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In Reply to: RE: I'm ok with CDs. posted by Jotaro on October 13, 2024 at 21:03:58
"How do the high-rez downloads compare to cd's or ripped cd's. "As good or slightly better, in my opinion.
I ripped several hundred CDs to AIFF (like WAV) or ALAC (like FLAC) and they sound just as good as playing the CD. In fact I have all of these rips on my Mac Mini and Synology NAS and use those as my music servers. The biggest factor is the quality of the original recording.
I also downloaded several 'hi-res' albums from HD Tracks, a popular music download business. I have a few in 24/192 but mostly 24/96. To my ears these sound about the same as my own CD rips but some downloads -might- sound ever so slightly better. If the download sounds significantly better it was because that download album was a remaster. The old CD version may not have been as good but if you can find the remaster it will pretty much be on par with the download.
If the CD sounds fantastic I didn't hear a huge difference with a 24/192 or 24/96 album download. And the difference between 24/192 and 24/96 wasn't even worth straining over to TRY and hear a difference so most of my 'hi-res' downloads are 24/96.
Since high quality streaming services including Tidal and Qobuz came on the scene a few years ago I stopped downloading from HD Tracks. The value just wasn't there. I can't see paying $10 - $25 per album download when I can pay $10 to $25 per month to access all the high quality streaming music I can possibly ever want. One of the arguments against streaming was, "what if the service goes out of business"? That may have been a concern years ago but today we have multiple high quality lossless streaming services to choose from including mainstream guys like Apple and Amazon. Spotify was supposed to bring us hi-res music but that's been all talk for a couple years now. Not sure where they stand today.
My digital path over the decades:
- Buy albums on CD
- Organize hundreds of them in CD shelves
- Rip albums from CD to the computer
- Store all of those CDs in several plastic bins
- Download hi-res albums to the music server
- Sell off bins full of CDs and clear the clutter
- Play music from the music servers and.....
- Stream baby, stream !I am almost certain that HD Tracks was on life support when they announced earlier this year, "HDtracks is launching a hi-res streaming service with Lenbrook". This was in July 2024. Not sure of any progress but they're pretty late to the game.
P.S. I also digitized a couple dozen LP's and decided it's not worth the effort. It is extremely tedious - but fun until it isn't! Too much work but that's another story.
Edits: 10/14/24Follow Ups:
Yep I'm bypassing paying for high resolution downloads completely and going directly to streaming. For now I'm still interested in collecting the physical media formats. One of the advantages of being slow is to be able to read about the experiences of others. Thank you for your inputs.
" P.S. I also digitized a couple dozen LP's and decided it's not worth the effort. It is extremely tedious - but fun until it isn't! Too much work but that's another story."
Same story here. I bought a Parasound Zphono USB phono preamp specifically for that purpose, and used it twice. Ever since it's taken up residence in the garage.
I find myself questioning the value of a lot of high-rez stuff, though. I can access a lot of it via Qobuz, but I often find that I prefer what I've ripped myself to my NAS drive.
I've played around with 'hi-res' downloads and streaming but in general unless there was something wrong with the CD I wasn't hearing huge differences - or differences that were worth fretting over.
I stream mostly Qobuz and my ripped CDs but I can't say that I prefer one over the other. I'll have to turn in my golden ear audiophile badge ;-)
I suppose that it's just a personal nit to pick, but Qobuz seems to store all of their music as individual cuts. When you play an "album", what you're really getting is just the cuts that are on that particular album played in proper sequence. In my experience, this sometimes results in very abrupt transitions between tracks that can be pretty annoying at times. This doesn't happen with what I've ripped myself.
Then again, I might just be a cranky old f@rt.
> > " P.S. I also digitized a couple dozen LP's and decided it's not worth the
> > effort. It is extremely tedious - but fun until it isn't! Too much work
> > but that's another story."
Yes but the vinyl ritual and record cleaning machines are more of a buzz kill to me. I don't think there's anything in my lifetime, other than better equipment, that's brought me more musical enjoyment than a GUI. I play my vinyl to record it and then not again until I'm in the mood for serious listening (LOL) - playing back in random mode or even listening to albums digitally is more than adequate for me to get off when listening to music on my hifi.
I used to require the occasional vinyl ritual to satisfy that itch. Take out the turntable, hook up the phono, clean a record, clean the stylus, play some music. Put it all away for another month then repeat. Well, that month has stretched to several months. I might set it up again but the last time I did that it held my interest for only a couple LPs before I was back to the digital GUI.
I have the same issue. I actually have a pretty decent vinyl rig, but it's been months since I used it. The convenience of the digital side is pretty seductive.
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