[Brax]

I have been listening to a few DVD-A, SACD and Blu-ray discs on my system. All I can say is that the combination of high resolution audio and VMPS speakers is truly a match made in heaven. A great example of this is the sample CD that came with my Oppo player, it’s the best recorded music I have ever heard (sound quality wise).

Here is were the problems lies, there are very few popular albums out in any of these formats. I have tried a few of the live concerts on Blu-ray but they are not really to my liking. I prefer studio albums over live ones 99% of the time, I just feel the music and sound is so much better.

Well, I found a place online that offers downloads of  DVD-As that can be burned onto a disk. The site address is www.sacdlab.cn and they charge $55 for ten album downloads. I know the physical quality of a purchased album will be better because they are stamped rather than burned, but since it is digital, I don’t believe there would be any difference is sound quality. Has anyone tried this site or any site like this? I will be down loading the demo tonight to see how it works out and if all goes well, I’ll purchase a 10 album membership.

[PLMONROE]

Sould not this also be posted in The HiRez Music Circle?

Paul

[Hipper]

This is the problem with SACD etc.. In my whole collection I only have one SACD, a dual red book/SACD disc and that is a very recent issue of a relatively obscure (these days) artist.

Most of the material I like is only on red book CD.

Is SACD/DVD-A etc finally taking off or will it remain as it is now?

[John Casler]

I have been listening to a few DVD-A, SACD and Blu-ray discs on my system. All I can say is that the combination of high resolution audio and VMPS speakers is truly a match made in heaven. A great example of this is the sample CD that came with my Oppo player, it’s the best recorded music I have ever heard (sound quality wise).

Brax,

I have to agree with you and so do most of my guys who are entering the HiRez arena.

Since I am a BRYSTON, (w/ the new BDP-1) and PS Audio dealer, (w/the PWD and Bridge) I have a few who are either using, or anticipating Higher Resolution Audio.

The planar ribbons and ribbon tweeters are simply perfect for this level of performance.

Here is were the problems lies, there are very few popular albums out in any of these formats. I have tried a few of the live concerts on Blu-ray but they are not really to my liking. I prefer studio albums over live ones 99% of the time, I just feel the music and sound is so much better.

Well, I found a place online that offers downloads of  DVD-As that can be burned onto a disk. The site address is www.sacdlab.cn and they charge $55 for ten album downloads. I know the physical quality of a purchased album will be better because they are stamped rather than burned, but since it is digital, I don’t believe there would be any difference is sound quality. Has anyone tried this site or any site like this? I will be down loading the demo tonight to see how it works out and if all goes well, I’ll purchase a 10 album membership.

Actually, if you use high quality Blank Discs, the sonic quality should be as good or better since you don't have any buffer and ecc (error correction code software) in the chain.

I wasn't able to tell from the site, but can you simply store the files as FLAC or other, and keep them on the HD?

That would seem reasonable.

The other issue is, it seems there is no "2 channel" versions.  I wonder if they will have them in the future?

[John Casler]

In looking over their LIBRARY, they certainly have quite a few of my Reference Albums and Cuts.

Including Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds





And the FREE Downloads  are excellent.  KRAFTWERK!!!!! has to sound incredible.

And Free Download 2 has Celine Dion with The VMPS CES award winning cut My heart will go on

Great stuff. 

[Brax]

I tried the download last night. These are huge files so high speed internet connection is a must. The download went smooth, it burned quickly and most of all, sounded great. I will be signing up for this site and start building my HiRez library.

[ted_b]

I wasn't able to tell from the site, but can you simply store the files as FLAC or other, and keep them on the HD?

That would seem reasonable.

The other issue is, it seems there is no "2 channel" versions.  I wonder if they will have them in the future?

John,
Hi.  As moderator/creator of the HiRez Circle i thought I'd chime in here...I smelled this thread from afar. 

ISO images are easily burnt onto a DVD-R (I use verbatim only) and then use DVDAExplorer to read and rip them into separate song files (whether FLAC, wav, etc.). 

In the case of this site, some of the ISO images have the stereo versions added on at the end.  I'm not sure if these will show up properly as Group/Title 2 or will simply be songs 10-20 as it were.

If you want a primer on how to rip DVD-A once burnt (sounds backwards doesn't it) then our HiRez Circle has a sticky or two that will walk you through it.

BTW, I'm not really sure how legit this sacdlab site is.  It looks like someone (EurAsia is my guess   ) modded an SACD player then ripped a 24/96 stream from DSD-to-PCM conversion.  The labels like Telarc, etc seem to point to a non-legit operation.  Just my $.02

[John Casler]

John,
Hi.  As moderator/creator of the HiRez Circle i thought I'd chime in here...I smelled this thread from afar. 

Must be a High Rez Nose 

ISO images are easily burnt onto a DVD-R (I use verbatim only) and then use DVDAExplorer to read and rip them into separate song files (whether FLAC, wav, etc.). 

In the case of this site, some of the ISO images have the stereo versions added on at the end.  I'm not sure if these will show up properly as Group/Title 2 or will simply be songs 10-20 as it were.

If you want a primer on how to rip DVD-A once burnt (sounds backwards doesn't it) then our HiRez Circle has a sticky or two that will walk you through it.

Thanks for the info, and I was wondering if you had to do backwards engineering to get there.

BTW, I'm not really sure how legit this sacdlab site is.  It looks like someone (EurAsia is my guess   ) modded an SACD player then ripped a 24/96 stream from DSD-to-PCM conversion.  The labels like Telarc, etc seem to point to a non-legit operation.  Just my $.02

This comment made me curious and in looking over the site, you might be correct.  Different spellings, and word usage suggest a non-English origin.

What I found particularly strange is the foreign links to "Custom Dissertations" and Baby Photos , etc.  These are found in the bottom left corner of the site under "Who's Online".

Can anyone tell me what language this link is using?

Brax, you might want to be tread slowly, as this looks a little strange.

[BobMajor]

It looks like Hebrew. If you click the link for English above that page also includes Cyrillic letters (Russian).

[PLMONROE]

Brax, you might want to be tread slowly, as this looks a little strange.

BTW, I'm not really sure how legit this sacdlab site is.  It looks like someone (EurAsia is my guess   ) modded an SACD player then ripped a 24/96 stream from DSD-to-PCM conversion.  The labels like Telarc, etc seem to point to a non-legit operation.  Just my $.02

Brax, I think that Ted B and John's comments bear a lot of merit. Many years ago before cable was common and the only satelite TV was C Band (with the big 10 and 12 foot dishes) I splurged and bought a setup. It was wonderful! I had more channels available than I could count and no monthly charge. But alas soon then the different stations started scrambling their signals and you had to pay for getting them unencripted. This soon came to be a tidy sum. But the retailer from whom I had purchased the set negotiated a lifetime subscription for all the channels. It cost one heck of a lot but provided a huge savings in the long run. I made a down payment and then found I had to take my set in for a "hardware modification". Before I did so I also was told that after the modification I would no longer be able to participate in pay-per-view purchases. At this point I decided to forfit the down payment and proceed no further. A few weeks lated there was a knock at the door one evening and I found myself face to face with a gentleman with a very impressive FBI badge!  It seems he wished to discuss a sum I had paid for signal piracy!!!

Sometimes if something seems too good to be true it is indeed just that.

Paul