HD Albums - first experience!

Posted by: Yetizone on 30 May 2016

After ripping my CD collection, and slowly getting to grips with streaming, it was time to replace a couple of the essential discs with high res remastered versions, starting with David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory - both 192/24 files.

Upon first listen and a minute or so into track one, my initial reaction was a question of "is that it?" To expand, it did sound very good, although I felt slightly underwhelmed as perhaps I was expecting too much - hoping for more of a Bowie holographic soundscape perhaps? But, then, I listened further and directly compared it to the ripped CD FLAC version. Ah, there we go! The 44.1 / 16-bit version seemed to have a slightly shouty, aggressive forward midband that was startlingly bright in tonal balance when compared a second time to the HD track. There also seemed to be quieter spaces around the instruments - and Bowie's voice, giving a greater tonal range and cleaner vocal delivery. Lyrics were clearer and easier to make out, plus any vocal sibilance present on occasion before, all but gone. Wow, so much more revealing and therefore engaging. 

A fascinating introduction to the world of high res music and if these two albums are representative as to what can be done with older recordings then I’ll certainly be exploring further as and when favourite albums become available.

Just curious, am I best sticking to the highest size 192/24-bit files, or will I also notice a big difference with the smaller 48/24-bit and the 96/24-bit albums compared to CD ripped albums?

Posted on: 01 June 2016 by Bert Schurink
Yetizone posted:

Bert, Thanks for the info with regard the bit aspect of music resolution - much appreciated. I’ll take note when looking for the next HD albums. Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run (30th Anni) caught my eye but I was a little hesitant as it was 96/24 as opposed 192/24.

RE HD album pricing - my first foray were bought with a HDTracks weekend promo voucher to help get over the surprised sharp intake of breath at the cost of each album!

So who are the other retailers other than HDTracks and Qobuz - and who has the widest selection of albums? As I notice that there seem to be certain albums available at one store and not at the other?

There are more retailers. In general Qobuz seems to be the cheapest especially when you go for Qobuz Sublime. Other retailers are: prostudiomasters, highresaudio, linn records, Hyperion records, .... Bandcamp also sometimes has high resolution music. So have a look...

Posted on: 01 June 2016 by Claus-Thoegersen

My understanding is that records originally mastered on analogue tape, cannot  be made better by 24 o bitbecause the gain in signal to noise you get from 24 bit is way over what can be achieved recording to analogue tape in the first place. And the same with higher sampling frequence.

I am really skeptical about spending much money for hd albums that is originally recorded before 1995&2000.

this is confused with remastering since it is hard to compare a cd album with the shiny new 2016 24 bit remaster.

I have albums that are close to identical. 24 bit albums that sounds worse than my cd version. An to make matter worse albums recorded back in the 60s where the 24 bit version is much better than my cd version.

 

It would be nice to be able to download let us say 1 or 2 minute parts of the songs, before we have to buy the entire album at higher costs than the cd.

 

Claus

Posted on: 01 June 2016 by Sloop John B

Those 1999 Bowie's are atrocious soundwise  and are not what to base an opinion of 16/44 vs 24/96. 

On CD the original RCA or Toby Mountain remasters are the best. 

My hearing seems impervious to resolution but very sensitive to different masterings. 

 

SJB

Posted on: 02 June 2016 by Yetizone

Very interesting observations folks. So it seems the process of creating HD music files, especially from older music is a precarious affair, mainly dependent upon the original recording process and master tapes as apposed to the remastering for a new HD format? Talk about a challenge to negotiate which album versions are best to buy - especially for a HD newcomer like myself.

Due to their significant cost, in some ways I’m starting to feel a little reticent about buying older remastered material if the process hinges around limitations defined decades ago, although the Bowie HD albums were an improvement over the alleged inferior 1999 discs. Did I just get lucky on this occasion, or all remastered HD albums ' better ' ... ? So, just how much of a minefield is it when buying older ‘ improved ’ HD albums, especially given the substantial price increase over a standard CD? Are there any well known poor transfers or certain labels to be avoided for instance?

Plus, in terms of the HD music file itself, are there new formats on the way which are potentially definitive music file carriers? Perhaps the best of hard to find DSD and more commonly available PCM?