Are we letting the recording companies off to lightly?

[Al ears]

Bin liners can't see the comparison. Only reason I buy better bin liners is because they are stronger - in other words the cheap ones simply wouldn't work for the kind of stuff I might require them for. If cheaper bin liners will do the job I require I will buy them.

Too right I'm the same. Like you not sure where he's coming from with the comparison but cheap bin liners have no place in my household. The last I bought never even made it to the main bin leaving me having to pick up a load of cr#p off my driveway and putting it back into some 'double-bagged' liners.

You learn the hard way, cheap bin liners are unfit for purpose. At least they are in my house. ;-)

However, cheap CD's are not.

 

[ellisdj]

Surely artists (who would be the ones you assume would want you to have the best work they have created) on their own Web page can have a small shop where you can buy the studio master file.

It then only take someone 2 minutes to copy and paste the file onto a usb card or stick and post it out.

Check out Anne Bisson Web page there is this exact option. She is part of the audiophile community so is not the same as Ed Sheeron or Adele. But these must have lackies doing all their dirty work and they would still make some money at £30 a go.
I would buy the uncompressed Adele albums I bet it started off truly epic because they crushed it

 

[andyjm]

I can see that the business man in some of you, cut straight to the chase. No demand no upgrade.

While others have looked at the actual benifits of Hi-area music, and why there is a lack of demand.

Broken,

You still seem to be of the opinion that the perceived sound quality of HiRes is somehow better than standard 16/44.1 CD. I would suggest that you do some research on this point.

As was pointed out earlier in the thread, display systems are still below the quality of human sight, and therefore technological advances bring real benefits to consumers. 4K looks better than 1080p, therefore I am prepared to pay more for a fancy TV. Why would I pay more for HiRes when a properly mixed CD has greater dynamic range and better frequency response than I can hear?

Unfortunately for an industry built on selling the next new 'new format', they have produced a format that is good enough - and rightly consumers aren't falling for the hogwash around HiRes.

 

[lindsayt]

I think it would be nice to have the option to buy the master quality file for all albums - even if the price was very high £35 or so.

It would be nice to have that option - I am sure they would make enough money to pay for a site to advertise them and allow dowloads. This could be direct from the label.

Or they could sell USB Cards with them on.

There would be piracy but there is anyway so it doesnt make any difference

Out of interest, what do you mean by "master quality file"?

Whatever the original digital file is before compression for cd

You need to get with the program. With the resurgence of vinyl sound quality is going backwards and CD is better than your ears anyway.

The highly valid point ellisdj was making was about the ubiquitous use of compression in the 21st century.

When the DR database is sorted in reverse year order it's easy to see how bad this is:

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/year/desc

Count how many 2016 release have red DR ratings and how many dark green.

And most of the dark green are re-releases of recordings made from years ago.

From a dynamics point of view, mainstream music releases are way behind the standards of the 1950's to 1980's.

 

[andyjm]

Surely artists (who would be the ones you assume would want you to have the best work they have created) on their own Web page can have a small shop where you can buy the studio master file.

It then only take someone 2 minutes to copy and paste the file onto a usb card or stick and post it out.

Check out Anne Bisson Web page there is this exact option. She is part of the audiophile community so is not the same as Ed Sheeron or Adele. But these must have lackies doing all their dirty work and they would still make some money at £30 a go. I would buy the uncompressed Adele albums I bet it started off truly epic because they crushed it

Ellisdj,

A very good point. I am not a fan, but my Wife likes Michael Buble. While his tracks sound well mxed on the car radio, his CDs are so compressed as to be unlistenable on a halfway decent system. You would have thought any artist would want his music to sound good. I would pay £30 for a properly mixed version of his Christmas album so I don't have to suffer through another Christmas of compressed screeching....

My assumption is that the market for full-fat well mixed music is so small as to make it uneconomic to even offer a premium priced web download.

 

[lindsayt]

Check out the unmastered versions of Red Hot Chili Peppers songs that are floating around the web.

I'd like to buy the unmastered versions of every Chili Peppers studio album, please.

 

[pauln]

The DVD/Blu Ray of her concert live at the Albert Hall has much better DR, if you're interested.

I can only listen to her albums in the car - too painful on headphones. It's a shame.

 

[Andrewjvt]

If there could be 2 versions

One compressed for phones and car radios

And one at a higher price that has a good dynamic range for hifi

I would pay premium for this.

Forget about hi res etc cd quality is good enough

 

[ellisdj]

way I see iit its not like anyone is asking the labels to make somehting new

The mastering engineers must have a final version they are happy with before they compress it for CD MP3 etc.

