How to spot real hi-res music

[Taz777]

I’ll soon be trying to find sites that sell high quality music but would like some pointers on what to look for and what to avoid for hi-res music. For example, if an album is remastered from 44.1 to 96kHz then is it genuine hi-res music?

[AnotherSpin]

1 hour ago, Taz777 said:

I’ll soon be trying to find sites that sell high quality music but would like some pointers on what to look for and what to avoid for hi-res music. For example, if an album is remastered from 44.1 to 96kHz then is it genuine hi-res music?

 

It may find it useful to know, that: a) different sites sell the same hi-res downloads on different price; b) hi-res may sound different, but not necessarily better than regular red book rip. It is the case with some music from 60-80s, for example.

[Ralf11]

AFAIK, you'd have to subject it to measurement using a specialized instrument

 

But... a 'fake' HiRes might sound better than a given CD because more care was taken in the mastering

 

And yet... if they just up-donged any old CD it would not be worth buying

[One and a half]

@Taz777, to distinguish a real hi res file from an upsampled one, charged at a higher price than the CD, Musicscope is the right tool for the job and is not expensive. If there's no content above 22kHz or it rolls off badly, it's not a real hires. The software also works on analog in to the computer, performs jitter measurements, all sorts. Works on Mac or Windows, is EUR25 + taxes (where applicable).

 

Hires audio files are to make the conversion easier at the DAC stage. This is totally dependant on the DAC's architecture, where it may internally may upsample to 2x 4x + PCM, or convert to DSD and convert to analog out, or do no upsampling at all, like NOS DACs. All a bit confusing with many combinations. 

 

If you are keen to buy, do a search on the title, fakes are usually spotted fairly quickly. Re-masterings are a crap shoot, there's good and bad.

[audiventory]

6 hours ago, Taz777 said:

For example, if an album is remastered from 44.1 to 96kHz then is it genuine hi-res music?

 

There is no 100% credible source detection method.

 

Example:

In out resampler, "Optimized [audio] mode" is exists. The mode cut frequency components over 20 kHz to reduce playback intermodulation distortions of music. And resampled record looks like one with 44.1 kHz source. Despite source there may be DSD1024.

 

With "Non-optimized" (PCM=sample rate/2, 1-bit up to 27kHz) and "Non-optimized wide" (PCM=sample rate/2, 1-bit up to 100 kHz) modes we have traditional band widths of resampled files.

 

But we can't estimate exactly in all cases: what is mode was there and what source resolution was resampled.

 

Resume:

If we know "filter signature" and know that there our converter was applied, we can suggest probable hypothesis.

But "just record" without its backgound is tough object for such kind of analysis.

[Taz777]

Thank you all for your valuable advice,

 

My intention is to find hi-res versions of my favourite CD-quality and iTunes Store tracks in my iTunes music library.

 

Of the couple of sites that I’ve had a cursory glance at, I’ve noticed that they don’t appear to sell individual tracks from an album, but you have to buy the entire album. Is this the norm for hi-res audio sites? If it is, then knowing that I’m getting real hi-res music is even more important due to the costs involved.

[wgscott]

We have a whole sub-forum that has specific examples of bogus (and genuine) high-res.

 

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/forum/13-music-analysis-objective-subjective/

 

eg:

 

[Taz777]

3 hours ago, wgscott said:

We have a whole sub-forum that has specific examples of bogus (and genuine) high-res.

 

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/forum/13-music-analysis-objective-subjective/

 

eg:

 

 

Thank you, sir! This is very enlightening.

[Ralf11]

I agree re no 100% "safe" method - someone can always cheat.

 

But if you do searches on subjective listening comparisons, you may find that some are widely thought better than ordinary CD releases (for whatever reasons...)