HD Tracks is great BUT the selection is limited

[Lugbutz]

I have looked through this forum a little bit and cannot find any thread that discusses where to get quality content.

I know about the Society of Music and HD tracks and they have provided some stellar sessions for me crashed out in front of my Touch... BUT I NEED MORE!!!! I need more variety and content...

Where can I find more 24/96 & 24/192 media content.


If I missed a thread please accept my apologizes, and fell free to redirect me to that link.

[Mnyb]

Linn and iTrax and rip your own dvda .

Most of my of HD music is ripped from my own dvda's.

Btw save some cash and stay with the 24/96 192 is more expensive at HD and no one can hear a difference the saved cash can go to even more music this maximises the joy

Be aware that some content at hd tracks are fake in some way , sometimes unitentionally as the ripped sacd is a fake but they lacked qc for a very long time.

However this does not mean that all is cr*p. They sometimes have a very good remaster at their hands, the carier format is very unimportant compared to the recording itself and is not the limiting factor in most cases.
i rather have the good version on cassette instead of a bad version in 24/192 .

so getting the best version of a recording may be a better strategy than hunting for a specific bitrate.
Considering the loudness war it can be good to avoid all later remasters of popular artist and try to track the original cd version.

[Lugbutz]

Thanks.. that helps...I will check Linn and iTrax out...

HD tracks.. Yeah I was suspicous.... their interface and look and feel of the site all look... shoddy.... I have been very careful with the media I have purchased.

That said.. I got some great stuff... Fleetwood Mac Rumours... Wilco...

Modern Jazz Quartet... All very very nice.... and really stretching the capabilities of my system. That said... damn.. it SOUNDS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOD!


Ripping my own... I have ripped and converted all my music and sold the orginal media. The 100s of stacks of CDs, vinyl, DVDs and SACD Scatter trhough the house were driving my wife around the bend. The investment in my DAC, NAS and network improvements were only authorized as long as no new media appears in the house. So buying more media is out.

[Mnyb]

Thanks.. that helps...I will check Linn and iTrax out...

HD tracks.. Yeah I was suspicous.... their interface and look and feel of the site all look... shoddy.... I have been very careful with the media I have purchased.

That said.. I got some great stuff... Fleetwood Mac Rumours... Wilco...

Modern Jazz Quartet... All very very nice.... and really stretching the capabilities of my system. That said... damn.. it SOUNDS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOD!


Ripping my own... I have ripped and converted all my music and sold the orginal media. The 100s of stacks of CDs, vinyl, DVDs and SACD Scatter trhough the house were driving my wife around the bend. The investment in my DAC, NAS and network improvements were only authorized as long as no new media appears in the house. So buying more media is out.

Rip at work, sell on ebay

[didjean]

I've recently discovered www.qobuz.com

It's French, they have a good catalogue and offer the possibility to download in MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF. They have some albums in 24 bit 96 khz.

They also have a streaming service in FLAC! I heard they were in negociation with Logitech for an app.

[aweitzner]

For classical you can try Deutsche Grammophon's site at http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/

Also, some artists sell hi res downloads directly on their site. For example, Paul McCartney's website http://www.paulmccartney.com/web/gue...solution-audio is almost always $2 cheaper for 24/96 than the same album on HDTracks.

Hence the reason I only buy from HDTracks when there is a discount code.

Andy

[Mnyb]

I rather torrent HD tracks content..

To be a customer outside US I have to use paypal ok but to use their inferior and buggy download manager I have to start a virtual machine as it crashes on my normal OS ?

It's a mystery to me why right click and save a zip file is deemed problematic and the solution is a complex download manager written in java, other sites also use this idiocy.

[firedog]

For classical, pretty good selection. A fair amount of hi-res.

Tracks are priced according to length/time and you can download individual selections. You can also completely preview a track - the whole track, but in 30 second sections.So you can know if you are really interested.

The other benefit is that you can download parts of albums. Say a Stravinsky album contains both the Firebird Suite and The Rite of Spring - you can download both works, just one, or just specific parts. There is no price penalty for doing this.

Prices in general are lower than HDT, and the hi-res recordings are native hi-res.

[DaveWr]

Thanks.. that helps...I will check Linn and iTrax out...

HD tracks.. Yeah I was suspicous.... their interface and look and feel of the site all look... shoddy.... I have been very careful with the media I have purchased.

That said.. I got some great stuff... Fleetwood Mac Rumours... Wilco...

Modern Jazz Quartet... All very very nice.... and really stretching the capabilities of my system. That said... damn.. it SOUNDS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOD!


Ripping my own... I have ripped and converted all my music and sold the orginal media. The 100s of stacks of CDs, vinyl, DVDs and SACD Scatter trhough the house were driving my wife around the bend. The investment in my DAC, NAS and network improvements were only authorized as long as no new media appears in the house. So buying more media is out.

If you have sold the original media - then you have no legal rights to your ripped tracks. Great recommendation for ensuring the death of music!

[liffy99]

Must admit I'm hugely disappointed with the availability of high resolution downloads. After waiting so long for suppliers to move on from a 30 year old audio standard (16/44 CD) we still have next to bu**er all.

I've scanned a couple of dozen download providers and my impression is that:
1) Choice is very limited (especially if you don't want classical).
2) Prices are very high
3) Of about 1000 albums in my collection I've found less than a handful I could get in high res format.

Are we being well and truly ripped off ? Most of the music available is from lesser known artists that won't command high fees and storage is cheap enough these days to make retention of music catalogues reasonably affordable.
I really cannot see how the suppliers justify a typical doubling of prices in these circumstances. £20(ish) for an album from an obscure artist - c'mon Linn, Naim and all the others.
I don't mind paying a small premium for a product that has similar costs of distribution and production etc. (Ok a bit more bandwidth, storage) but not 100% more.
Am I alone (or just plain mean