Downloading Music.

Be careful quality can be as varied as vinyl pressings lots and lots of what you find will not better the CD rips you are used to. If you trawl around the various sites you will find most have free samples for first timers. Sound Liason I found to be very, very good quality mostly Jazz however, HD Tracks also has a free sample download but they can be very expensive IMO. 

Just Google HD or High Res downloads and see what comes up do try Sound Liason though there is a Carmen Gomez cover of a Harry Belofonte LP that is one of the best quality downloads I’ve heard and reasonably priced I remember. 

If you've worked out ripping & done some metadata messing,  & I assume you buy stuff on-line, then downloading will hold no fears for you.   

The process is to open an account, purchase with all the usual CC's & PayPal, select the album, add to basket, purchase & the vendors server downloads to your computer.  Once its completed, check the art,  folder/artist names etc. & once happy then upload to your server in the same folder as your CD rips,   or another 'download' folder if you so choose.   They look like (they are) just the same as a CD rip.   

The popular vendors are Qobuz, HighResAudio, HDTracks & many more incl. Naim & Linn.   Watch out for best pricing as they do vary & in some cases quite a lot.  Also look out for monthy special offers.     I use http://www.findhdmusic.com/alb...ist=&srch_label= to search for HD (24-bit) vendors,  but some vendors like Qobuz also sell 16-bit as well.     Look out for DSD, it has great SQ especially with simple recordings & acoustic material;  vendors such as Sound Liaison (mentioned above) have a good selection,  your NDS is DSD enabled but check out if you can play that codec with your HDX server,  go get a free DSD64 sample on www & try it.

Have you ever downloaded anything from the internet? Music is exactly the same. You go to a website and choose the music that you want. Then you pay for it. Then you get a download link or maybe a download-helper-app if you want it. And then you get a set of files that you put in the same place as your ripped CDs.

Every site is a little different, but most seem simple enough to do the actual download from. Decide on your preferred format and if necessary, get familiar with a converter so that you can get the download into the format of your choice straight away if necessary. Also make sure you get into the habit of editing metadata straight away - some downloads are a shambles and need it to be redone from scratch, others are OK, and need no changes.

Are you using the HDX in your profile? If so, you will need to store in the Downloads folder, and conversion and editing can't be done on the HDX as it can for CD rips, so the software for this must be used on a computer. Likewise, the automated backup is for CD rips only, so when you save a download to the HDX, also copy it to a backup drive.

Dave

agree with other comments - as Mike B says - it's easy to do and some very good sites which are easy to use - get most of mine from Qubuz and Highres Audio

only I would add is back up downloads to seperate hardrive as you dont have a CD as ultimate back up, so I end up with a copy on my NAS, Computer and Segate drive

hope helps

Most of the download websites have easy-to-follow guides to downloading for newbies.  Some of them (e.g. Qobuz) have an app you can install which simplifies the download process although you don't have to use it.

If you're into classical, you can download from the websites of several of the smaller record labels and they sometimes have a greater range of formats than the standard download sites.  Examples are Bis, Chandos and Hyperion.   They often have superior metadata, too, especially Hyperion which offers the best tagging I have encountered.  One final point: many albums come with booklets, usually as downloadable pdfs, which often contain the text for vocal pieces as well as interesting info about the music and/or performers.  They're often well worth downloading and saving so you can read them whilst listening.

Roger

I tend to use Chandos and Linn the most via their own download managers which work very well. Mind you only really worthwhile now my broadband speed has hit the dizzy heights of  12 Mbps. Before that it was an overnight job or risk crashing everyone else in the house!

Dave,

As mentioned by the other bods, some great sites to explore. I find the most user friendly sites are QOBUZ and 7Digital. On all the sites i’ve used, file formats can be chosen at the time of purchase and the site guidelines are pretty easy to follow. Plus, if a mistake is made, they allow repeat access to purchases and the the ability to change the format being downloaded, or this can be done easily in DBPoweramp as well, as can meta dat if need be, especially on complications and boxed sets.

FindHDMusic are a valuable asset to conduct a wide search for a particular artist / album and locate available HD content. 

QOBUZ have a good website, pretty competitively priced HD albums and offer the CD 16Bit alternative to 24Bit, plus they occasionally have some very generous offers. 

High Res Audio are also good, but I find the site slow and a little ponderous to navigate, but they also have some decent offers too.

HDTracks offer a broad range of content, but the prices seem inflated compared to the competition, despite their weekly 15% or 10% email offers which bring them more or less in line with the other retailers. 

One of my favourite sites are 7Digital as they have three features I find helpful…

Firstly, they have a “Deal of the Week” where a couple of new releases (HD) are showcased at a reduced price (roughly a third to half price). I have repeatedly taken advantage of this offer.

Secondly, I find “Featured Music” a good intro to new acts or albums I’d missed, so speaks for itself really.

Thirdly, when the current series of the Jools Holland show is on air, they feature all of the acts of that week, and their available HD content at a decent price That section of the site alone has cost me quite bit of disposable income.

Have fun exploring - there’s no going back once you dive in!

dave marshall posted:

Hi,

Curiously enough, I haven't ever attempted downloading music from any of the well known music sites, my listening coming from either streaming my ripped CDs, or Tidal.

Can anyone provide a simple foolproof guide to downloading for this novice? 

Many thanks,

Dave.

I'll simply echo comments on backing up the downloads.

I've repurchased am album from Qobuz that I cannot locate downloaded from Linn a few years ago - some retailers do not allow redownloading but many do.   Even if they allow you to redownload, the rights holders may prevent you doing so down the line, as is the case with several older 7 digital purchases which I can't locate currently.  So ensure you have a backup strategy as some of these companies may not be viable in the longer term.

If you’re into classical and jazz the Chandos site does allow you to download purchases again so a nice feature.

I see that HiResAudio has a few MQA titles so I’m thinking of having a play with one of those via my Oppo205 which is MQA ready. If only to see what the fuss is about