Dave@Metal-Fi

The green part of the frequencies are fairly high in level. If they were something like surface noise or distortion, it should be clearly audible. They extend out to about 30kHz or so, after which there's a nice natural decay in level from blue to purple before it drops off the graph completely. Every time I've seen distortion artifacts pop up on the graph, there's none of that natural decay. It's usually a faint purple line, and it usually extends all the way to 96kHz at the top of the chart, which I know my cart can't pick up. The reason why I posted that sample is it looks very similar to many of my master tape cut original vinyl pressings from the '80s. In the '50s and '60s sure, UHF would definitely be limited by the available technology, but by the mid '80s I think recording technology would've advanced to the point that they could capture that information to tape. Here's another recent vinyl rip. I had to copy the image file size so you can see them because they are very low level, but the artifacts are pretty easy to spot.

So what am I seeing here? This album was recorded digitally in 2007. There is no noise from the master tape because there was no tape. I washed and vacuumed the vinyl, and after I recorded it I hand processed it in Izotope to get rid of any surface noise. Does this look like completely random noise/artifacts to you?

It's hard to say exactly, but I think what happened is they got together some existing digital transfers from... somewhere... and released them as a set. From what I can tell 1984 was a genuine 24/96 transfer. The others I'm not so sure about. Fair warning I'm almost entirely positive was sourced from 24/44. I see no reason for the 24/192 package to exist. I couldn't hear any difference, and if there's any difference at all it's certainly not much. If the two sets were the same price I would say what the hell, get the 192. It's definitely not worth the extra money though. This is why I'm generally not a fan of HDTracks. I want to support high-res audio, but sourcing is just as important with high-res digital as it is with vinyl reissues. With HDTracks its all mystery meat. Some of their stuff is SACD transfers, and I'd much rather just have the DSF or DFF files. Some of their stuff is DVD-A transfers, some of its from analog tapes but you have absolutely zero idea from where or by who or what the chain was. That's not good enough. Occasionally HDTracks gets it right. For example, their Bill Evans Trio Waltz For Debby release: "Remastered by Paul Stubblebine using the Keith Johnson-designed Pacific Microsonics converter "These files are transferred from the original analog master tapes exclusively, not from safety copies or production dubs. The transfers are made in a facility dedicated to getting the most quality possible from these masters, and preserving all of the information in the files so that it's available to the listener" THAT is how you do it. Their version of WFD is actually better than the one done for Analog Productions by Doug Sax. Every HDTracks release should have that kind of sourcing. If it came from an SACD or DVD-A, say it. If you used a 1:1 tape copy or an existing digital transfer, say that. Say how the transfer was done.

Noise and artifacts are usually pretty obvious on the graph, they are either vertical lines on the graph that go all the way to 96kHz without any clear musical information underneath them, or a horizontal line of steady set noise at a specific frequency, say 52kHz. Again they have no bearing on any of the musical transients, it's just noise from the beginning to the end of the track.

Hi guys, Dave from Metal-Fi here. I just noticed this thread. For my original article HDTracks: Everybody Wants Some? | Metal-Fi Rant covering "Panama" I tested and listened to every version I could get my hands on - the original US vinyl first press (Warner 23985-1) the original CD release, the recent CD remaster, and the currently available 180g vinyl reissue done by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. I ripped and measured the original vinyl myself, and as expected, there's the full range of upper harmonic frequencies out to 48kHz, which is the limit of my 24/96 vinyl rip. Had I ripped at 24/192, I would guess the range would be somewhere between 55-75kHz, which is usually what I see from original tape cut vinyl. I'm surprised that you guys think that the mics or the tapes couldn't hold this information. I rip and measure original vinyl pressings fairly frequently, and as I said, 55-75kHz or so is the norm. This isn't UHF noise or vinyl artifacts either, it's clearly harmonics of the fundamental frequencies. I don't know what the precise limit of vinyl or my phono cart is, but I don't recall seeing higher than 75kHz. The vinyl first press of 1984 looks exactly like original tape cut vinyl should. I didn't mention it in the article, but Bellman's remastered reissue vinyl has nothing above about 30kHz. I don't know why that is, whether he used a 1:1 copy of the original tape and then a low pass filter at 30K, or whether his tape was already that way when he received it, no idea. Vinyl guys know that there is a BIG difference between "sourced from" and "cut from." Cut from original master tapes *usually* means the real deal. Analog Productions recent Doors reissues for example are cut from the original tapes, and they had to fight to get them. The label tried to give them a 24/96 transfer and they said no deal. Sourced from can mean almost anything. It can be a copy of a copy of an EQed copy transferred to whatever, and you can still say "sourced from the original master tapes." That's what I suspect is going on at HDTracks. I don't know if they did the resampling or someone else did, before they got it, but at the very least Fair Warning is extremely fishy. In terms of sound quality, the original press of 1984 is the clearest and most detailed, but it's also a bit bright for my tastes. I actually like Bellman's remastered reissue a bit better for that reason - he pulled the highs back a bit. The HDTracks version of 1984 can't match the vinyl versions but it is much better than the original CD, and way better than the crap-tastic, brickwalled CD remaster. My rip of the vinyl first press: