Topic: HD music files and other lossless formats

[JoeyGS]

Some question we can start to perk up the discussion:

Has anyone tried purchasing and using HD tracks for their digital hifi system?

How does the HD track (96/24) compared with the Apple Lossless format in terms of sound output quality?  If you convert the HD track into Apple Lossless, do you degrade the sound quality?

Digital hifi bug has bitten me!  My current digital hifi gear can perform equally or better than cd players.

[otepsy]

Some question we can start to perk up the discussion:

Has anyone tried purchasing and using HD tracks for their digital hifi system?

How does the HD track (96/24) compared with the Apple Lossless format in terms of sound output quality?  If you convert the HD track into Apple Lossless, do you degrade the sound quality?

Digital hifi bug has bitten me!  My current digital hifi gear can perform equally or better than cd players.

24/96 is superior than ALAC in SQ... if you will convert it to alac you will down sample to 16/44.1

[RU9]

Some links--HD music:

Warner gears up to release high-resolution music
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20062544-47.html?tag=cnetRiver


A 'cure' for the Loudness Wars: Give us two mixes!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20077878-47/a-cure-for-the-loudness-wars-give-us-two-mixes/



HiFi News Investigates the Truth Behind HD Downloads

...
The next part of the discussion in the article focuses on HDtracks.com, the company headed by David and Norman Chesky. Keith writes, "has never, to my knowledge, released anything so crass (as the HDTT folks) but is has sold, and at the time of writing continues to sell, files which do not have as wide a bandwidth as you might reasonably expect from their sampling rate."

He continues by pointing out, "as an example that's been on sale for a long time is the 24/96 download Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive, the spectrum of which clearly shows the presence of steep low-pass filter just above 20 kHz." The track, he concludes, "this track has been upsampled." To be fair, Mike Lawson of HDtracks did re-label the Frampton title as 48/24 and it is as good as you will ever get from an analog sourced original. My argument is that it should be labeled accurately from the outset. Anything that goes back to the days of analog tape shouldn't be "upsampled" and sold for a premium price.
...
http://www.itrax.com/Community/showthread.php?61-HiFi-News-Investigates-the-Truth-Behind-HD-Downloads

[JoeyGS]

Excellent inputs RU9. 

Now, are there review sites for HD music tracks.  This way we can evaluate before we purchase.

And maybe, for those members who have very good experience in other Music sites selling HD music downloads, you can list your recommendations (for good and bad).

Some links--HD music:

Warner gears up to release high-resolution music
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20062544-47.html?tag=cnetRiver


A 'cure' for the Loudness Wars: Give us two mixes!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20077878-47/a-cure-for-the-loudness-wars-give-us-two-mixes/



HiFi News Investigates the Truth Behind HD Downloads

...
The next part of the discussion in the article focuses on HDtracks.com, the company headed by David and Norman Chesky. Keith writes, "has never, to my knowledge, released anything so crass (as the HDTT folks) but is has sold, and at the time of writing continues to sell, files which do not have as wide a bandwidth as you might reasonably expect from their sampling rate."

He continues by pointing out, "as an example that's been on sale for a long time is the 24/96 download Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive, the spectrum of which clearly shows the presence of steep low-pass filter just above 20 kHz." The track, he concludes, "this track has been upsampled." To be fair, Mike Lawson of HDtracks did re-label the Frampton title as 48/24 and it is as good as you will ever get from an analog sourced original. My argument is that it should be labeled accurately from the outset. Anything that goes back to the days of analog tape shouldn't be "upsampled" and sold for a premium price.
...
http://www.itrax.com/Community/showthread.php?61-HiFi-News-Investigates-the-Truth-Behind-HD-Downloads

[JoeyGS]

Hi otepsy,

Thanks for your inputs.

Have you tried comparing a FLAC or WAV 24/96 track from a converted Apple lossless track?  Some say that the way Apple Lossless designed their converter is that a special algorithm was applied in order to reduce the file size while retaining the information needed to preserve the original sound quality.

24/96 is superior than ALAC in SQ... if you will convert it to alac you will down sample to 16/44.1

[Nelson de Leon]

Hi Joey. Digital na digital na.  Parang kailang lang... 

[Stagea]

HD Music downloads have been around for quite a bit. Gimell, Linn, Lindberg Lyd, Naim, etc. have all been selling these for sometime.

More mainstream recordings are getting into the fray with HD Tracks. They generally are of better quality than prevailing consumer formats (especially studio master files from Lindberg Lyd), but as with SACD and DVD-A, some mixes are just bad (and you don't need a high resolution recording to tell those). I've actually had the worst luck with HD Tracks (in terms of distribution file quality), but they have the widest selection and they do have good customer service.

[JoeyGS]

Hi Nelson....digital na nga pero audio pa lang din  

Nag-enjoy lang sa bagong technology.  It's a bit hard looking for good CD players nowadays and if you find one they are a bit expensive or you need to make a lot of tweaks on it.

Let's say analog of old days meets digital technology of today....best of both worlds ika nga.  However, if it were not for the new products which ensures pure and clean extraction and transmission of music data, then I woudl still be sticking with the analog gears.  But mind you, I am not giving up my analog gears (turntables and vinyls) as they are my reference.......

Hi Joey. Digital na digital na.   Parang kailang lang...  

[RU9]

Excellent inputs RU9. 

Now, are there review sites for HD music tracks.  This way we can evaluate before we purchase.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/HD-music-fft-atlas-reference-thread

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Suggested-Hardware-List

[Nelson de Leon]

Hi Nelson....digital na nga pero audio pa lang din  

Nag-enjoy lang sa bagong technology.  It's a bit hard looking for good CD players nowadays and if you find one they are a bit expensive or you need to make a lot of tweaks on it.

Let's say analog of old days meets digital technology of today....best of both worlds ika nga.  However, if it were not for the new products which ensures pure and clean extraction and transmission of music data, then I woudl still be sticking with the analog gears.  But mind you, I am not giving up my analog gears (turntables and vinyls) as they are my reference.......

Yeah! I "feel" you.  Simply extracting the best of both worlds. There's is no such thing as a perfect system, or a perfect format. No matter how we approach things objectively, we still have our own preferences. And i still have yet to jump over the dark side. The mind is willing but the wallet is weak.  But that doesn't stop me from appreciating analog source. 

[JoeyGS]

About the wallet ...... me and my friends have not spent too much for an analogue rig.  Even simple vintage TT can be made to perform well....of course with teaks here and there.  If you are fond of tweaking, what needs to be done in a vintage TT is just to eliminate noise and with good isolation, you only have to look for best value cartridge to extract the wonderful analogue sound of vinyl.

Naku OT na ako sa sarili kong thread 

Yeah! I "feel" you.  Simply extracting the best of both worlds. There's is no such thing as a perfect system, or a perfect format. No matter how we approach things objectively, we still have our own preferences. And i still have yet to jump over the dark side. The mind is willing but the wallet is weak.  But that doesn't stop me from appreciating analog source.