CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Music and Recordings => Topic started by: shipsupt on October 01, 2013, 09:43:28 PM
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Take a look at the HD Tracks top 50 sellers today and it's clearly no longer a list of "audiophile" favorites. For better or worse, we are seeking out popular music in better formats.
Feel free to have your HD tracks sucks conversation, none of the hi-res files are really hi-res, talk about how there is no difference between file types, whatever it is that floats your boat, we've got plenty of room on the internet!
As for me, I think we've got a long way to go, but I'm happy to see that I'm getting better access to lossless music that I actually like! The burst in available artist may be a bit exaggerated due to releasing poor recordings in "HD", but as musicians look for any outlet to sell music and make a buck, even the small but growing market for this stuff has got to be getting a little attention. Let's hope it works in our favor!
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I hope the proliferation of hi-res content that is driven by consumers wanting better sound quality also lead to better (quieter) mastering across the board as well.
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I don't have a problem with it. I get equally as tired seeing people mention cliche audiophile favorites like alison krauss or jazz at the pawnshop when they review and compare things-- or, god forbid, the horrible excuse of music that is adventures of space and time. They're go-to recordings that are used even though the user isn't most likely familiar with them.
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well thanks to your discussion about DSD the other night I saw this http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/11521/Various_Artists-Man_of_the_World_-_Reflections_on_Peter_Green-Hybrid_Stereo_SACD album and ordered it. I know it is not high rez download but still cool.
I have been downloading studio masters from Linn Records for a while and I really like some of their stuff. Not sure it makes a huge difference vs their CD quality flac but it doesn't hurt
..dB
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If I want to participate in the "HDTracks sux" conversation, I can do that 24/7 at Computer Audiophile. popcorn
I'd be just as happy if we didn't duplicate it here.
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BTW, the hi-res download of the remaster of the original 1963 recording of the Britten "War Requiem" is to die for. A little tape hiss in the quieter sections, barely (I mean barely) audible at the volumes I normally use, but otherwise just beautiful. And for me it's still the definitive recording, even 50 years later.
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And only $5! Nice. I think I'll grab that one too.
I grab a few things off Linn (I love their audio streams on iTunes), but predominantly I use HD Tracks. It seems like they've got a leg up now on getting artist on board.
There were lots of rumors a while back, anyone hear more about iTunes bringing out some hi-res stuff or was that all just hype when they were rolling out "mastered for iTunes"?
well thanks to your discussion about DSD the other night I saw this http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/11521/Various_Artists-Man_of_the_World_-_Reflections_on_Peter_Green-Hybrid_Stereo_SACD album and ordered it. I know it is not high rez download but still cool.
I have been downloading studio masters from Linn Records for a while and I really like some of their stuff. Not sure it makes a huge difference vs their CD quality flac but it doesn't hurt
..dB
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Is HDTracks actually decent?
I was planning on buying a couple of albums there...
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I use them as a source of FLAC. As with anything else, the quality varies. There was some "hires" Van Halen content which turned out to have NO hires information upon spectrum analysis. The Nirvana Nevermind was compressed to hell. The issue with HDTracks is that they are not clear in where the source came from and what was done to it.
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I use them as a source of FLAC. As with anything else, the quality varies. There was some "hires" Van Halen content which turned out to have NO hires information upon spectrum analysis. The Nirvana Nevermind was compressed to hell. The issue with HDTracks is that they are not clear in where the source came from and what was done to it.
Got it... so for some releases you might get a surprise then... Thanks.
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I've noticed a few releases there now with much more detail on what the actual mastering/recording details are, so maybe/hopefully they are moving in that direction. But that's still a small fraction of the offerings.
It's still a decent source for lossless formats. And I've got a few things there I love.
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The thing that people tend to forget about HDTracks (this is especially true of a handful of idiots who hang out at Computer Audiophile) is that it's not a label, it's a retailer. It can only sell what it can license from the record companies, and if the label chooses not to provide detailed provenance information to HDT then HDT can't provide it to potential customers.
I also don't have a lot of sympathy for the clowns at CA who argue that HDT has some sort of moral responsibility to ruthlessly weed out downloadables that don't meet some impossible-to-satisfy purist's arbitrary notion of what is commercially acceptable. I wonder if those folks would have said, 30 years ago, that Tower, Sam Goody, et al. had a moral responsibility to do random quality checks on their inventory of physical product before putting it on the shelf. Thirty years ago, you bought it, took it home and played it, and if it was defective you brought it back for exchange or refund. Not sure what the digital-download analogue to that process would be, since it's impossible for a seller of downloads to know whether any particular customer is genuinely displeased or made a copy and is scamming the seller.
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Responsibility is always ultimately on the consumer to promote a certain level of quality by voting w/ pocketbooks. Putting responsibility on the vendor just promotes an environment destined to fail the end user in pretty much every way conceivable. That's an excuse for laziness and lack of self education.