[Napalm]

There's one slight problem though. Their combined catalog is less than 1% of EMI's Classics, Decca, or Deutsche Gramophone alone.

Not to mention that all current star artists are signed with one of the big houses. Want Netrebko's Traviata at Salzburg Festival?  She's signed with DG. You can't record that.

Sorry little guys but you're confined to A/D conversions of very old material that is in public domain by now. If the owner allows you access to the master. Or contemporary records of little known artists.

Nap. 

P.S. You actually HAVE to see and hear this in Blu-Ray: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRvNL-A9gGs

[skunark]

One more link for ya. 
http://dl.nin.com/theslip/signup

I understand where you are coming from but this has happened before with CD, VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray.     Even my HD tv channels are sometimes not really of HD quality. 

Key thing for me is a simple product that will play my existing music and the newer hi-rez.   I would also want it to work with my current iTunes library (ignoring DRM).   

[JohnnyB]

What is needed is for the major record labels to let us audiophiles have our 96/24 in addition to their iPod tunes.  Until that happens, we'll not be seeing any new Eric Clapton, Sting, or other famous artists in HD.  Just old CD quality and worse. 

Makes the desire to get into DAC's a low priority.

The best in true HD is best heard on physical media in surround sound for the near future.

Go ahead, shoot away.

Cheers, JohnnyB

[Napalm]

[...]The best in true HD is best heard on physical media in surround sound for the near future.
Go ahead, shoot away.[...]

We're not shooting. We agree.

Nap. 

[WBimmer]

http://www.rhino.com/

Try Emmylou Harris and her album Wrecking Ball, ...download the lossless version. If you want to sample one track the first track titled 'Where Will I Be'.

This album is terrific.

james

Excuse my ignorance with regard to this but once downloaded, how do I go about playing it??

Can I burn it to a DVD and play it through my Bluray player??  I don't currently have my computer hooked into the BDA-1, so I would be looking for alternate methods to play these kinds of files.

Wayne.

[ted_b]

http://www.rhino.com/

Try Emmylou Harris and her album Wrecking Ball, ...download the lossless version. If you want to sample one track the first track titled 'Where Will I Be'.

This album is terrific.

james

A perfect example of the scams out there.  This album is simple 16/44 redbook, not HiRez (the subject of this thread..although James can talk about whatever he wants     )  Rhino has lowered the bar and is calling standard cd quality HiDef!!! (cuz the other choice is MP3).   That's like trying to market VHS tapes and standard DVD's; you don't get to call the standard DVD "HiDef" just cuz it's better than the VHS copy next to it!! 

Don't get me wrong...I'm sure the "Rhino Hi-Def lossless downloads" sound great.  There are hundreds of great-sounding 16 bit recordings out there...just as we found that once the players and video monitors improved back in the 90's that there were many videophile-quality standard DVD's out there....just don't call them and market them what they ain't.

[James Tanner]

I downloaded the free 9 inch Nails 96/24 Flac file and I have to say it sounds terrible on my 3 systems. Maybe I screwed up the download somehow?

On the other hand I downloaded four 96/24 files from Chesky and they sound excellent.

james

[James Tanner]

A perfect example of the scams out there.  This album is simple 16/44 redbook, not HiRez (the subject of this thread..although James can talk about whatever he wants     )  Rhino has lowered the bar and is calling standard cd quality HiDef!!! (cuz the other choice is MP3).   That's like trying to market VHS tapes and standard DVD's; you don't get to call the standard DVD "HiDef" just cuz it's better than the VHS copy next to it!! 

Don't get me wrong...I'm sure the "Rhino Hi-Def lossless downloads" sound great.  There are hundreds of great-sounding 16 bit recordings out there...just as we found that once the players and video monitors improved back in the 90's that there were many videophile-quality standard DVD's out there....just don't call them and market them what they ain't.

Thanks for the heads up Ted - I did not realize they were calling it 'high res' - I was just saying it was a good example of how downloaded music can sound.  Believe me I agree that the number of samples per second does not necessarily add up to a great recording.

james

[James Tanner]

Hi Folks,

Try this:

This site, that has a few hi-res recordings, with the corresponding CD standard resolution file.

Good for a comparison http://www.lessloss.com/high-resolution-audiophile-recordings-c-68.html


james

[James Tanner]

Hi Folks,

In searching for sources of hi-bitrate music maybe consider ripping the audio tracks from your DVD-Audio discs onto the computer.

