[rofo]

Joni Mitchell's Hejira album is one of my fav's from her, so I though I would download the new 96/24 version of it. I was disappointed. I have the CD version ripped to a FLAC file and I believe it sounds better, listening to it on a pair of PMC AML-1 speakers. Wish I would have kept my 18$.

[ted_b]

Same feelings.  It is my fave Joni of all time, and the hirez is, best case, identical..and on some tracks even more veiled IMO.

[fridays]

Its probably the same recording just using more space HD is not honest in there offerings IMO

[k6davis]

Unfortunately, I have to agree. I have the 24-192 and it's a disappointment.

In other news, "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" is my favorite Joni album, and one of my favorite albums period. Its hi res is quite nice.

[rbbert]

Its probably the same recording just using more space HD is not honest in there offerings IMO

Beating a dead horse, but I'll ask anyway:  why do you think HDtracks is at fault here?  Most of the Joni Mitchell HDtracks stuff sounds escellent.

[JLM]

Bought the LP in college, through the college radio station I worked at.  (Don't know why, never have been a Joni fan.)  It must of been an early pressing because it sounded fantastic.

[rajacat]

It seems to me that HDtracks shouldn't release an album unless it meets some HD standard of quality . Surely they must critique their work.  If your're going to pay a premium, you should get the premium sound. If they sell a lot of substandard downloads, they'll lose their credibility.

[rbbert]

I hate defending HDtracks, because I have plenty of issues with their customer service, but they are a retailer, not a producer.  They sell what the record companies give them, just like Amazon or any other Internet merchant, and they are much better at weeding out non-hires offerings than they used to be.  They are in no way responsible for the mastering; they are responsible (and have lately been doing a good job) for making sure the product descritpion matches the product.

[mg8]

Same feelings.  It is my fave Joni of all time, and the hirez is, best case, identical..and on some tracks even more veiled IMO.

I agree whole-heartedly - I wrote them this email to HDTracks about 14 days ago:

"I have downloaded several albums and compilations that sound substantially worse than the 16/44 which I also own.  Notably, the Van Halen Studio albums HiRes and the Fleetwood Mac HighRes.  I some cases the volume needs to turned up by 50-100% greater than the 16/44 and the nuance/texture of the HiRes is flat/absent in other cases. 

I would like to buy more from you but why pay a premium if the sound quality is less than I could have by buying the physical media.  The Van Halen and Fleetwood Mac are the worst two examples, but the Eagles studio albums is also very weak.  I want to buy the Grateful Dead but I am leery of the another poor purchase.

I have a long audiophile history and I have a very resolving High-end system with excellent Computer audio playback as the principal feature.  What is your answer to this?

Thanks for you consideration."

Their paraphrased response was "sorry, blah, ba-blah, blah, blah".   

I appreciate that they are a business but when you sell a premium-priced product, the customer is entitled to expect a betterment to a "standard" product and certainly not a receipt of a lesser product.  I have decided to quietly vote with my checkbook and I'll be taking all of my future media purchases elsewhere.  I am in no way angered, just disappointed and dissatisfied.

[ted_b]

Bought the LP in college, through the college radio station I worked at.  (Don't know why, never have been a Joni fan.)  It must of been an early pressing because it sounded fantastic.

Agreed.  I am not currently a huge vinyl guy at all, but this is one album that has never even remotely reached the sound of its early vinyl counterpart.   I bought the album when it came out, and it was fantastic.  The cd (even the HDCD encoded one) were nowhere close, and that was one reason I was looking forward to the hirez.  I has  the same feeling for all early digital versions of David Crosby's If I Could Only Rememeber My Name, compared to the fantastic sound of the album.  Then the DVD-A came out and the magic was back.  This one?  Nope!

[k6davis]

I appreciate that they are a business but when you sell a premium-priced product, the customer is entitled to expect a betterment to a "standard" product and certainly not a receipt of a lesser product.  I have decided to quietly vote with my checkbook and I'll be taking all of my future media purchases elsewhere.  I am in no way angered, just disappointed and dissatisfied.

I understand how you feel. I've purchased quite a bit of material from them and the results are all over the map, with many being great, but far too many being inferior to the 16/44 that the very same record companies have previously released. The fact that HDTracks doesn't take (or bear) responsibility for the quality of what they sell doesn't help me as a customer. The money they want is real. Poor sounding "premium" content is literally worthless to me.

