HiRez News

htradtk · « **Reply #20 on:** 5 Dec 2009, 08:29 pm »

Greetings,

This is my first post on this forum and I love the SACD format. My question is, over on Amazon, they have a 12 SACD box set of Elton John SACD's. Strange thing is, can't find this anywhere else, I even looked on SA-CD.NET and there's nothing about this set. Can someone out there verify that there is such a set? Thanks in advance!

Henry

ted_b · « **Reply #21 on:** 5 Dec 2009, 08:36 pm »

Never heard of it. Can you post a link (while in "post reply" see button with blue globe on it)? Is it the used one for $150? There is no authorized EJ SACD box set I'm aware of. Dylan yes, EJ no. He's had some EU box sets like "The Classic Years" but those aren't SACD. But I've been wrong before...

htradtk · « **Reply #22 on:** 6 Dec 2009, 12:41 am »

The Classic Years (12 SACD box) by Elton John (Audio CD)
1 used from $150.00

Music: See all 19 items

Here's a copy of the Elton John SACD box set offered from Amazon.com

Product Description
Rocket 1223 12 SACD's housed in a red velour box Empty Sky Elton John Tumbleweed Connection 11-17-10 Madman Across The Water Honky Chateau Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Caribou Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt.. Rock Of The Westies Here And There

ted_b · « **Reply #23 on:** 6 Dec 2009, 01:06 am »

That's a redbook collection, not SACD. EJ only has 6 SACD's from the early days, plus the much later Peachtree Road.
Madman
S/T
Honky
Tumbleweed
GBYBR
Capt Fantastic

ted_b · « **Reply #24 on:** 2 Apr 2010, 01:08 pm »

New HiRez news:
David and Norm Chesky's nice hirez online downlaod site called HDTracks has picked up a slew of new labels from their deal with Concord Music. These include Prestige (Coltrane, Rollins, etc), Stax, Fantasy, Concord, HeadsUp and Hear Music. A chance to download 24/96 versions of Lush Life and Tenor Madness (likely Bruce Brown-based rips from the DSD files used for SACD maybe?).

www.hdtracks.com

ted_b · « **Reply #25 on:** 16 Apr 2010, 01:24 am »

As many of you have already found out via the HDTracks newsletter, they did it again today with the release of several 24/96 titles on the classic Verve jazz label. That means things like Coltrane's quintessential A Love Supreme, and Billy Holiday's Lady Sings The Blues....to name just two.

From the newsletter:
The Verve Music Group includes the premier jazz label, Verve Records. The group’s unparalleled roster of current and catalog artists includes Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Jamie Cullum, Ella Fitzgerald, Herbie Hancock, Billie Holiday, Diana Krall, Susan Tedeschi and more.
HDtracks would like to thank the Verve Music Group for their relentless efforts in making sure these transfers were done with the utmost care to preserve the pristine sound quality of these amazing recordings.
How these amazing Verve transfers were done:
These Verve 96K masters were transferred using a combination of the best new and vintage equipment available. The carefully chosen original analog masters were played back on vintage Studer 820 tape machines. These machines provide the most stable transport for handling these priceless analog tapes. The analog masters were converted to the digital domain using classic DCS 972 and Lavry analog to digital converters and recorded directly onto a SoundBlade Workstation with minimal processing in order to allow the music to be formatted for digital distribution. The shortest signal path and highest quality cabling were used to prevent any signal loss and additional noise from being introduced into the transfer. The entire digital process was driven with the Antelope Audio Atomic Clock, the industry leader in digital clocking technology. It enables the entire digital process to reference the same highly regulated clock master, preventing any loss in the digital signal due to jitter and clock degradation.

