Ready to Download HiDef: Anything to look out for?

Well I hope you arn't paying too much for them.

Regards the definition then no doubt it will be read by your audio software as 24/192, but sadly this is just part of the story. That encoding my have been taken from a CD for all you know.

I could take a really bad MP3 and burn it to CD, it does not make it CD quality. So the website you are using, does it have independent reviews, have you searched for the file elsewhere, perhaps there is a talk on its encoding somewhere.

You can assess the quality by listening to it. Be warned that hidef is not always better, myself I find a number of these hidef seem to do little more than remove bass and make a lot of hissy noise.

If the internet goes down, then its likely your download will resume when it goes back up, I think you'll be fine though.

HiRes music should contain frequencies well above 16000Hz. You can download Audacity for free. This will show you the frequencies contained in the files.

If your download fails, you can always repeat it. It should be there for your availability in your user account with the shop. Where are you planning on buying? There are some very well respected shops and some with a, let's say, 'questionable' reputation.

Russ, the Avison ensemble was my first download and I too was nervous at the time but it was incredibly straightforward.  I am not very IT savvy but it went into the download section of the computer and I then copied into my NAS drive.  I was aware that unlike my CDs it was my only copy so I made sure that it was copied onto my external back up drive as well as a USB stick - you can never be too careful!  As for quality, I assume that you are buying from Linn and I would imagine that, as with Naim downloads, they have their reputation to consider and the quality will be as advertised.  Just press the button - you won't regret it.

When I have downloaded HiDef from Linn they offered me the use of their download manager software which takes care of any concerns on internet connection.

As Forester says Linn does seem to consistently offer genuine HiDef masters. I have been very pleased with their Classical downloads in particular.

As has been suggested the download is probably best saved to a folder on the computer running the download and can then be shifted/backed up/copied to your chosen final destination(s).

One thing I have found with Linn is they supply Album Art as a .png file which doesn't automatically appear in my control point app. If that happens to you then convert the .png file to a .jpg file with save as and make sure the metadata tag for album art points to the .jpg file if it is imporatnt to you.

regards

Geoff

Thanks, Gentlemen, and I do understand the warning about garbage in/garbage out.  In addition to Linn and Naim, I am looking at some albums from HD Tracks.  Any experience with their site?  Thanks,

Russ

My first posting, second catagory ...

HD Tracks - great variety on offer, not all Hi Def, but they tell you what 'definition' it is and there's very often a choice of 96 or 192khz encoding.  It's run by Chesky, so it's reputable.  I know a guy who just spent $150 last weekend on HD tracks downloads, filling in some of the gaps in his collection.

Personally, I don't go for 192khz on the old (1960's) albums because I figure the original recordings were usually not that good, but that's a personal generalisation.

Buy from HD Tracks with confidence, their download manager takes care of broken internet connections, no problem. And if you're in the US then great, you're all ligit !!

Sorry but IMO you need to read a bit more carefully with HD Tracks. Try their album offerings maybe one track first and see what you think before buying the whole album. It is unfair to be specific i have just been less than impressed personally with some albums from them. A few releases that have been analysed are reported to look like they have been created by upsampling the 44.1 CD rather than by full HiRes re mastering from the original studio masters

BTW don't know where you are in the world but HD tracks may not sell you quite a lot of their albums if you live in Europe officially. One way round that is to use PayPal without specifying a home address on their site and a VPN that has a USA IP address. 

Geoff

if you like blues try peter aldeton  linnrecords,  192k seem bright to me 96k best option try free downloads first

BTW just because the file is hires, it doesn't follow that there needs to be frequencies all the way to half or near half the sample frequency.. A cutoff filter a lot lower than half sample frequency can be used. This means at the 'knee' of the low pass filter of the ADC DSP and corrosponding DAC DSP there can be less instability as digital or analogue filters with less poles can be used. This means the slope is shallower and there is less transform function ringing which makes for a more consistent response to frequency and phase approaching the filter cutoff frequency. Therefore the reconstructed analogue signal contains less digital artefacts and therefore closer to the analogue sound. Remener digital sound is ultimately a compromise to its analogue version. The art is to make these compromises effectily inaudible.

For the cost of one download from HD Tracks, you can purchase MANY used cd's from Amazon, Russ.  Just a thought.

Download one track from cd tracks, buy the used cd and rip that track, compare a vs. b, and decide for the $ which is better value.  I have added a lot of music to my "collection" via $3.95 used cd's   But I have some HD Tracks too.