in-ear. Check out all Onkyo's headphones.

The app features a fully functional touchscreen user interface that displays album art and playback controls, all of which will be familiar to iOS users. The Onkyo HF Player app is available to download now from the App Store.

MORE: Could 2014 be the year of high-res audio?

by Max Langridge

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Max is a staff writer for What Hi-Fi?'s sister site, TechRadar, in Australia. But being the wonderful English guy he is, he helps out with content across a number of Future sites, including What Hi-Fi?. It wouldn't be his first exposure to the world of all things hi-fi and home cinema, as his first role in technology journalism was with What Hi-Fi? in the UK. Clearly he pined to return after making the move to Australia and the team have welcomed him back with arms wide open.