The software can be found here:

http://www.castudio.org/dvdaudioextractor/

james

[Napalm]

Hi Folks,

In searching for sources of hi-bitrate music maybe consider ripping the audio tracks from your DVD-Audio discs onto the computer.

The software can be found here:

http://www.castudio.org/dvdaudioextractor/

james

And just in case you're contemplating doing something similar to Blu-Ray tracks, here's the tool:

http://www.smlabs.net/tsmuxer_en.html

I'm patiently waiting until James discovers this source of 5.1 LPCM 24/96 stuff. After which I bet we'll hear news about the SP3.0 

Nap.

[Vipers]

I downloaded the free 9 inch Nails 96/24 Flac file and I have to say it sounds terrible on my 3 systems. Maybe I screwed up the download somehow?
james

Hi James,

I don't think you screwed up atall, as a massive NIN fan I've had The Slip downloaded in 96/24 for a couple of years now but with no quality way of playing them back so imagine my excitement when my BDP-1 arrived and I could finally hear some NIN in 24 bit magic only to be extremely disapointed, it just sounds very messy, a couple of the ballads sound OK but I expected better tbh, especailly when the 24 bit memory stick you supply sounds so gorgeous + other 24 bit audio I have sounds great, maybe it's just the way NIN mixed it.

BTW, James, the more time I spend with the BDP-1 the more I'm loving it, especially with 24 Bit files, it's probably the biggest upgrade my system has ever seen and I seem to be on a constant hunt for new 24 Bit music 

[James Tanner]

Hi Vipers

Yes I am learning that just because it is high res does not make it better. A good 44.1 will seriously out perfrom a bad 96

Glad your enjoying your BDP-1

Maybe we should start a thread for hi-res that we do find excellent

James

[1oldguy]

Someday I'll have mine.Mine has been stuck in transit for a while now.Poor baby all alone.

[Anonamemouse]

Yes I am learning that just because it is high res does not make it better. A good 44.1 will seriously out perfrom a bad 96

It is always the person behind the recording desk that is responsible for the quality of a recording. If something was recorded on a crap system or with a deaf technician with a God complex like Rick Rubin, high resolution will never make it sound good. It will only make things sound crappier, because the flaws are in hires too.

[Ozi]

It is always the person behind the recording desk that is responsible for the quality of a recording. If something was recorded on a crap system or with a deaf technician with a God complex like Rick Rubin, high resolution will never make it sound good. It will only make things sound crappier, because the flaws are in hires too.

I can agree with that and it would be more and more records like that as everyone can make hi res today, but who cares for that as the beauty of higher and higher resolution would actually give us plenty of good records that we like.

Sorry for a semi OT . I've been on a demo few days before in which we listened to Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC via variable output into Tenor power amp and YG Acoustics Anat Reference speakers. Interesting system in which we were listened to difference between 16/44 and hi res audio files. Two friends of mine and I agreed that the difference is not that significant that you can call it 'hi res'. More air and better sense that something real is going on in front of you is evident and that's all. We cannot say that actually every instrument is more believable. Except Alpha DAC, other parts of the system are unknown to me, so it would be fair to put that into account. I still didn't try my BDA-1 with 'hi res' files, but will try these days at home where I can more concentrate myself. Also, my new BP26 is nearly broken in and that would help a lot 

Oz

Best,
Oz

[Napalm]

Yes I am learning that just because it is high res does not make it better. A good 44.1 will seriously out perfrom a bad 96

James, may I kindly remind you that these days 99% of the stuff out there is mixed/mastered with something like this:



by people whose idea of recording a grand piano is to place it in a room like this:



It definitely doesn't matter if the output is done at 24, 16 or 8 bit. 4 bits would be generous for such techniques.

Nap. 

[James Tanner]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Hi Nap,

Yes but we can't, can't, can't give up - we must move forward. I think for the first time in history due to the internet artists are going to have a lot to say about how there material gets recorded and distributed.  No longer will they be a slave to the majors as they can now master and release directly to their customers.

I live in hope

james

[Napalm]

I live in hope

Well I'm rather pessimistic at this point. Here's a good test:

Name 5 excellent recordings produced in 2010 (classical music excluded).

See what I mean?

Nap.

[Ozi]

Napalm,

I understand what you mean, but so called 'hi res audio' push all of the followed digital and analog technology forward, which means that the sound of your 16/44 is dependent of progress of hi res technology. There is no doubt that future upsampling devices would be more interesting than they're today.


All the best,
Oz