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chauncy

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  1. I tried a DSD > PCM converter for Mac OS X that you can find here: Audio Software I converted a couple of 8.6MHz .dff (64fs) downloads of Oscar Peterson recordings on HIFIStatement. It's easy enough to install the stand-alone DSDConverter (just be sure to "Allow applications from Anywhere" in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General tab temporarily). It's a zip file that unpacks to documentation and an .app file that you drag and drop into your "Applications" folder. The results are comparable to the best 24/192 downloads I bought on HDtracks - John Coltrane's Black Pearls and Miles Davis's Kind Of Blue.
  2. @firedog; Thank you for a very useful reply to my post. I'm quickly beginning to appreciate the major difference that compression makes on a recording (or remaster). The referral to the dr. loudness-war website is a good resource along with your guide on what numbers to look for in what may be considered a good recording. In the future I'm not going to be as impulsive about my purchases! I'll be doing more research first. chauncy
  3. I landed on this forum on a search for other persons experience of the SQ of hi res downloads, in this case particularly the Doobie Brothers "Minute By Minute" and "The Captain And Me" albums available on HDtracks. I usually don't post to forums, but I have received quite a bit of info from this website that helped me with setting up my first PC sourced sound system. My thanks to the administrators of this website and to all the contributors. I'd like to post my experience regarding my first exposure to hi res audio downloads. This is actually about my very first experience hearing hi res audio as I have never heard SACD or DVDA. . I am living overseas and mail order is not available for me. I am interested in a lossless format and it appears that in my situation downloads from the Web is all that is available. I'm not posting to bash HDtracks, but my intial experience as related below, was much the same as what I have read from other contributors. I have not yet made any purchases from other vendors / resellers. I'd appreciate any feedback on alternatives to HDtracks. My HDtracks downloads so far are a remaster in 24/192 of John Coltrane's "Black Pearls" album and "The Traveling Wilburys Vol. I" (remastered 2016) on the Concord label at 24/96. My system is rather modest; NAD C 356BEE DAC and 12 year old B&W DM602 S3's. The files are sourced from MusicPlayer Daemon (mpd) on a low-latency Linux kernel with low OS overhead. The NAD's modular DAC has three native sampling rates: 44.1, 88.2 and 96 Hz. I down-sampled the John Coltrane album to 24/96 on X Lossless Decoder for OS X with the SoX decode library before playing. Beautiful! Nice open sound, good imaging and for the B&Ws that are not placed so well, tight bass. Then I played The" Traveling Wilburys Vol. I" (no conversion as I bought it at the DAC's native sample rate of 96 kHz). What a disapointment! My only comparison was the last track "End Of The Line" with a mp3 file at 320 bitrate that I had downloaded for free. The "Hi Res" version sounds only marginally better the lossy mp3. The rest of the Wilburys download was as flat sounding the last track. I speculate on what I would have got if I had paid for the 24/192 Wilburys download. Bumped gain / and/or compression maybe? I also downloaded from HDtracks the Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue" at 24/192 and down-sampled as above. Gorgeous! Next was Paul Simon's "Graceland" (25th anniversary edition). So-so. Sounds like what I remember hearing on the orginal redbook CD, same speakers, decent Denon CD player and a Japanese built Carver receiver bought in the mid 90s. Consequently, I am now shy to purchase from HDtracks. They do post the provinence of some albums i.e. "Kind Of Blue", but I agree with other contributors that to be responsible resellers of the recording labels product, they should provide the customer an opportunity to download a sample of the recording to be purchased. As to customer reviews, the music listening experience is entirely subjective and dependent upon many factors, I think general customer comment can be useful, buy yet rather limited as a basis for a purchase decision. Another consideration for audio samples is that though a given recording may not be of the highest quality, if I like the material, I might make the purchase irregardless of SQ differences between different media (redbook CD vs. "hires" download) or file formats (lossless .wav vs. lossy .flac). In other words, if I really like the music, it need not always be technically "perfect" ...and I might not be able to find it elsewhere. In that vein, I hope that Mr. Chesky isn't putting a lot of reliance on a business model of "this is it, take it or leave it, good luck finding it elsewere". As I mentioned above, in my overseas location my options are pretty much limited to downloads from the Web, and some vendors have regional restrictions that I may be subject to. Please, any suggestions on a vendor / reseller with a good catalog of labels / artists / genres? My interests mostly run in 70s - 80s Pop, Jazz and World music. Thanks in advance!
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