CD or Hi Def WAV Download

Posted by: AndyF on 25 September 2009

Feel slightly exposed to ridicule asking this but no matter. Just been on the Naim Label site listening to the soundbite clips of Charlie Haden / Antonio Forcione's Heartplay and it just struck me that my default of having the CD might not be the best route anymore. Hardware wise I have a CDX hooked up via Hi Line to NAC 282 with Hi-Cap to NAP 200 to Credo's. However I also have an iMac which runs Snow Leopard / iTunes 9.01 with a WAV file copy of my CD's wirelessly networked to the NAC282 via an Airport Express. So the basic question remains when given the choice, do I buy the CD or do I download the Hi Def WAV file???

I think that's about it.

Cheers
Andy

Posted on: 25 September 2009 by gone

as far as I understand, the Airport Express won't stream more than 16/44 so hi-def files are rather unnecessary, unless you want them for the future?

Posted on: 25 September 2009 by garyi

I think at some point we have to establish whether the music was recorded in hidef?

(Or am I being dumb)

Posted on: 25 September 2009 by gary1 (US)

Andy,

The weak link is getting the Hi-res file to your pre-amp. You need a DAC to get the sound quality of the 24 bit, otherwise it's not worth it. There are other factors involved, music player etc... but unless your going down that whole route, I'd stick with the 16 bit.

Posted on: 25 September 2009 by DHT

If you do decide to go hi-res, and in my opinion it most certainly is, then you need a DAC, I use a Weiss which just plugs into the firewire port on your Mac, it is a very simple ,elegant solution and it sounds great imho.

Posted on: 25 September 2009 by pcstockton

quote:
Originally posted by garyi:
I think at some point we have to establish whether the music was recorded in hidef?

(Or am I being dumb)

Not being dumb if it was recorded digitally. If it was recorded on analog tape then it is simply a matter of having the ADC convert to 24/96 rather than redbook spec.

If it was recorded digitially, i would be surprised if it wasn't done at a higher rate then dithered down to redbook.

Posted on: 25 September 2009 by pcstockton

quote:
Originally posted by gary1 (US):
I'd stick with the 16 bit.

NO WAY!!! go with the hi-res file. Regardless of your current DACs abilities you will want the hires file. You can always dither it to 16/44 and burn to CD if you want to play on your CDP.

Otherwise if still airport express, it will dither it for you on the fly.

And when you get a new DAC or streaming option you will have the hidef music in all of its glory.

Unless of course there is a huge price difference. In any case you want to hidef file. there is no argument against it.

They sound f-ing awesome. It is a no brainer.

-patrick

Posted on: 25 September 2009 by AndyF

Thanks to everyone for the helpful replies. In terms of the two formats the CD costs around £11 while the download is £17 (why so much more?). Perhaps more importantly, the Hi Def version for this one album takes up around 1.6 Gig of memory which is a lot. I think I will probably buy the CD - no idea when I'll have the ability to connect a DAC to deliver the higher sound quality (unless we are meant to rush out and trade our CD players in against the new Naim DAC, but that's for another day).

Regards
Andy