FLAC - best web sites

I use qobuz and have found it very good to date.

G

I also use Qobuz. You can also get some albums from HD Tracks but depends on the label. I have also used Highresaudio.com which seems to be a German site, but also has an English translation.

A couple of suggestions:

http://www.qobuz.com/ (not always possible in Germany)

http://www.highresaudio.com/ (good - but sometimes more expensive then f.i. Qobuz)

http://www.eclassical.com/pages/about-eclassical.html (sometimes good bargains)

http://www.hd-klassik.com/ (limited)

http://www.linnrecords.com/ (every now and then)

http://www.naimlabel.com/ (I tend to download via the others)

+ 1 Qobuz 

A few flac and some more wav, but very good quality recordings and music performances too

www.soundliaison.com

Acoustic Sounds - though not sure about UK - http://store.acousticsounds.com

Pono?

www.bleep.com

From Wikipedia:

"

Bleep Limited is a British online music store focusing on the independent music sector. Created by Warp Records and launched in January 2004, Bleep was one of the UK's first legal music download businesses and the only one to originate from within the music industry^{[citation needed]}. The store offers single track or whole album DRM-free mp3 and WAV downloads alongside vinyl records, CDs,DVDs, T-shirts and other merchandise.

Since its launch, the range of music offered by Bleep has grown and now provides music from independent labels including Rough Trade,Domino, Beggars Banquet, One Little Indian, XL Recordings, Ninja Tune, Stones Throw, Hyperdub, Planet Mu, Tempa, and many more. In addition, a large catalogue of rare titles has been acquired from many small labels from all over the world."

Yes the Pono store will be interesting. From what I read, it looks like it might cover a very broad scope of material. Shame about the rumoured prices though. I don't see how a download, Hi-res or otherwise can justifiably be priced higher than the physical equivalent. Bleep's pricing regime seems a lot fairer. 

When it comes to pricing Linn is the worst. How can they pretend to stand by 24 bit highres and  at the same time  demand  the Price they do.

+1

I've recently purchased .WAV from them from artists such as Alva Noto, Jean Michel Jarre, Vermont, Bola etc., and the new a Boards Of Canada in hi res. D'load speeds are good too.

I've used Linn Records, mainly for 24 bit Rush albums, very easy to use but choice is limited. I used Qubuz for first time last week to good effect once I'd negotiated the language and the choice seems broader. Not much difference in price across all of them for hd

Here in Canada we also have Pro Studio Masters for hi resolution downloads and quite a bit of classical music if that is your fancy - http://www.prostudiomasters.com/

They are based in Montreal and pricing for some labels is 20% off at this time.

Enjoyed my UK trip this February - missed the -50C weather in Edmonton. Will try this next year too!

Bryan

Downloaded first Studio master from the Bower & Wilkins site today - did not take too long a time on broad band,  one of my favs - So Peter Gabriel - looking forward to getting my NDX even more now! have to say also dBpoweramp is a great CD ripping tool -

find it hard to believe there is not many sites for FLAC music - HD tracks hopefully later this month

Thanks once again for all views

I am using HD TRacks   www.hdtracks.com and highresaudio.com . 

works fine for me. 

Qobuz and HDtracks indeed are ahead for their selections, quality and prices.

In addition to the other usual distributors, one should consider Channel Classics Records ( http://www.channelclassics.com/ ). A Dutch label founded in 1990 by American born musician and recording engineer Jared Sacks.

Working exclusively in DSD, they offer 24/192 FLAC converted “Studio Masters”.

Their artists include Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Florilegium and the excellent Rachel Podger.

Chag -

Excellent download sale on at BLEEP currently. Well worth a look. Just picked up some Hyetal, Dan Deacon and Caribou

Nice overview of music shops with download sites: 

http://www.findhdmusic.com/high-definition/directory/

I like http://www.gubemusic.com/

I wish Naim would offer more in their portfolio ..... more diverse in all respects, genre, main stream & old "classic" rock & blues, the various forms of jazz & those best of classical recordings.  

I understand its probably hard to expand on what they do (& do so well) with own label,  but IMO unless they do diversify then the growth of the download www sites will overwhelm them & they will become a very small fish in a large ocean. I would expect one way would be to form an association with one of the large (& growing rapidly) download specialists.  

Great acoustic site here http://bluecoastrecords.com/home but no flac, only wav, dsf and dff.

I just checked out BlueCoast   ............

They might be a specialist recording co & have hard to find & good quality artists – and good on them for that - but that aside $20 for 44.1KHz & $40 for 96KHz WAV's is taking (stealing) the wee-wee,  The original masters are probably DSD so both WAV options have gone thru one (only) conversion process & nothing in that justifies double the price. 

Sometime soon we will all stop buying this kind of extortionate pricing & force an end to these rips off

(rip ?? sorry no pun intended)

I think your pricing of Blue coast is a little over the top. The excellent Keith Greeninger wav 44.1kHz is $15 (about £9). In 96kHz its $25 (£15) for 9 superb tracks. These are some of the finest recordings you will hear. Also, they have several free taster tracks you can download and enjoy.

I was just checking the first few recordings, returning again I found a number at the same prices, $20 for 44.1KHz  & double $40 for 96KHz.  Others are $15 & $30 – double for selecting 96KHz

Also I would point out that 44.1khz is not high res,  its only "CD" quality

My point in the first post was not high pricing – it was doubling the price for higher res that is unacceptable IMO.  It looks to me to be an excuse to milk anyone gullible enough to fall for it

Naim & all the others do the same,  but in Naim’s case they only add a low percentage e.g. (typical)  44.1khz@£9.99  48khz@£12.99  96khz@£16.99  192khz@£17.99

If you can get the same recordings from HDTracks they are cheaper.  Eleanor McEvoy from Naim at 96khz is £16.99   - I bought the same from HDT for $17.98 (£11.07)

But price aside, its this practice of unessesarily increasing the price for higher resolution numbers when truth be told in most cases they are converted from whatever the master is & that is a single process irrespective of what the final resolution might be.    

Sincerely,

$45 Current Vinyl Releases/Reissues

www.boomkat.com