A few have already reported back to me that the 24/96 files sound sublime; way better than their redbook versions they owned and loved for years. Dunno if they approach vinyl in sheer musicality

, but it's a great addition to our expanding hirez world.

ted_b · « **Reply #26 on:** 16 Apr 2010, 02:33 pm »

More news:
I just joined a cool surround-only Google group that seems to have some pretty good experiences and pretty good information.
http://groups.google.com/group/surroundsound

One of the nice finds over there is an html version of the user manual for the wonderful DVDAExplorer DVD-Audio MLP ripper.
http://surroundsound.googlegroups.com/web/DVD-Audio+Explorer+User+Manual+17.06.08.html?gda=9sZjQV4AAABa5S46sSFQ5Ob3Yk8k2KcJLcIjoVZBpdigalDkYQCpYuhHv0MIOm7dxAxU9EAsuTADy8hj1ywpiFjEbwT_n7uViBO0zAWl_EYva0eDLdmNIeOwpdWz5ftt1dlzlu5J-bE&gsc=8-cpvy4AAACyjkZzBh5tFgdIyRWUtawU6UqfibKP_G_W2zhvpj7JySED57ZgFQAGV9SQARzJfks

Another is a nicer more detailed guide (than mine) as to how to use it.
http://groups.google.com/group/surroundsound/web/guide-for-ripping-dvd-a-to-flac

ted_b · « **Reply #27 on:** 19 May 2010, 01:15 am »

Thanks to a user over on CA, I found this wonderfully written primer on digital audio. It's on the B&W Society of Sound site (subscription-based hirez downloads by Peter Gabriel, etc). the writer's analogies are easy to follow, and he refers to a lot of what we talk about daily (DVD-A, hirez vs redbook, FLAC, EAC, etc). Recommended reading for those starting out...

http://blog.bowers-wilkins.com/lab/sound-quality-lab/the-definitive-guide-to-24-bit-flac/

ted_b · « **Reply #28 on:** 15 Jul 2010, 04:46 pm »

Gang,
As you know our HiRez Circle has attracted some of the best industry veterans who are interested in all things HiRez. Bruce Brown, Pugent Sound, is an SACD/DSD guru and responsible for all the great SACD to PCM transfers at HDtracks, for example. I met Bruce at CES and have kept in touch ever since.

Barry Diament, renowned producer/engineer is also a frequent contributor and, on a personal note, one of the main influencers in my discovering the great Metric Halo digital gear (LIO-8 multichannel DAC, for example). Barry has just announced a new recording for his Soundkeeper label, a recording in 24/192 AIFF and WAV. It sounds like a great project! Read about it here.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=83565.0

DSD_Mastering · « **Reply #29 on:** 16 Jul 2010, 11:51 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 15 Jul 2010, 04:46 pm

Gang,
As you know our HiRez Circle has attracted some of the best industry veterans who are interested in all things HiRez. Bruce Brown, Pugent Sound, is an SACD/DSD guru and responsible for all the great SACD to PCM transfers at HDtracks, for example. I met Bruce at CES and have kept in touch ever since.

You're too kind Ted.
We try to bring the best music to download available but lately it's been getting pretty tough. I've just checked over 100 SACD's today and half were just upsampled.
Now we have to go back to the label and get the original tape (if available) and make a transfer worthy of hi-rez digital download.

Regards,

ted_b · « **Reply #30 on:** 17 Jul 2010, 01:36 am »

WOW, 50% of the SACD's were not original HiREz?? WOW! I guess we need to keep a database of them somewhere...cuz many cost $30+ and are a pain to find.

ted_b · « **Reply #31 on:** 17 Sep 2010, 05:31 pm »

A new audio-only hirez BluRay surround and 2 channel disc is coming October 18th!!

And it's Trent Reznor!!

Trent and Atticus Ross are releasing several versions of their electro-organic instrumental soundtrack to David Fincher's The Social Network.

They've released a 5 song EP that is free (320k MP3) and if the sonics here are any indication get your BluRay surround system ready!!

Download EP here: http://www.nullco.com/TSN/

ted_b · « **Reply #32 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 06:22 pm »

Well folks....many of us have dreamed of Beatles material in hirez! We thought the remastered catalog might be available that way (some would say the USB Apple 24/44.1k flac set is hirez but it is debatable), and some believe the 24/192 masters might someday see the light of day. Well......

Paul's seminal "solo" Wings album, Band On The Run, is being remastered and being readied for early November release. Almost lost among the plethora of editions (vinyl, special, double special, standard, digital, etc) is this little $19.99 ditty!!!! A full 24/96 HiRez version.

From Macca's website:
"The audio industry has seen many technical innovations since Band on the Run was first released on vinyl in 1973, the most notable being digital recording. However, with the introduction of CD came two advances, “de-noising” and “peak limiting” which have become increasingly unpopular within certain areas of the music industry and amongst audiophiles.

