What Hirez Discs Have You Purchased Recently? (3 Viewers)

[Paul.S]

I've had this in my Amazon cart for years. Always too expensive considering that I didn't think the audio could ever be all that good. I am used to the omni-present hiss which I have heard on most of these recording as they have been issued iover the years (LP, CD, etc.).

But I found a used copy VERY cheap ($7.xx) and I think the sound is really quite nice. Much more clear than what I have been accustomed to.

Five years ago when I was more actively tracking prices on this, Monster Music's SuperDisc was less expensive than the SA-CD. Now it appears that Amazon has the SA-CD for $14.99. I'd e-mail them (and/or a Marketplace seller or three) to be sure it's the SA-CD though.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I came into some Christmas money so I completed the 24/192 Simon & Garfunkel collection, and 24/96 Springsteen (Born to Run and Born in the USA). Happy ears.

 

[DavidJ]

I've had this in my Amazon cart for years. Always too expensive considering that I didn't think the audio could ever be all that good. I am used to the omni-present hiss which I have heard on most of these recording as they have been issued iover the years (LP, CD, etc.).

But I found a used copy VERY cheap ($7.xx) and I think the sound is really quite nice. Much more clear than what I have been accustomed to.

Image isn't showing for me on the iOS app. What disc?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Image isn't showing for me on the iOS app. What disc?

A Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi Trio

 

[DavidJ]

Thanks. That would be nice to have.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Like I said, David, I was pleasantly surprised that the upgrade from the CD was worth it (to my ears).

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Just picked up the HFPA of Tears for Fears' The Hurting. Will report back after a listen.

 

[Ruz-El]

I came into some Christmas money so I completed the 24/192 Simon & Garfunkel collection, and 24/96 Springsteen (Born to Run and Born in the USA). Happy ears.

I got my Pono player so I've taken the hi-rez plunge. "Keep The Customer Satisfied" from "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" in 192/24 will melt your face off when the horns come in. I have never heard a horn part sound so clear yet powerful, without overtaking the rest of the instruments, like it comes in on this one. With a nice set of headphones anyway.

Rolling Stones Let It Bleed in 192/24 is another "ear opener".

 

[Steve Tannehill]

For a recording largely made 45 years ago, the fidelity is remarkable.

 

[Mike Frezon]

In today's print edition of the NY Post, this article is titled "We're High Deaf."


The subtitle is "Do Consumers Really Care About Digital Quality?"

 

[Steve Tannehill]

By and large I would say that consumers don't care about quality. Digital Quality is an oxymoron. I like HDTracks a lot for the remastered brought to the table, and I am a fan of SACD/DVD-A when they are 5.1.

 

[Phil A]

In today's print edition of the NY Post, this article is titled "We're High Deaf."


The subtitle is "Do Consumers Really Care About Digital Quality?"

I concur that most don't care about quality. I love hi-rez stuff. I have this pre-ordered (which should be here at the end of the month - http://www.audiofidelity.net/content/guess-whothe-best-guess-who


As soon as a get an SACD, I rip the image file so that I can extract the stereo DSD file (and if I like the multi-channel I may do that too but I also can just play the disc as I have 5TB of music ripped for the main system and it takes up storage space (so I've only extracted about 50 multi-channel files for now) and is computer resource intensive.


There's also this site - https://justlisten.nativedsd.com/

If you sign up for the newsletter they have a couple of free DSD downloads/week and have a compilation - https://justlisten.nativedsd.com/albums/just-listen-1-compilation where you can try what is best for your system (I have DSD DACs in two systems).

 

[Ruz-El]

So far, every article I've read like the one posted above about how you can't tell the difference between a CD and a Hi-Rez file seem to be written by people who haven't sat down with the players and actually listened. Gizmodo seem to have completely shot down the idea of PONO by saying that the human ear can;t hear past 44/16 bit audio.