We just want that copy there, surely they want you to hear this version the full works in action and so easy to distiribute to a small market and still make a bit of money

 

[Andrewjvt]

way I see iit its not like anyone is asking the labels to make somehting new

The mastering engineers must have a final version they are happy with before they compress it for CD MP3 etc.

We just want that copy there, surely they want you to hear this version the full works in action and so easy to distiribute to a small market and still make a bit of money

Then we could really see what our systems are capable of.

Would pay the extra also

 

[Gaz37]

Surely artists (who would be the ones you assume would want you to have the best work they have created) on their own Web page can have a small shop where you can buy the studio master file.

It then only take someone 2 minutes to copy and paste the file onto a usb card or stick and post it out.

Check out Anne Bisson Web page there is this exact option. She is part of the audiophile community so is not the same as Ed Sheeron or Adele. But these must have lackies doing all their dirty work and they would still make some money at £30 a go. I would buy the uncompressed Adele albums I bet it started off truly epic because they crushed it

Ellisdj,

A very good point. I am not a fan, but my Wife likes Michael Buble. While his tracks sound well mxed on the car radio, his CDs are so compressed as to be unlistenable on a halfway decent system. You would have thought any artist would want his music to sound good. I would pay £30 for a properly mixed version of his Christmas album so I don't have to suffer through another Christmas of compressed screeching....

My assumption is that the market for full-fat well mixed music is so small as to make it uneconomic to even offer a premium priced web download.

As far as they are concerned it does sound good, how many letters do you suppose Mr Buble has received complaining about the sound quality of his albums? I'd guess probably in the region of none.

How many complaints about sound quality do you suppose the studios/record companies receive every year? Probably in single figures?

Sony Music (according to Google) have published 2 million songs and has a revenue of $1.25 billion, does anybody here really think they are bothered that a dozen hifi "anoraks" on an obscure specialist internet forum are unhappy with the quality of their recordings?

 

[visionary]

Surely artists (who would be the ones you assume would want you to have the best work they have created) on their own Web page can have a small shop where you can buy the studio master file.

It then only take someone 2 minutes to copy and paste the file onto a usb card or stick and post it out.

Check out Anne Bisson Web page there is this exact option. She is part of the audiophile community so is not the same as Ed Sheeron or Adele. But these must have lackies doing all their dirty work and they would still make some money at £30 a go. I would buy the uncompressed Adele albums I bet it started off truly epic because they crushed it

It was worth reading this thread for the Anne Bisson tip (although how you can put her and Adele in the same paragraph I don't understand). Interesting that you can also buy her music on 15ips reel to reel tapes *shok* as well as USB

 

[TrevC]

I think it would be nice to have the option to buy the master quality file for all albums - even if the price was very high £35 or so.

It would be nice to have that option - I am sure they would make enough money to pay for a site to advertise them and allow dowloads. This could be direct from the label.

Or they could sell USB Cards with them on.

There would be piracy but there is anyway so it doesnt make any difference

Out of interest, what do you mean by "master quality file"?

Whatever the original digital file is before compression for cd

You need to get with the program. With the resurgence of vinyl sound quality is going backwards and CD is better than your ears anyway.

The highly valid point ellisdj was making was about the ubiquitous use of compression in the 21st century.

When the DR database is sorted in reverse year order it's easy to see how bad this is:

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/year/desc

Count how many 2016 release have red DR ratings and how many dark green.

And most of the dark green are re-releases of recordings made from years ago.

From a dynamics point of view, mainstream music releases are way behind the standards of the 1950's to 1980's.

Dynamic range is only part of the story.

 

[ellisdj]

Surely artists (who would be the ones you assume would want you to have the best work they have created) on their own Web page can have a small shop where you can buy the studio master file.

It then only take someone 2 minutes to copy and paste the file onto a usb card or stick and post it out.

Check out Anne Bisson Web page there is this exact option. She is part of the audiophile community so is not the same as Ed Sheeron or Adele. But these must have lackies doing all their dirty work and they would still make some money at £30 a go. I would buy the uncompressed Adele albums I bet it started off truly epic because they crushed it

It was worth reading this thread for the Anne Bisson tip (although how you can put her and Adele in the same paragraph I don't understand). Interesting that you can also buy her music on 15ips reel to reel tapes *shok* as well as USB

Anne bisson conversations is very good quality album. Made by xlo recordings using xlo cabling for production. Well worth purchasing I am not a lover of cello but there is some really good songs and cello based music on that album