An easy solution would be for them to offer free samples from every album they sell. They could be very short downloadable snippets, 30 seconds or so.

I wonder if they would embrace, or resist that idea? That would tell you a lot about their integrity.

[rbbert]

...
I would like to buy more from you but why pay a premium if the sound quality is less than I could have by buying the physical media.  The Van Halen and Fleetwood Mac are the worst two examples, but the Eagles studio albums is also very weak. 

I'm not sure exactly what you're hearing here (or not).  I don't know which Fleetwood Mac download you mean, but I can say with confidence that the HDtracks of the 1975 S/T album easily sounds better than any other release of this album, including the 45 RPM and original issue LP's.  Rumours is not so good, but still probably better than any other digital release.  As far as Van Halen, I have some issues with the sound of the HDtracks also, although I'm pretty sure I don't prefer the sound of the original CD's (I assume you are talking about the first 6, not 5150); in any case, since they have garnered rave reviews for sound in the audiophile press I imagine HDtracks didn't take your objections very seriously.

[firedog]

I understand how you feel. I've purchased quite a bit of material from them and the results are all over the map, with many being great, but far too many being inferior to the 16/44 that the very same record companies have previously released. The fact that HDTracks doesn't take (or bear) responsibility for the quality of what they sell doesn't help me as a customer. The money they want is real. Poor sounding "premium" content is literally worthless to me.

An easy solution would be for them to offer free samples from every album they sell. They could be very short downloadable snippets, 30 seconds or so.

I wonder if they would embrace, or resist that idea? That would tell you a lot about their integrity.

I agree it would be great if they would let you hear a real sample of the hi-res - some of the classical hi-res sites do.

That said, they are a retailer. As with your local music store years ago, they sell what the labels give them. I don't hold them responsible for the SQ, just as I didn't think my record store was respoonsible for the hiss on the Layla album back in the day.  But I think they would do themselves a big favor by providing an actual sample. Of course it's also possible the idiot labels won't allow this. The classical labels that do this are selling their own stuff, so they don't need permission.

The problem for HDT is they continually throw it in your face that their stuff is "audiophile" quality. So when they are given a not so great sounding master from the label we tend to be mad at them. IMO, even more reason for them to allow real hi-res samples.

But thanks, guys, for warning me off the hi-res Hejira. I had it on a list of stuff to buy. That's generally my solution - wait to hear how others say it sounds before buying. The exceptions to this are when they give good info about the mastering of the hi-res release and I feel reassured by the info. The recent Kind of Blue release was like that. I dowloaded it the first day b/c the provenance info reassured me that it would sound good.

[firedog]

I has  the same feeling for all early digital versions of David Crosby's If I Could Only Rememeber My Name, compared to the fantastic sound of the album.  Then the DVD-A came out and the magic was back.  This one?  Nope!

There's a 45 RPM vinyl release of this from a few years ago. Sounds fabulous. I've heard it digitized in 24/96 and it also sounded great. Maybe the 45 RPM vinyl and the DVD-A are basically the same remaster.

[rbbert]

There's a 45 RPM vinyl release of this from a few years ago. Sounds fabulous. I've heard it digitized in 24/96 and it also sounded great. Maybe the 45 RPM vinyl and the DVD-A are basically the same remaster.

No, I'm anything but a vinyl lover but the 45 RPM vinyl is in a totally different (far better) class than the DVD-A.

[David C]

I was thinking of downloading from HD Tracks the 96hz version of Van Morrison's Moondance ....... thought I would check first to see if there are any opinions on sound quality. I have the original 44hz CD and it is really compressed

thanks in advance
David

[golfugh]

Van Morrison 'Moondance' is exceptional

Mark

[David C]

thanks Mark
off to download now

[ddafoe]

Van Morrison 'Moondance' is exceptional

Mark

Totally agree!   I just purchased it along with the 96/24 of The Clash London Calling and Muddy Waters Folk Singer and all 3 are amazing.   I have a ripped version of London Calling (in WAV) and the HD version was worth the upgrade to me, but I'm a big fan of that album.     I've been relying on the Absolute Sound's HD music review to get ideas of which ones I should buy or avoid.  A few HD album reviews per month just isn't enough...