Quality question

[Nathan]

Hi,

I've had a read about and can't quite find the answer to this - so apologies if it is a daft question. Hardware costs notwithstanding, can a downloaded digital lossless audio file ever be as good as the original CD? I assume that the lossless files originally come from a CD which makes me think that the CD will always be the superior source file.

Added to that, if you rip a CD to the highest lossless file format that you can (HDD space not being an issue), can it be played back to give the same sound quality as playing the original CD?

Nahtan

 

[Frank Harvey]

Yes and yes.

 

[spiny norman]

I assume that the lossless files originally come from a CD which makes me think that the CD will always be the superior source file.

If you're lucky and the download service is done properly, the files will have come from the digital master, not a CD, so that will have taken one stage of processing out of the equation.

Added to that, if you rip a CD to the highest lossless file format that you can (HDD space not being an issue), can it be played back to give the same sound quality as playing the original CD?

At least, if not better.

 

[pauln]

Hi,

Added to that, if you rip a CD to the highest lossless file format that you can (HDD space not being an issue), can it be played back to give the same sound quality as playing the original CD?

It's either lossless or it's not - a wav file will be maybe twice the size of a lossless flac file but it will not be any better quality. Playback quality will depend on what you use to play it back. I doubt that a cheap laptop with an integrated sound card on the motherboard will sound as good as a £1000 CD player however if you used the USB output from that same laptop fed into a reasonable DAC it should sound virtually the same... opinions differ on DACs.

 

[MajorFubar]

Hi,

I've had a read about and can't quite find the answer to this - so apologies if it is a daft question.  Hardware costs notwithstanding, can a downloaded digital lossless audio file ever be as good as the original CD?  I assume that the lossless files originally come from a CD which makes me think that the CD will always be the superior source file.

Added to that, if you rip a CD to the highest lossless file format that you can (HDD space not being an issue), can it be played back to give the same sound quality as playing the original CD?

Nahtan

Yes and yes. If the downloads and rips are lossless, then no data is lost, as the name implies. But lossless downloads haven't necessarily been ripped from CDs. They will have been sent as a digital file to the download distributor by whoever owns the master file (record company etc). This file, confusingly, may or may not be the same master you can buy on CD and so might sound different. There's no one in an office at (e.g.) Qobuz sitting in front of a PC all day ripping CDs.

 

[Nathan]

Ah. So basically the answer is "it depends"!

so I have a Roksan Kandy CD player feeding a Caspian M2 and was going to get an Audiolabs M-DAC+ to act as a headphones amp and maybe as a DAC if it is better than the DAC in the Kandy.

So if I can find lossless files for download that come from original master and not a CD and then feed them into the DAC and then the Caspian should that give a better sound than the CD?

If so, obvious next question - where is the best place to get digital audio files that come from the master and not a CD?

Nathan

 

[MajorFubar]

You're getting confused. The sound quality of CDs is not a limiting factor. Many believe that CDs offer all the resolution/definition/dynamic range/frequency response you will ever need unless you're a bat. I'm generally in agreement with that view, and as an amateur musician/home producer I've recorded enough stuff at CD quality (16bit 44.1kHz) to back that belief up with experience.

The complication is that for many albums, both recent and historic, there's not one version of the truth. And by that I mean there's not just one master tape or digital master file that the CDs, records and downloads are all made from.

I know you didn't ask about records, but for the sake of example, it's not unusual for records to be cut from a different master to the CD and downloads. Sometimes it's to compensate for vinyl's limitations and so sonic compromises have to be made. But bizarrely, and because of the loudness war, sometimes it's because you can't cut a smashed 'brickwalled' master to lacquer, and so the vinyl version ends up sounding better on a decent record deck than the CD.

With digital, sometimes HD downloads sound better than the MP3 and CD version because they've been sourced from a better-sounding master tape or digital file. But if you convert that file to 16/44.1 at home, you'll find it still sounds exactly like the hi-res file.

To sum up, you pretty much hit the nail on the head when you said 'it depends'.