HD Tracks is great BUT the selection is limited

[Eric Seaberg]

I need to throw in a few thoughts here, especially when it comes to buying alleged HD TRACKS from 'classic' albums.

Example... Nirvana's album "Nevermind" was recently released as 96k/24bit and 192k/24bit. I had a long written argument with the website selling these files stating there is no way this album has anything worthy of 96 or 192k release!

This album was one of the very first projects recorded on ADAT, which was a tape-based digital recorder using S-VHS tapes as a medium. You could get 8-tracks per tape at a total of 20-minutes record time. To record more than 8-tracks at a time, you would sync multiple machines together in banks-of-eight. At best, these early recorders were 48kHz/16bit. Even if they remixed through an analogue console to a 1/2" 2-track analogue machine at 30-inches per second, there could NEVER be anything on that master tape above 24kHz (the brick-wall filter for a 48kHz recording).

My argument was that marketing this album at anything better than 48kHz is a rip-off to the customer. I was argued down stating that the record label would NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT.

So before you consider buying an HD album, do some homework to see if the original project is worthy of paying for.

[Henry66]

So before you consider buying an HD album, do some homework to see if the original project is worthy of paying for.

I fully agree! Do you have an tips on how a Joe Schmoe like me might go about doing such "homework"?

[Mnyb]

I fully agree! Do you have an tips on how a Joe Schmoe like me might go about doing such "homework"?

You can't that's way you should avoid their business if possible :-/ *
They are known to cheat and are not likely to admit thier wrongs, they reluctantly do so some times.

The response to Eric proves their dishonesty.

* you could do an FFT with for example audacity and see the brick wall at 22 or 24 k.
But this is not foolproof the post producing/remastering can deliberately add some content >22k I have an album with a mystical step in the response ? Is this an artefact of a plugin or someone covering up the tracks ?
For an amateur to figure the original bit depth, how could you old rock classic are noisy and even good recordings are , you are not likely to tell analog noise from digital noise if the original have a sn of 70dB .Noise is noise .

But sometimes they seem to have a better mastering of some recordings that's reason enough to buy it.
But for some reason it must be marketed with the hires moniker for audiophiles to buy it even if almost 100% of the improved sound is the better master and not the " hirez " they might just sell it as 16/44.1 .
But given how HD tracks works I would not trust them use the same master for the different resolutions ?

Normally I would never buy higher resolution than 24/96 if given the choice ( no human can hear the diff period ) but how do you know what master you get it from if you not buy their "best" offer :-/

A 40y old rock classic is what it is, is their some nostalgia that makes people dimwitted and think it could be saved from the evils of digital with a 24/192 carrier , this is just nuts
The 16/44.1 should sound identical , but then again how do you know that you get the better mastering, trust HD tracks ?
They sell this hires for higher prices there is good motivation to make them sound better how they do this is not a stretch of the imagination

Sometimes they use DSD aka SACD to rip from this format is 20 bit except for in the treble where it gets closer to 16bit ( noise floor is rising ) above 20kHz real contents start to get mixed with ultrasonic gunk ?
I don't know where it would be proper to filter an SACD disc when transferring to PCM but why include the ultrasonic noise like in an 24/176.4 disc is this good for the hifi ?
And if they do filtering why a sample-rate higher than 2 times this frequency ?
20/88.2 would be ok for an SACD make it 24/88.2 for compatibility.

Frustrating is it not ?

Practically when dealing with HD tracks first check "other sources".

I personally never buys with higher Rez than 24/96 .

Try be rational about the albums pedigree maybe the 16/44.1 version would get everything.

But then again how to know what you get :-/ that's why "other sources" is no 1 to get hd tracks stuff.

[Eric Seaberg]

I've been buying a lot of 48k/24bit recently from Bowers & Wilkins SOCIETY OF SOUND
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Societ.../Overview.html

It's a yearly membership with, at least, two new albums per month being released. They have a lot of newly recorded things and ALWAYS release them as 24-bit FLAC.

