Availability of 24 bit symphonic music

Hi Hochen, just getting into 24 bit recordings myself. Hope this doesn't break any rules but you can get hdtracks if you pay using paypal as it doesn't recognise the source of funds being outside the US. Coincidentally my only purchase (so far) from hdtracks is of Mahler 8 great sleeve notes too!

Number 8 must be the Maazel recording? Hypothetically, the Tilson-Thomas' Mahler cycle might also be interesting. I'll try my luck.

While skimming through the offered recordings: Some US orchestras seem to publish on their own labels, e.g. San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra. Is there a trend towards this? This would make the big classical labels a bit obsolete and, regarding their slow response to new technologies, I would not even regret that.

Maazel it is, once my hiFace arrives I shall try some files other than 96/24, have high hopes that these should sound a bit special through the nDac.
Your info on new labels is interesting, let's hope this will encourage more mainstream interest in hi-res.
It does trouble me that my daughter is happy to listen to mp3s on her ipod (the Zeppelin I bought her seems to collect dust ) or on her laptop, and while she can hear the difference of an AIFF rip via my nDac sq doesn't seem any kind of priority. I hope it's not a generation thing!

I have Gilbert's Mahler 3 in 96/24 from HD Tracks. The sound quality is nice but the performance is rather boring. 96/24 is useless without engaging content.

quote:

Originally posted by Naijeru:
I have Gilbert's Mahler 3 in 96/24 from HD Tracks. The sound quality is nice but the performance is rather boring. 96/24 is useless without engaging content.

And this is the Crux!

EMI or DG [and the other great companies] will never release at better than Redbook [i.e. on CD] because once "file-sharing” catches the quality of the "original" master, it is literally in the Public Domain [for better or worse, but definately for a fact], then the company looses control of its only asset, the orginal master ... even after copyright falls on the first LP issues ...

It ain't goin' to happen gents.

The only stuff that will come out in "hi-res" is stuff, so useless that the company owning the master knows that they might as well "give it away" as the music is dull like "ditch water." CD Redbook is the best that will ever be released of anything musically significant, and CD is not so hard to define against the master ...

EMI reckon that 24/96 is not to be defined accurately against the master by 99% of musical listeners. The company has stated that it will not release anything worthwhile musically at the 24/96 level, though they did release the Beatles that way ... Perhaps they value their classical catalogue more than the Beatles by now ...

ATB from George

And let's face it, vanilla-flavoured CD quality is better than it needs to be to enjoy a fine performance.

SAT, I hope you will enjoy the Maazel. I succeded in obtaining Tilson-Thomas' Mahler 6 (in 24 bit) and it's very gripping. Feels more like (but of course still not the same as) sitting in a concert hall than with any other Mahler recording in my collection.

George,

You are thinking logically, but companies do not always do so. If there is a short term gain to be made, they will often ignore their own long term interests.

I am reminded of the tyre companies which sold technology to the far east, Jaguar which abandoned body press tools at Coventry rather than store them, chemical companies which licensed their patented products and processes to China and India. The list seems endless.

For myself, I'm happy to stick with CDs. They probably give me all the quality my elderly ears are capable of hearing.

Eh? What's that you said?
Cheers,
Ken

I can quite happily listen to a ~ 130 kbps MP3 these days, made using the latest version of LAME. Plenty good enough if it's the actual music you're listening to.

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
EMI reckon that 24/96 is not to be defined accurately against the master by 99% of musical listeners. The company has stated that it will not release anything worthwhile musically at the 24/96 level ...
ATB from George

So they are strictly unwilling to change their policy, how very annoying... Thanks for the info, I didn't know that they actually stated that. So, let's be content with what we can get now and hope for more. Perhaps, in the future, some orchestras and conductors might increase the pressure on the big labels, when they get to know how much better they could sound in 24/96.

Dear Jochen,

I don't know if EMI is or will continue to be strict in this, and the Beatles issues in "hi-res" might suggest otherwise, but in the classical arena there appears no enthusiasm for even a download quality to match CD, let alone higher resolution. The actions speak louder than words, it seems to me, and probably motivated by the causes I mentioned earlier.

What is the point of owning the masters for example of Barenboim, Klemperer or Karajan recordings, if you hand over a perfect copy for a few £s and it can be file shared, bootlegged onto pirate CDs etc., for someone else to make the profits.

Though EMI made this statement almost ten years ago, I don't see the logic changing much over time.

If orchestras issue their own recordings - bypassing the major labels - then you might get "hi-res" recordings, but where are the great "chefs d'orchstra" today to getting the great performances obtained in the past? The orchestral players may be better trained nowadays, but nothing about music-making has improved in the interpretive arts [at least in the orchestral field] for half a century, so the new "hi-res" recordings are likely to be a trade off against the relative earth-bound quality of the actual music-making ...

ATB from George

I downloaded the complete Brandenburg Concertos and Mozart's symphonies 38-41 from Linn in 24/96 a few weeks ago. Both very good recordings imo, so material is out there. They sound excellent through the NDAC.

Interesting indeed and good news, thanks for the link. Will be like buying directly from the farmer: it takes more time to get your shopping done but you get fresh products.

Interesting info about EMI. I won't shed too many tears here though. I have heard a bootleg of various tracks taken from the EMI masters and recorded onto CD by somebody who worked at Abbey Road. While some of the recordings were getting on for 50 years old, the results were exceptinally good. Indeed, I'd say the disc gave some of the best sound quality I've ever heard from CD. Which means that 16bit can be wonderful just so long as it's been done well.

Dear Richard,

Some of these EMI recordings from the fifties and early sixties still sound as fresh as a daisy - not all, but a surprisingly large proportion.

The company's modern restoration methods using very high quality digital recording of the original master parts often show that the techniques and studio craft developed over more than half a century by then could produce results that are not bettered even today.

I rarely comment on recording quality unless it is dire, but the old Klemperer thread [I will try to find a link later] contains recommendations from a musical standpoint, but most of the EMI recordings Klemperer made in the glory days are remarkable by any standards. Even the mono recordings from 1955, when Klemperer finally gained a real contract with the company. His short 1954 EMI series has not been shown from a recording perspective to be nearly so consistently successful for some reason. The live BBC recordings mentioned are not nearly so fine as recordings, but present phenomenal performances, so that the recording quality seems no issue!

ATB from George

http://forums.naim-audio.com/e...892997807#6892997807

26 titles listed as studio 24/96 at
"www.theclassicalshop.net"
compared to thousands at CD level FLAC. If that's typical I may as well keep to CDs and vinyl for a while yet.