Stereo Stereo, Linn,56k worth of kit and studio master downloads.

Tonestar1

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Took a wonder into Stereo Stereo in Glasgow today on my lunchbreak. Shop was very quiet so I ended up chatting to the ower for quite a while. Had a wee listen to the Majik 109 speakers which I really liked, the guy was clearly very enthusiastic about hi-fi and offered to demo their flagship setup which came in at at a hefty £56k. The Aktiv speakers were 30k alone.

The source was a HDD streaming to a Klimax DS, Klimax pre, then Klimax Aktivs. He was controlling this with an ipad. I thought it sounded absolutely stunning (as it should at this price). I heard some Radiohead, White Stripes, then he played The Doors Riders on the storm, wow! Suitably amazed he offered to let me compare it with the Studio Master download. It was absolute night and day of a difference. I could here rain at the start hitting different objects as opposed to blanket rain. The rumble of the thunder kicked in I was tempted to look up just to check. Bass was awesome, separation of the instruments well I just can't describe how good it sounded.

Has anyone tried any of these Studio Masters? I also heard a Fleetwood Mac track which sounded a hell of a lot better compared to the ripped CD version. Does anyone know where to purchase these?
 

Tonestar1

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No he didn't, that's why I was asking. I went on a 30 min lunch break and turned up at work 1hr 55 mins later, Stereo Stereo is 10 mins walk from the office. The sound was so good I kinda lost track of time.

Not been able to find it online yet. It's infuriating! I listened to my CD lossless rip as soon as I got in from work. It sounded sadly flat and undetailed in comparison. I'd better start saving 56k, 55 to go :) We can all dream.
 

Fisherking 145

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Love it! That's what music is all about, it's captured you!

Shame it's going to cost you so much
emotion-42.gif
 
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Anonymous

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Studio master (and other high quality digital files) sources I know of:

Linn Records

HD Tracks

Society of Sound

If anyone knows of or finds others, maybe we should start a thread with a list? I'm utterly convinced this is the next big revolution in music, that brings an increase in convenience, potentially more choice of access yet with a jump in quality to match.
 
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Anonymous

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No suprise that a 4000kbps studio master sounds better than a 320kbps MP3 surely? I can clearly hear the difference on my system which cost no more than 10x less....though no doubt the £56k worth makes it even clearer.

DVD audio is 4000kbps or near enough and is very nearly master quality....

Or you could go analogue...
 

pete321

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The Doors - Perception is available on DVD-Audio (24bit/96kHz). The MLP layer could be ripped using DVD Audio Explorer, but that would be illegal (even if you own the original!). As far as I can see, that's the only way to get a high resolution file of Riders On The Storm.

The-Doors-Perception.jpg
 

The_Lhc

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flakmonkey:No suprise that a 4000kbps studio master sounds better than a 320kbps MP3 surely?

Who said the original version was 320kbps mp3? The assumption I made was that it was compared to a lossless CD rip, but I might be wrong.
 
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Anonymous

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The claim (as made by the vendors of the Brennan stuff) is that 320kbps MP3 is same-same quality as CD (which maxes out at around 700kbps) due to the nature of the compression algorithm and how it discards the bits of music you can't hear. Of course, bits you can't hear you may be able to feel, but hey...
 

The_Lhc

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putt1ck:The claim (as made by the vendors of the Brennan stuff) is that 320kbps MP3 is same-same quality as CD (which maxes out at around 700kbps) due to the nature of the compression algorithm and how it discards the bits of music you can't hear. Of course, bits you can't hear you may be able to feel, but hey...

Sorry, I don't really see how that has anything to do with my question, the OP wasn't listening to Brennan kit and hasn't confirmed or denied whether the original recording he listened to was mp3 or lossless (or any format in fact).

And CD is 1411kbps, your figure is for a single channel, not stereo.
 
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Anonymous

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Ok even assuming its a 'lossless' rip which will max at 1411kbps as you say then SACD at a max 5644kbps will contain a lot more information and depending on your system and listening room you may hear a difference or you may not

Depending on the quality of the DVD-A sampling the overall bitrate will be as good as the studio master more or less. Assuming most modern stuff is 96khz/24bit then the bitrate is 4390kbps (or 33mbps)
 

The_Lhc

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flakmonkey:
Ok even assuming its a 'lossless' rip which will max at 1411kbps as you say then SACD at a max 5644kbps will contain a lot more information and depending on your system and listening room you may hear a difference or you may not

And the OP did which I think was his point.

