XXHighEnd

Spent 2 days downloading quite some 24bit/96Khz tracks from www.hdtracks.com , converted them to WAV (in my consideration sounding a bit less "digital") and now sitting in my chair enjoying all this new Hi-res stuff... The one mic recordings from chesky records for example, you never get closer to a live experience in your own listeningroom. Very nice liner notes too BTW! :clapping:

My advice: go there, buy some (they're worth every penny, uhm euro or wathever). Of course there's a lot of very nice stuff out there (also redbook material) but this is quite special!

Send me your feeback if you have some.

Greetz, Han

Thanks for reminding me! I bought those Chesky titles on CD many ears ago. Havn't listened to them for a long time.

An old favourite is "Live from Studio A" - Johnny Frigo with Bucky & John Pizzarelli (together with a dynamite backing group, including Ron Carter on bass).
Sound quality is superb. Single stereo mic recording with no manipulation what so ever. Drumkit is captured very realistic with scary dynamic scale. Turn up the volume and be amazed!

The 16/44 CD played through XX sounds surprisingly good. In fact, I can't recall a better "U R There" experience. The instruments and the recorded acoustics surounds you like the wet air in a sauna. Can it be better than this?

Of course, it was a forced move for me... Last night I had to download the 24/96 Flac file from HDtracks.com. Only $17.98 (less than a budget CD!). Can it improve on the CD? - I am eager to find out tomorrow, when alone in the house!

Hi Pedal,

Yeah this Chesky stuff is really amazing! Think you must have had a mind (and ear) blowing experience after downloading this 24 bit tracks!

I believe you're into jazz also, when you find the time you listen to the next samples:

Paquito d'Rivera, kind of classical/jazz crossover CD, very nice!
Jimmy Cobb, New York theme and Cobb's Corner. Mainstream jazz, wonderful band, great music and a hell of a "live" feeling!
Same for David Hazeltine, Manhattan.

Sure you will be flabbergastered by the "realness" of these drumkits and that you won't need the linernotes to know where every musician was standing during the recordings!!

By the way, in the meantime I will get my own thrill with Johnny Frigo!

I'll let you hear!!

Best regards, Han

Here are my inital impressions:

24/96 Flac converted to WAV
vs.
16/44 CD rip + 4x upsampling + ARC:

The 24/96 improves on the 16/44. But only in subtle ways, and mainly with better microdynamics. The "attack" (start up) of the guitarstrings are more precisely reproduced, more real. Also some violin tones are slightly better resolved, not as thick/broad as on 16/44. Also the drumkit is more "sudden", with a litle more "drama" in 24/96, compared with 16/44.

I have some DAD albums which offers both 24/96 and 24/192. The relative improvement from 16/44 to 24/96, happens also when going from 24/96 to 24/192. The last step up gives another degree of realisme. More realistic microdynamics.

I think (unfortunately) the "real thing" doesn't appear before you get music at 24/192. I say unfortunately because there is so little music available at this samplerate at the moment.

-This is with a traditional filter DAC. Maybe a filterless DAC, or one of these new software-based DACs without pre-ringing, might change my opinion?

-----------

han: Thanks for the tip. I'll buy and try!

Yes, pity that there is not that much really good musical material on the market. Of course you know the Linn stuff, don't you? Fabulous recordings and of course downloading original masters gives a kick, absolutely immaculate but only a few albums are really interesting....

There is a posibility to get the newsletter from B&W and for someting like 33 euro's a year you can download a lot of hi-res albums, don't know yet if they are worthwhile, keep in touch about that.

There is this Dutch website (www.hifi.nl) with a special music store but that's only redbook format (CD's) and vinyl.

But I think that HD Tracks has the most interesting albums by far.

That's it for today.

See ya! Han

I feel that the hirez tracks need a new point of view. The first time I heard them I was a little bit disappointed and thougth that the sound is too "cool". But with every step lessening the electrical and acoustical interferences I got a better and more interesting soundstage. I think that this was only the start for a new experience. What do you think?

Georg

AGREED,and you can make 2 catagories:

The old (60s,70s, 80s, 90s) remastered stuff, like Doors, Oldfield,Alice Cooper etc, can sometimes be dissapointing because of "bad" mastering. (wich ist just neccasry because its taken from analog masters) those albums just wont get any better
And mostly the normal 16/44 albums with Arc Prediction sounds way better.

BUT, the newer stuff from e.g. HDtracks like Chesky Records and offcourse all the stuff from Linn and 2L is doing a much greater job, because of the better recording techniques
like DDD, DSD, DXD (HDCD). (and mostly these record labels also take care in their cabling and mics (placement) used for the recordings)

I also think xx evolved in handling these (and overall 16/44) files better and just because of the plain new versions updates ofcourse.

So do give the "better" sounding HDtracks albums a listen and buy some because it can be worthwhile.

Also a new link:
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=3550

http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=3550&terid=4961

http://blog.bowers-wilkins.com/lab/sound-quality-lab/the-definitive-guide-to-24-bit-flac/
The B&W Digtal Timeline thread should end with (read the above link) :

2007 - Introducing the PC playback software XXHighEnd by PeterSt
2010 - Introducing XXHighEnd 1.0 Version

Still curious about peoples findings with ARC on these 96 (and 192) albums (I am restricted to 88.2 for now)

Cheers,



PS: 2-0 is a good start for the new FIFA world champions!!