De-noising was introduced to remove the inherent sound, or hiss, associated with analogue tape. The amount of processing used to remove tape noise can be varied, but when used excessively, many believe that it also has a detrimental effect on elements of the musical sound.

Peak limiting is a process that increases the loudness of music. It is achieved by holding the loudest peaks down and raising the overall level of the music. Much depends on the amount of limiting applied, but at its most extreme the result can be a serious reduction in the dynamic range and often audible distortion.

The release of The Beatles’ remasters in 2009 saw a marked change in attitudes towards these issues, where both noise reduction and limiting were used sparingly with the aim of representing the master tapes more accurately. Such is the case with the newly remastered CD of Band on the Run: tape noise reduction has scarcely been used and the degree of limiting is subtle. In addition digital technology has advanced with the ability now to offer recordings in 24 bit/96kHz. The high resolution version is being made available via download and is being offered in two formats: limited, which is comparable in volume to the remastered CD, and un-limited, which in comparison with the limited version will sound quieter, but retain the dynamic range of the original master recording.

Allan Rouse Abbey Road Studios"

http://www.paulmccartney.com/bandontherun/

Here' hoping it's real and not upsampled (which is becoming more and more prevalent). Here's hoping it's not de-noised to death (aka Beatles One). And here's hoping it is as dynamic as they say.

ted_b · « **Reply #33 on:** 2 Nov 2010, 01:48 pm »

Since there was such interest and dialog about Paul's 24/96 release I took all the subsequent posts of this thread (regarding the release) and moved it to a new dedicated Band On The Run thread
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=87562.0

This thread remains for general HiRez news of the day.

ted_b · « **Reply #34 on:** 29 Nov 2010, 08:00 pm »

Found this very nice and comprehensive white paper on understanding DVD_Audio. it explains in fairly layman terms, and differentiates DVD-Audio with DVD-Video. It talks about universal players, SMART coding, bitrates, etc.
http://sacdlab.cn/Demo/Sonic_Understanding_dvd-audio_format.pdf

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #35 on:** 29 Nov 2010, 10:53 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 29 Nov 2010, 08:00 pm

Found this very nice and comprehensive white paper on understanding DVD_Audio. it explains in fairly layman terms, and differentiates DVD-Audio with DVD-Video. It talks about universal players, SMART coding, bitrates, etc.
http://sacdlab.cn/Demo/Sonic_Understanding_dvd-audio_format.pdf

24/192 with MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) is the best digital format I've heard...that's DVD-Audio.

Not that creepy sounding (lacking reality) SACD stuff - it sounds plain weird and I've read/heard it a phasing issue endemic to the breed.

Note that Blu-ray is based on DVD-A, not Sony's SACD technology...so Sony must know something generally not known in the audiophool world.

It's such a shame it's all but dead now as it held significant promise to advance both the recording and playback side of the sonic ledger

Still, thousands of titles out there in circulation and several hardware makers still support the format in universal players.

Thx Ted on the primer

John

Atlplasma · « **Reply #36 on:** 7 Jan 2011, 02:25 pm »

HD Tracks has an announcement out promoting 192 khz/24bit downloads.

ted_b · « **Reply #37 on:** 7 Feb 2011, 03:46 am »

New e-tailer called www.highresaudio.com just opened. It's a German site that has lots of hires (2L, etc) downloads and can sort on 24/96, 24/192, etc (even multichannel). Oh, and once you regsitrr they have up to 24/192 free downloads.

jamesg11 · « **Reply #38 on:** 8 Feb 2011, 12:13 am »

Thanks Ted et al. Now getting together a few 24/192s to add to the 24/96s; at this stage, burning to dvd-a & spdif to dac. Nice+.

SACD - "weird"/"creepy" - I've read this before. I've not got a sacd to my name, so I need to listen to something there. Recommendations, for a quality first up listen? Jazz/blues/roots is my preference in this world ...

ted_b · « **Reply #39 on:** 22 Feb 2011, 02:39 pm »

Itunes to do 24 bit uncompressed HiRez????

If this rumor is true, then HiRez could get a huge marketing boost...it's this type of commitment that is needed for some labels to justify doing anything with their analog or digital vaults.
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/22/apple-reportedly-looking-to-offer-24-bit-music-files-in-itunes-store/