Hi-Res Tracks

SteveR750

Well-known member
Thought I'd share a rekindled enthusiasm for hi-res tracks. I have bought a couple of albums and songs from HD Tracks, and though ok not bad. I have also recently upgraded my spotify account to the mid levele whatever they call it so that I got rid of the ads, and also because the free version caps the number of times you can play a track to 5, not cool. So, I have been using it a lot more, particularly because I can find lots of old stuff that I wouldnt buy, and also new stuff for the same reason that I might want to buy (The Magnolia Electric Co. for exmaple, but I digress...)

It got to a point where I had started to ignore the HDTracks newsletters, despite the recent catalogue additions of more mainstrean artists, when at the weekend we eneded up comaring te Spotify version of Rumours to the CDA version on my laptop (still using J River MC15 and the dacmagic) and my girlfriend noticed a big difference without being prompted. To be honest, most of the time I am blown away by the sound of spotify tracks, so was beginning to think that my hearing was starting to deteriorate. I remembered that HDtracks had just issued Rumours on a 24 bit version, so in a wine fuelled frenzy I downloaded it. 5 hours later thanks to painfully slow BB we di a comparison, and frankly I fell off my chair. The difference was huge, much more so than the jump frm mp3 to CDA. I can only conclude that the hi res version is remastered, with the band coming back and re-recording it! Unfortunately its the only album that I have in all three formats, but I suspect that there is something else different to the hi res version, as it really is so much clearer.....
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Grab yourself a copy of Audacity and downsample to CD quality, or even MP3 @320. My guess it will still be superb.

:)

I bought some HD albums, and agree that they sounded out of this world, better than my CD. But when downsampled to CD quality or even 320 MP3, they still did...

I like the idea of high res formats, as usually the recording is done properly, unlike most CDs unfortunately. The problem is, they are usually too expensive, and I don't personally trust HDTracks after a couple of "known" incidents.

By the way, this recording is pretty good quality, on Spotify. See what you think? (Might not be your cup of tea)

Laroca - Valley of the Bears

Laroca – Valley Of The Bears
 

DavieCee

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Aug 19, 2010
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Steve,

You are right on two counts. They do sound better and they have been remastered. IMHO.

Some but not all (unfortunately not all) HD Tracks albums are meticulously remastered to sound as good as they can.

I read the blurb to see if someone has gone to the effort before downloading. I am convinced that some albums are simply upsampled. If so, that is not good enough but the ones where the effort is made are outstanding!
 

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