[Philistine]

Has anyone downloaded any of the MusicGiants high sample rate tracks, and if so any feedback?
They look interesting for playback with the Transporter.

http://www.musicgiants.com/default.aspx?p=aboutus

[mgalusha]

Not yet but one of these days.. I did get to hear a little at RMAF and the one I heard, Louis Armstrong, St. James Infirmary was very very good.

I did exchange some emails with them about their site and a few other questions and my experience with Music Giants has so far been very positive. They were quick, courteous and very helpful.

mike

[Jon L]

May want to read "Terms of Service" before purchase.  A few tasty bits such as:

"We use Microsoft Windows Media Digital Rights Management software to make sure all the music you have is legal and protected. More information about Microsoft DRM is available on their website."

"MusicGiants' WMA lossless files can not be converted to any other audio file format at this time."

And some nice tidbits from Microsoft DRM website:

"Extends subscription business models by enabling the anonymous reporting of tracks played. This provides the business infrastructure that allows subscription content to be transferred to portable devices."

"Windows Media Rights Manager makes each player unique by linking a player to the host computer. This prevents a compromised player from being widely distributed"

Personally, I wouldn't touch Music Giants with a 10-foot pole.  Their "HD" download is not high resolution but simple redbook quality 44.1 kHz downloads anyway. 

If one wants to buy true high resolution 24bit/96kHz downloads WITHOUT junk DRM, I would look at AIX Record's download site.

www.iTrax.com

[bikes and beats]

I'm sorry but is it just me? I'd rather have easy access to non-DRM standard rez albums that I actually WANT to own. That's right, I want great records by popular artists. No way getting around the snarls of record labels. That's why I downloaded 4 albums from Amazon.com today. I just don't have any interest in buying CD's anymore and I was able to order all of them for under 30 bucks (Police: Ghost In The Machine, Steeley Dan: Gaucho, Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here and Larry Young: Unity). The bit rate is double iTunes at 256kbps and the catalog is very deep and bound to get deeper. It may be a smidge less resolved than a standard CD but the convenience trumps the hassle and on remastered albums, the improvement is there!
Just my two-sense.

[mgalusha]

From my exchanges with them the "super HD" downloads don't have DRM and one of the things they are looking to add is the ability to search for non DRM protected downloads. I believe all of their Naxos downloads don't have DRM. I agree, I have zero interest in paying for a DRM protected file, that was the reason I contacted them before buying anything, which I still haven't done.

[jllaudio]

I have downloaded from MusicGiant and AIX.  Frankly the jazz selection at MusicGiant is great.  I may be crazy but what I downloaded from MusicGiant I was able to convert to *.wav format using Roxio.  I don't play mp3's and I'm very pleased with the sound.  The AIX catalog was too limited for me.  I didn't recognize hardly any of the artists at that site.  I plan on downloading several more albums from MusicGiant. 

Amazon scares me with the policy of not giving a guarantee on sharing personal data.  At least this was the policy a couple of years ago.

[mgalusha]

A couple of weeks back I bought a copy of Count Basie & Oscar Peterson "The Timekeepers" from Music Giants and while it was DRM protected it allowed burning to a CD, which of course I did and then simply ripped it. No complaints thus far.

[avta]

another site which has a number of file types for purchase and download is www.linnrecords.com You can download test files to see if your system can handle them.

[jllaudio]

I looked at the Linn Records site.  Like the AIX site it has mostly artists I've never heard of in the Jazz section.  That's why I like MusicGiants selections.

[avta]

The Linn site has one advantage in that it can be accessed with Mac OS/ Safari browser and has flac files for direct download.

[jllaudio]

Never took a bite of the Apple.