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Some labels, such as Deutsche Grammophon, are very transparent not only about their internal process but also the damns they give about making sure the quality is delivered to their audience. Yes, it would be great to hear more from others about their level of commitment to this.
Excellent point in an excellent post; I wanted to name Deutsche Grammophon as well, since I got a number of their high-res downloads (such as the recently released piano concerto by John Adams).
Most of the high-res recordings I have so far are from classical labels such as DG.
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This thread arrived at the same time Yavar was soliciting questions on the topic of challenges with 24-bit digital releases for his upcoming Goldsmith podcast, so I thought it was related. Guess I misunderstood!
I'm not presuming to ban discussion points in an open thread, just to focus the discussion here on the positives of these developments in regard to music availability.
No worries - I've already learned about new releases and retailers that I didn't know about before so I'm sure there will be a lot more to learn when the discussion gets back on track.
Are there any other retailers that haven't been mentioned here yet? And do any retailers sell the same soundtracks or are they exclusive to single retailers?
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What do people think of pricing? Per track is insane at 7Digital but whole albums are competitive with CD pricing.
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Just because Qobuz says that something is "CD Quality" or "Hi-res" does not mean that it is not a vinyl rip, as I learned the hard way when I purchased "Murderers' Row."
I am all for downloads, but I also believe in truth-in-packaging principles.
I agree with you 100%. More is not possible.
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A whole lot of links in the chain before those waves get to tickle your inner ears.
Unless you are listening on state of the art headphones, and your player is utilizing a superior DAC, how many other things are there that can potentially negatively impact the audio experience?
Are your speakers set up properly?
Are the speakers decent to begin with? Are they ruthlessly neutral or do they color everything with a particular brand sound?
How is the room you are listening in? Is it tuned properly too? How is the noise floor?
Just because Qobuz says that something is "CD Quality" or "Hi-res" does not mean that it is not a vinyl rip, as I learned the hard way when I purchased "Murderers' Row."
I am all for downloads, but I also believe in truth-in-packaging principles.
And this is why I'm satisfied 99% of the time with 16/44 cd quality.
If it's a newer production of recent recorded material I might splurge on the higher res version, but it's rare and -with nothing else to compare it to- it's probably more of a psychological placebo effect as anything else.
Once in a while I don't mind though.
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From there it’s a call for the producers of how to best present the material.
CD sound is limited but adequate. Hi Rez needs to be a standardised format that humans can actually hear and playback equipment can conform to / take advantage of.
I agree.
I think we are at the point now and have been for some time where the playback and files are fairly standardised.
As you said, CD sound is limited but adequate, and many people still listen with a CD player.
People who want files usually listen to them on a streamer or on a computer/mobile device. Even those who listen via a streamer often use a computer to maintain the collection (tagging etc.).
Basically, you have FLACs or ALACs, which can easily and losslessly be converted back and forth into the other format, with ALAC for those who uses Apple or iTunes and FLAC for most other folks. The hifi streamers I have encountered could handle all the formats (FLAC/ALAC/AAC/MP3/WAV/AIFF...), so that's almost never an issue.
I usually listen to music via my hifi system which streams the music from my NAS.
The one advantage lossy compression had over lossless files was file size, but in a time when NAS space is measured in terabytes, that is really a non issue for me. I still use AACs for my car though, as it does not read FLAC/ALAC.
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Posted: |
May 6, 2021 - 5:51 PM
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By: |
EdG
(Member)
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Seems strange to be talking about maximum fidelity, when 95% of my soundtracks feature hiss, or acetate clicks and pops, or distortion, or terrible fadeouts, or multiple inferior-sounding sources of different quality patched together, or marred by low-level dialog in the background, or unsteady due to wow and pitch wobbles, or scarred by awful analog edits, or tape damage, or a host of other nasties.
Our community is probably the least in need of hi-res, except for maybe a few re-recordings of particularly outstanding quality... which are all too rare.
Great point. Easily 50% of my collection is old enough enough not to be hi-fi.
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Posted: |
May 6, 2021 - 6:13 PM
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By: |
Col. Flagg
(Member)
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Seems strange to be talking about maximum fidelity, when 95% of my soundtracks feature hiss, or acetate clicks and pops, or distortion, or terrible fadeouts, or multiple inferior-sounding sources of different quality patched together, or marred by low-level dialog in the background, or unsteady due to wow and pitch wobbles, or scarred by awful analog edits, or tape damage, or a host of other nasties.
Our community is probably the least in need of hi-res, except for maybe a few re-recordings of particularly outstanding quality... which are all too rare.
Great point. Easily 50% of my collection is old enough enough not to be hi-fi.
But again, the POINT of this thread is not about forensics. It's about discussing what's available in CD quality (or better – but not necessarily) as digital downloads.
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But again, the POINT of this thread is not about forensics. It's about discussing what's available in CD quality (or better – but not necessarily) as digital downloads.
What have I done...
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So, Home Alone was retransferred and mastered by Mike Matessino for LLL at 96k/24bit - is that going to get a digital release any time soon?
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