I have the player, I can hear the difference between a CD rip and a 192/24bit file. It's in the subtleties. I don't think it's just in the remixing, as others have said, the soundstage is larger on the higher rez files. CD's and MP3's sound "louder", but not as detailed. The difference is negligible between 192/24bit and 98/24bit, to my ears. CD rips sound great on the PONO, but not as good. When I listen to shuffle play of songs, if a song sounds really good and perks up my ears, it's always a high rez file.If something sounds iffy, it's always the CD or MP3 that is getting my attention.


I'm curious to try ripping a CD at 192/24bit and see how it sounds. Ripping an MP3 to CD at CD resolution tends to show all the problems. If there is no sonic difference between a CD and 192/24bit, then the CD ripped at that resolution should sound exactly the same right?

 

[Phil A]

I don't think upsampling a mediocre or poor recording is going to have great benefits. I am not sure what someone who is saying there is no difference is either listening to or listening on what (or even how they ripped something if they are listening to a file). I can even hear the difference going thru my M-Audio 192 Sound Card on the PC, which plays via JRiver and goes out to an old receiver powering B&W LM-1s along with a 50W powered sub. My main system (and even the secondary systems) are worlds better than the PC system.

 

[Ruz-El]

I don't think upsampling a mediocre or poor recording is going to have great benefits.

I agree completely. I am curious to see if ripping a CD at a higher rate would reveal limitations not found in high res files that were mastered straight from the masters, uncompressed. (which are the ones that sound so good).


The weirdest thing to in that article (aside from no one actually listening to the player) was this:


"The sound quality on Led Zeppelin’s second album is notoriously poor, Fikus notes. A hi-res version of it won’t change that, he says, although a recent remastering by Jimmy Page helped."


PONO and hi res players aren't magic boxes. Garbage in will be garbage out. I bet that the hi res files of Zep II sound as good as that album can sound (the vinyl sounds pretty good to my ears), and better than the masters used to take advantage of what CD could bring, since hi res allows you to take the limits off. It's never going to magically make music recorded and mastered at 44/16bit sound like a 196/24bit file. These days, I'm sure there are plenty of artists recording that way.


One thing PONO has said is that they are trying to track providence so that when you buy from their store, you know it's a true 96/24bit file (or whatever) and not a faked upsample. How they do that I have no idea, their store is still a bit of a gong show, but getting better.

 

[Ruz-El]

Speaking of which, Gizmodo just wrote the whole thing off as smoke and mirros, again:


http://gizmodo.com/dont-buy-what-neil-young-is-selling-1678446860


Every article criticizing the PONO seems to be as much about Neil Young being behind it as the player itself. Weird that no one called out Dr. Dre for his bass boosting Beats line.

 

[Paul.S]

Random question for you folks who are download experts: Can I play 192/24 AIFF files using iTunes? Reason I ask is that I'm finally getting around to wanting to download the high rez Jurassic Park score and some Rush albums from HD Tracks. Although I understand FLAC is the best quality, according to informaiton at the site FLAC is not compatible with iTunes. I'd prefer to keep things as simple as possible and not deal with converting FLAC files to AIFF. So I just want to make sure I chose 96/24 if iTunes doesn't play 192?


Also, I'd appreciate anyone who can comment or point me to a tutorial on how/whether I can burn 96 or 124 tracks I download to a disc I can play on my Oppo BDP-93. Can I just use the disc burning functionality natively available on my MacBook to burn a data disc?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Those are all good questions, Paul...as I'm thinking of taking the plunge soon myself.


There's LOTS of tempting stuff on HD Tracks.


And I haven't fully investigated yet but my new receiver (Denon X2000) has something called AirPlay which might mean I might want to stick with iTunes for streaming music to the receiver. (Time for me to get out my dinosaur costume!)

 

[Paul.S]

Mike et al.:


I found this to be a helpful backgrounder for a downloading/iTunes novice like me. Still Googling around for answer to the rez question.


http://audiophilereview.com/cd-dac-digital/hd-tracks-and-itunes.html

 

[Paul.S]

Was struck by Debussy's "Nocturnes" on KUSC the other night. Decided to see what high rez discs might be available and found this (not yet on Amazon if my quick search was accurate):


http://sa-cd.net/showtitle/9532