Anyone Else Trying HD Audio Downloads?

[David Meek]

I just signed up with HDTracks and bought my first two high-def albums. I've been searching around for a likely candidate album or two for a while and finally found a couple to start with. The first is Alison Krauss' & Robert Plant's Raising Sand. The second is Chesky Record's Ultimate Demonstration Disc - Vol. II. albums are in 96k/24-bit FLAC files sourced off my Opus4 through my Musical Fidelity DAC.



The user interface is painless and if anything goes wrong during the download(s) all you have to do is restart the GUI and it'll start over with the song that didn't complete properly - no going back to the start of the first song. Yea.

Now for the important part: it's getting late and I'm tired, but at first listen they sound marvelous. Clarity, depth, focus. All those buzz words do seem to apply here although I have to admit I don't yet have a Redbook version of either title to A/B against. More on this later....

Anyone else doing something similar? How'd it work for you?

[bigburner]

David, I haven't tried it but I applaud your choice of "Raising Sand". I wouldn't be interested unless they were albums I really wanted, i.e. a mediocre album in high-def is still a mediocre album.

What size was the full "Raising Sand" download?

Nigel.

[David Meek]

Hey Nigel, how're things on your side of the world?

Lets see. I'm not sure about the total size, but a few of the tracks are:

Rich Woman - 93.3 Mbytes
Killing The Blues - 96.5 Mbytes
Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us - 77.0 Mbytes
Polly Come Home - 125.2 Mbytes

So I'll say about a hundred meg per song or there about for 13 songs for a total in the neighborhood of 1.3 Gbytes.

[David Meek]

I wouldn't be interested unless they were albums I really wanted, i.e. a mediocre album in high-def is still a mediocre album.

That's exactly why it's taken me this long to find some to give a try. :T

[bigburner]

Everything is fine on this side of the world thank you David. I'm looking forward to the end of winter but I'm still employed so there's no shortage of firewood to keep us warm and I'm still acquiring CDs & DVDs like there's no tomorrow.

Hmmm. An album that comprises 1.3GB of FLAC files. With my setup I would have to burn them to a DVD disc in CD audio format. What do you do?

Nigel.

[Chris D]

Very cool, David, and I'd like to hear more. I've never used an HD download service, but I'm certainly open to it. I've never heard of those two albums, although I have great respect for all three of those artists/organizations, so I'd be very willing to try them out!

[Hdale85]

I believe they are ripped mostly from SACD's.

[Nolan B]

Id love to try HD downloads...problem for me is that I just dont see the content that interests me (and I have a pretty broad taste). Part of the problem could that I jsut dont recognize things that I may like. When I was on the Linn site searching around and listening to examples nothing out of the 10 or so was good content.

A site that has 100% of the tittles from all SACDs available as downloads would be something I would have interest in.

[Blindamood]

Yeah, the content for me is still a bit shallow (I'm mostly into rock: classic, alt, and blues, with a bit of jazz mixed in). I've downloaded a few standard FLAC albums (for lack of a better word) from HDTracks, and it's worked out quite well.

I recently upgraded to the Logitech Transporter, which handles 96/24 FLAC, and my first hi-def download was "The Smithereens Play Tommy." I love the Who's "Tommy" and try to listen to all variations. This one is actually pretty interesting. I'm thinking about "Raising Sand," but haven't gotten to it yet.

[Hdale85]

I'd love to get a Transporter....even more would love to get a Mod Wright transporter.

[Hammie]

B&W has their Society of Music section where I have got some lossless albums in the past. I'm debating on renewing my membership for about $60/year.

[KahunaCanuck]

I have both those albums, the Chesky is amazing...I run mine right off my PC into my SSp 800, wow, it sounds fantastic. Like some others, I have not found a ton o' stuff I want to download, but one artist I did find on there that is great is Marcus Miller...he is a Jazz bassist, really cool.

[David Meek]

Hmmm. An album that comprises 1.3GB of FLAC files. With my setup I would have to burn them to a DVD disc in CD audio format. What do you do?

Nigel, my Opus4 music server has an internal 1-terabyte hard drive. I've ripped 726 CD titles (a decent number are multiple-disc) to it in FLAC lossless and have used a bit less than 1/4 of the available space on the drive. I haven't kept comprehensive stats but I'd hazard a guess of an average of 250-300 Mbytes per disc for Redbook CDs.

[David Meek]

I believe they are ripped mostly from SACD's.

For their 96k/24bit offerings, they are showing a chart that indicates sources of analog master tapes and 192k/24k digital files. SACD and 176/24 sources are offered in 88/24 files. I've sent an e-mail asking for more details which I'll post as soon as they reply.

[David Meek]

Here's the reply from HDTracks regarding my request for more details:

Thank you for your interest in HDtracks. All of the 96kHz, 24 bit albums available on our site are native high resolution and are taken directly from the studio masters, and of course, without any up sampling. This includes Raising Sand, all of the Chesky Records titles and others.

In regards to the 88.2kHz, 24 bit titles available on our site, these were converted from SACDs. Since SACD audio is DSD, we cannot put these on our site and they need to be converted to PCM audio. We also make sure that the original audio on the SACD was in fact recorded in high resolution (88.2kHz, 24 bit or better) and is not just 44.1 audio that was up sampled and then put on an SACD. If we do find out that the original audio was not native high resolution, it is immediately taken off our site.

We hope that this answers your question. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

[David Meek]

Thought I'd drop a status update on you. I've been SLOWLY adding to my 96k/24bit albums. I'm up to a whopping total of 4 now, including Raising Sand:

Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan - In Session
Chesky Records - The Ultimate Demonstration Disc, Vol. II
Steve Vai - Where The Wild Things Are

Overall the sound quality is just what you'd expect. Crystal clear and quiet backgrounds to die for, although the AK&SRV album isn't quite as spectacular in those respects (it's still excellent though). But it makes up for the lack of nth degree clarity by giving you the ability to listen to Stevie and Albert chat and play the blues - oh my yes.

[whoaru99]

I've downloaded a few singles from HDTracks, and considered the Cheskey Demo discs, but couldn't decide which one to get. Any particular reason you chose the one you did?

[whoaru99]

I haven't kept comprehensive stats but I'd hazard a guess of an average of 250-300 Mbytes per disc for Redbook CDs.

Probably old news by now, but I believe Redbook comes off at about 10MB per minute (in WAV format).

[ThomasW]

I've downloaded a few singles from HDTracks, and considered the Cheskey Demo discs, but couldn't decide which one to get. Any particular reason you chose the one you did?

Try Dave's True Story "Unauthorized"