mkimsey

To further Sonic Boom's comments and experience with Golden Ear; I have well over 3,000 CD's including many SACD's and box sets. Most of my red-book CD's I have ripped on my own over time but I did not have the facilities to rip SACD's and my attempts at keeping box sets together were abysmal. In comes Golden Ear.... Ari took my hard drive, ripped dozens of SACD's and many multi-artist box sets for me as well as cleaning up all the odds and ends from my own ripping adventures. What I got back was the cleanest library of music I could ever have hoped for, custom ready for the new world of DSD to boot. I will be returning to him often as we work to complete the conversion of my collection over the next few months. Golden Ear is highly recommended for anyone looking for this service.

AT&T DSL, 18mbps

Not at all. I had just downloaded a full album from Naim (UK) that took 15 minutes right before these. I've done plenty of HD Tracks over the past two years that took much less time (up until a few months ago) and even when the download was slow, I've never had a download (or 3 in this case) sound worse than the current CD version, as these did. (My USB DAC and associated cables are in the $5K plus range, the CD player is $995.) They responded twice today with no useful help at all. Call me disenchanted and rooting for iTune to offer hi-def....yeah, right.

I'm wondering about the health of HD Tracks due to a few recent developments I found concerning. The first thing I noticed was the special pre-release of Brother's In Arms, which was quickly withdrawn due to technical issues. Next is what I perceive to be a real slow down in desirable new releases, after a real surge in the last half of last year. Impulse! titles have sputtered out; the WEA catalog seems to have slowed way down, except for some second tier jazz titles from the 70' and I almost get the impression that the majors are either looking to launch their own programs or are pulling back due to lack of mass interest. Then, I ordered three downloads in one day and they took 10 hours to complete. Just prior to downloading, I ran a speed test to ensure my connection was strong (12 Mbps)and I had just downloaded a Naim FLAC album, which ran in 15 minutes. Then, I go to play these downloads and they all sounded flat and un-dynamic.Stevie Wonder's Innervision sounded muted compared to the most recent CD reissue. U2's Achtung Baby had my wife commenting on the poor fidelity from across the room. Previously downloaded titles all still sound great, so it's not my system. My set up is an iMac with Amarra Mini to an Ayre QB-9. I've never had a 24/96 file bettered by a CD played through my modest Oppo 95 before. Something isn't right. My inquiries to HD have so far gone unanswered. If they do respond, I will gladly update this post with the results but right now, I'm looking to see if anyone else is noticing these same things. HD Tracks is the only real viable source for non-specialist HD downloads and I'd sure hate to see them go away. Any ideas?