As far as researching older albums, I would say that anything that was absolutely recorded analogue is going to be OK at 96k. Believe it or not, my old 2" 24-track Studer recorder was capable of capturing to -1dB @ 23kHz at 30-inches per second. From there it was a slow roll-off, but NOT like a brickwall at 22kHz (thanks for that correction Mnyb). The consoles in those days could EASILY pass upwards of 48kHz, and there are stories of a couple of engineers actually hearing transformer ring up there on an older Neve console.

A lot of it also has to do with the style of music. IMHO, Nirvana isn't going to have a whole lot of 'nuance' above 20k. Don't get caught up in the sample rate mind game... you're a lot better off sticking with a higher resolution, i.e. 24-bit, even if the sample rate is 44.1k. Make that your first choice!

[Mnyb]

Yep B&W music is kind of fun I don't like all their selections but membership is very low price

The Thomas Dolby album was fantastic in fact I'm not that found of all his early stuff but this was great.
The wilderness of Manitoba is also good .

I think B&W have good reasons to stay with 24/44.1 or 24/48 they know they use science .

And let's not forget the perspective that it is the recording itself and it's production you hear ,modern consumer formats are not detectable or barerly so.

But I rather have a good recording on cassete tape or LP than a bad loudness war production in 24bit or CD .

I just remembered that I used to tape LP's in my younger days awful but still beats some never stuff in sound quality .
My father still worked at SR/SVT ( Swedish public service radio and TV ) so I was probably the only teen who's cassette deck was calibrated and who's VU meters was reasonably accurate

[bhall]

You guys seems to have the HD music figured out and I would like to run an issue I am having by you. I went to itrax and downloaded their free sample file in a couple of different formats just to see what worked with my system (LMS on an XP machine and a duet.I have my receiver hooked via coaxle to a Onkyo receiver). I have not been able to get a track to play through the duet. The WMA format files came up as not compatable. The PCM 96/24 was the only one that would play. I can hear it fine via my iphone (using the playback feature of ipeng). However, I can not get a sound to come out of my duet. Just silence when I hit play. Light comes on like a track is playing and I can see progress via ipeng. The other thing is that after I try to play the PCM file, my normal files that I ripped off of a CD via itunes also won't work. Again, silence. I have to reset my receiver in order for me to listen to anything from my normal music collection. Everything works great until I try to play that PCM file again.

Any ideas? Is there a step I am missing?

[Mnyb]

You guys seems to have the HD music figured out and I would like to run an issue I am having by you. I went to itrax and downloaded their free sample file in a couple of different formats just to see what worked with my system (LMS on an XP machine and a duet.I have my receiver hooked via coaxle to a Onkyo receiver). I have not been able to get a track to play through the duet. The WMA format files came up as not compatable. The PCM 96/24 was the only one that would play. I can hear it fine via my iphone (using the playback feature of ipeng). However, I can not get a sound to come out of my duet. Just silence when I hit play. Light comes on like a track is playing and I can see progress via ipeng. The other thing is that after I try to play the PCM file, my normal files that I ripped off of a CD via itunes also won't work. Again, silence. I have to reset my receiver in order for me to listen to anything from my normal music collection. Everything works great until I try to play that PCM file again.

Any ideas? Is there a step I am missing?

Must be something with the onkyo ? It should work . Reset the receiver the Onkyo ? Or the duet ?

If the duet:
Only use 2ch files ! Using a discrete multichannel FLAC/PCM crashes the player hard !
Download itrax stereo test files .

Try to convert the wav/pcm file to FLAC PCM .

Maxrate for the duet is 24/48 so the server transcodes your file down to that and 48kHz should be no problem

[Mnyb]

Any one else got a a *vip sneak peak* on Brothers In Arms

In 24/192 or 24/96

https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?f...HX093624951322

That mysteriously disappeared due to "technical difficulties" :P

One of those may be that it's actually said to be an early digital recording in 16/48 ? but I heard it on the internet so what gives .

I already have the DVDA with the remastering and the 5.1 track .
How that DVDA is done is a bit of a mystery to ? but the 5.1 is nice

[pski]

If you can hear the difference, you might want insurance on your ears.