Depending on the quality of the DVD-A sampling the overall bitrate will be as good as the studio master more or less. Assuming most modern stuff is 96khz/24bit then the bitrate is 4390kbps (or 33mbps)

Go onto the Sonos forums and tell them that and a couple of the mods will inform you that nobody can hear any difference between 16-bit lossless and 24-bit and if they can it's only because the 16-bit version was created from an inferior master (every single time!). It's all a bit odd...
 

JohnnyV111

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As SACD is a 6 channel surround format, wouldn't you have to divide the maximum streaming figure (5644) by at least three to get the two channel stereo figure, which is the part that is equivalent to the stereo "lossless" file?
 

JohnnyV111

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the_lhc:JohnnyV111:As SACD is a 6 channel surround formatIt comes in stereo flavours as well...

Yes, but I find it unlikely that many releases would use the entire bit rate for stereo at the expense of the surround channels, even if it were technically possible to do so. Does anybody know if it is possible? I had a quick Google before my last post but couldn't find anything...
 
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Anonymous

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JohnnyV111:I can't see how these figures can be related to the "studio master", which will be a forty-odd year old tape...

Unless the studio master they played was off reel to reel then it would have been digitised at some point, and 96khz/24bit is what that quality should be.

You cant get more detail out of a recording than from the studio master, be it analogue or digital.....if it was mastered badly or at a lower bitrate (digitally mastered stuff) then there wont be a difference between 48/16 and 96/24. 96/24 is 250 times greater in resolution than 48/16 so you should be able to hear a difference in the audible frequency range if you set up allows.

In compression something is lost somewhere....whether you can hear the difference or not depends on the equipment and room for playback and recording and what was taken out to compress the file.

Assuming the range of human hearing is around 20-18,000hz and most studio grade equipment's frequency response at reasonable levels is 20-20,000hz then all that is captured on the master file is almost within the human hearing range anyway, so by compressing it you have to lose something audible...whether what you lose is distinct enough to notice is another matter entirely.

Anyway, its all a little irrelevant. I listen mostly to vinyl and CD and am happy with the sound quality. I have some DVD-A but not a lot and, yes there is a difference between all 3. As for 'compressed' digital (mp3 or 'lossless') it doesnt go anywhere near my hi-fi and stays solely in the car.
 

JohnnyV111

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Sorry - there is a little confusion here - Linn Records have a series called "Studio Master" through which they sell high bitrate sound files, and there is the actual object "studio master" which, I presumed, could be any format at all containing sessions from a recording studio, but come to think of it I haven't heard it called that before, and a quick Google reveals it isn't a common term at all. Duped again! Doh!
 

Tonestar1

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the_lhc:putt1ck:The claim (as made by the vendors of the Brennan stuff) is that 320kbps MP3 is same-same quality as CD (which maxes out at around 700kbps) due to the nature of the compression algorithm and how it discards the bits of music you can't hear. Of course, bits you can't hear you may be able to feel, but hey...

Sorry, I don't really see how that has anything to do with my question, the OP wasn't listening to Brennan kit and hasn't confirmed or denied whether the original recording he listened to was mp3 or lossless (or any format in fact).

And CD is 1411kbps, your figure is for a single channel, not stereo.

The first version was apparently ripped in FLAC from the The Doors, The Doors CD the 2nd was the Studio Master Version of the same album. The difference was not subtle in the slightest. I dont have golden ears either, I've often made a mistake identifying which is the 192 and which is the 320 MP3 game (much to my shame).

The difference between the Fleetwood mac track (I cant remember which track) was also night and day. For anyone who doubts it all I can say is go try it. If you can't hear a difference then you must be deaf!

As far as how to get hold of it, all I can see are ILLEGAL downloads. This is probably sailing a bit close to the wind as far as moderation is concerned so I want to make it clear I have no intentions of dowloading it nor am I encouraging any others to do so.
 

pete321

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Tonestar1: As far as how to get hold of it, all I can see are ILLEGAL downloads.

...unless you buy the DVD-Audio versions, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac and Perceptiom by The Doors, both of which have 24bit/96kHz versions of the albums.
 

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