Poll: Do you have access to true High Resolution Audio?
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Yes
90.91%
30 90.91%
No
9.09%
3 9.09%
Total 33 vote(s) 100%
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The Road to High-Resolution Audio in Three Steps
#11
I personally don't think the issue is with Hires formats rather accountability of the record labels producing them. Whether you are looking at master tape transfers from the 60s or more recent direct to digital format recordings it has been proven that formats such as DSD and FLAC can sound great (and considered hi res) the nature of hi res shouldn't be discussed only in terms of a all hi res signal path from studio to digital file, but also what is the best medium to transfer the frequency range of analogue to a digital format holding the characteristics in which people like in analogue, direct to DSD is great for that!! the biggest issue is record companies rebadging an old recording/master from a unknown reissue (who knows 3rd /4th gen transfer )and then the consumer buying it before they find out its sheet! If I want to buy a SACD, LP, or CD for that matter it's far easier for me to work out the mastering engineer, quality of press and process followed for that release on physical medium. Sure some Digital HD providers are getting better at providing source information but it's far from ideal. If you do not place transparency in the process of digital you create a process whereby there is no accountability being placed on the record companies themselves, I think the first step would be to hold record companies to standards relating to disclosure of information relating to the process of a release, mastering engineer, mastering lab, source of transfer (including what gen the source was) simple things like that would help immensely I think. Could you imagine if they had to disclose it was a cadet engineer, done of an ADAT on a 6 gen copy ? Sure that's an extreme but it shows it might change the mindset of companies to look at quality of the process as a value prop for increasing sales..

The formats are not the problem it's the process of getting it there
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#12
The problem I have is rather different, in that there is not much music released in "better than CD" quality that I would actually want to listen to. I'm not saying that there isn't anything at all, just not much at the moment. I think the situation is improving, but very slowly. I also believe that extremely good results can be obtained via plain old 16/44.1 but the problem is the appalling quality of the mastering on so many recordings and the staggeringly common problem on CD's that the mastering priority appears to make the recording as loud as possible.
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#13
(05-Jan-2015, 23:38)Confused Wrote: The problem I have is rather different, in that there is not much music released in "better than CD" quality that I would actually want to listen to. I'm not saying that there isn't anything at all, just not much at the moment. I think the situation is improving, but very slowly. I also believe that extremely good results can be obtained via plain old 16/44.1 but the problem is the appalling quality of the mastering on so many recordings and the staggeringly common problem on CD's that the mastering priority appears to make the recording as loud as possible.


Yup brick wall mastering is a big issue, compressed to within a inch of its life! as you pointed out you can get great results from 44.1 providing mastering is done well, back to my point the formats ain't the issue its post production processing/mastering
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#14
(05-Jan-2015, 23:38)Confused Wrote: The problem I have is rather different, in that there is not much music released in "better than CD" quality that I would actually want to listen to. I'm not saying that there isn't anything at all, just not much at the moment. I think the situation is improving, but very slowly. I also believe that extremely good results can be obtained via plain old 16/44.1 but the problem is the appalling quality of the mastering on so many recordings and the staggeringly common problem on CD's that the mastering priority appears to make the recording as loud as possible.

I fully agree: first comes musical content, than recording quality. Sound quality has no meaning to me if I do not want to listen to the music! I can appreciate hi res but only rarely!
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#15
Hi,

Perhaps Poll should have a third alternative, 'I don't know'? Because that's how I feel/know about this.
On tis forum some people explained how to extract the info if it is real hi res or not and that the real hi res is not common at all.

/Mike
Ex D400 Now Aavik U-300/Feickert Woodpecker2-Kuzma 4P-Kondo silver-Benz LPS-Teddy Pardo PSU/Naim Unitiserve-Teddy Pardo PSU/SF Guarneri Homage/Whole system decoupled by Ansuz DTC/Cables from Ansuz, DYI and other commercial/Dedicated mains and spur-Lampizator SILK
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#16
I see your point. I just tried to make the poll as simple as yes or no to answer the question of whether you believe you have all the the elements as described in the article.

But of course there could be different views to constitutes access to hi resolution audio


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amabrok's system - Latest update (May 2015, Page 11, Post #109)

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#17
(06-Jan-2015, 12:50)amabrok Wrote: I see your point. I just tried to make the poll as simple as yes or no to answer the question of whether you believe you have all the the elements as described in the article.

But of course there could be different views to constitutes access to hi resolution audio


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No probs, wasn't meant as a critique, as there is so many hi-res down loads out there but few are recorded in hi-res format.

Best/Mike
Ex D400 Now Aavik U-300/Feickert Woodpecker2-Kuzma 4P-Kondo silver-Benz LPS-Teddy Pardo PSU/Naim Unitiserve-Teddy Pardo PSU/SF Guarneri Homage/Whole system decoupled by Ansuz DTC/Cables from Ansuz, DYI and other commercial/Dedicated mains and spur-Lampizator SILK
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#18
What Dr AIX writes is a bit daft.
Yes in order to record every sound we may be able to detect with a recorder with no sound level adjustment capability you would need what he mentions.
But no-one does that, and not because they can't either.
I do not need to record the sound of insects flying in my garden, and an aeroplane taking off nearby, on the same recorder without adjusting the record gain, and nor does anybody else, I'd guess.
I don't know of any microphone which could do it and whilst very recent line level analogue electronics may get close to being able to do this, no power amp of my knowledge is capable of a 120dB snr either.
My room ambient is around 35dB. I wouldn't want peaks of more than 115dB in here (!!!) which means a snr of 80db would be the absolute most I would need here.
Most of the pop music recordings I own have a dynamic range of less than 25dB, and modern ones often less than 10dB.
Classical recordings of something like a Mahler symphony sometimes have a wide dynamic range, but most have been subtly dynamic range limited to make them suitable for domestic listening, that is both what people can put up with at home and the limits of domestic audio.
Personally, the last time I checked my high frequency hearing I did not want to go too loud (the threshold of hearing is quite high at high frequencies) in case I did damage, but I could hear up to 14kHz.
So I am happy to report that anything above the BBC FM transfer spec of 32/14 is more than I need, and CD acceptable overkill.
I still find the most realistic sound I hear at home are Radio 4 live broadcasts. IMHO/IME fine SQ is much more about good microphones, expertly positioned than it is about digital resolution.

Hi-res digital is there to keep enthusiasts buying. It does not make a bad recording sound any better and good recordings already sound breathtaking at FM and CD resolution. IME.

Personally I consider CD hi (enough) res.
OTOH I can not resist buying some 96/24 and 48/24 downloads from time to time...
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