I don't know if this will take off any better than my other attempts to start threads, but here's a go.............

A couple pieces of info:

1. I have discovered that even though the case doesn't acknowledge it, their is a 24/48 audio option on the Adele RAH Blu-ray
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005Z271Y6/?tag=imwan-20

2. For those who prefer their hi-res on disc as compared to files, Tom Petty is selling a blu-ray of Damn The Torpedoes with 96/24 & 5.1 here for $30
https://www.fanfire.com/cgi-bin/WebObje ... =Tom+Petty

Finally, lots of comments (mostly by me) on the Oppo BDP-95 here:
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=77831

& my Amazon review here:
http://www.amazon.com/review/REXRC09AL3 ... g=imwan-20

Thanks for the info on the Tom Petty Blu-ray......I don't have that one.

Wait, isn't that this one?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0042KZJ50/?tag=imwan-20

Because Amazon is selling it for $7 less.

Some of us are still absolute newbies when it comes to the world of hi-res. Well, at least I am! I'm not sure what an Oppo BDP-95 is or how it works. And what about high res files being on blu-ray? Do all blu-ray players have the capacity to play these or do you have to have a special kind of blu-ray player?

Any suggestions for where to find some very basic information would be appreciated. I'm not at all sure I'm ready to invest in yet another audio format, but I'm curious.

Any Bluray player can play the hi-Rez found on Bluray discs. I use a Sony PS3.

I have no clue how you found that. I searched Amazon yesterday for 10 minutes & the only DTT BR I could find is the lame Eagle documentary.

Almost any BR player will play the hi-res audio on Blu-ray discs; however if the player doesn't have quality electronics you're going to be missing most of the music.

Also you need a more specialized player to play SACD, DVD-A & the various computer based files (FLAC,WAV, AIFF, etc).

The are definitely better players than the Oppo. The big deal about the Oppo is afaik, both the stock 95 & the Nu-Force entry level 93 mod are the first 2 players to break the $1k barrier & still sound good.

Here's a couple threads on other boards I've been scanning, though they talk more about the music than the hardware:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/conte ... s-HDtracks
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/conte ... -pointless
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/conte ... a-Spalding
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=167742&page=2

Here's 2 brief threads from another board on the Oppo:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl ... 1313335273
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl ... eyw&zzoppo

If you Google "Oppo BDP-95" you'll find a TON of threads on various audiophile boards

I'm a librarian.

Here's 2 reviews on the Oppo:

Nu Force versions
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/nuforce16/1.html

Stock 95 (Absolute Sound review)
http://download.oppodigital.com/BDP95/TAS_POY2011.pdf

Has anyone else bought anything from hdtracks? Last night I popped for 6 albums on there sale. 17 hours later, only one album has dl'd, & they apparently have no support staff on the weekend. They've always been slow, but this is ridiculous.

I can no longer recommend HDtracks. It's been over 25 hours since I purchased 6 downloads (hi res albums). I have dl'd a little over 1 1/2. On most sites my connection speed would grab the amount of data I purchased in around 3 hours.

No response to multiple inquiries from cs; apparently they don't work weekends. They make Kmart's cs look good by comparison. A real shame.

I FINALLY finished the HD Tracks download marathon. 52 1/2 hours for 6.7 gb of data.

The funny thing here is that people ( you know who you are!) downloading grey area stuff can get 6.7gb much faster than that via so many outlets.

I can hardly wait for the industry and technology to catch up so that we can at least get paid downloads of lossless stuff for reasonable prices and in reasonable time.

I see there were different engineers used for the Audio Fiedlity and HDtracks Innervisions... if anyone would like to give a head-to-head review, it would be appreciated.

Neil Young to the rescue?

Neil Young Trademarks New Audio Format
Rocker developing high-def alternative to MP3’s

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... newsletter

This might be the only issue on which I would trust Neil Young, but this is potentially very good news. He has shown a pretty strong dedication to the concept of good sounding music his entire career, & especially the last 10 years or so.

Cali, I have only heard the HD tracks version & Motown CD & LP; but based on having heard the HDT & numerous AF's: I suspect the AF would be good, but the HD tracks is widely considered to be one of their best releases (I agree with that assessment) & I don't see any way 44/16 (or Hoffman's recent style) could come close.

One thing I am learning that i will share:

Be wary of "studio master" titles that have been previously released on dvd-a by Warner Bros: It appears that in many cases they are just taking the horribly compressed dvd-a mastering & selling it as flac files. 2 examples would be Alanis Morissette - Under Rug Swept & Fleetwood Mac - Rumors.

The Alanis has now taken 3rd place on the worst hi res mastering I have ever heard list, passing the Bowie's Let's Dance sacd which is now in 4th place.

Interestingly the Mac hr files i have heard that don't have dvd-a releases ("Fleetwood Mac" aka the white album, Tusk & Tango) all sound superb.

Another example is I heard 1 track yesterday from the dvd-a of Grateful Dead Workingman's Dead. Would have been great, but again was LOUD/compressed.

You would think Warner (& others) would get that people buying audiophile recordings don't want brickwalling

http://www.neilyoung.com/tablet/messagepage.html

Neil young believes high res will be the in thing in 2012.

Hope he's right & hope the price comes way down!

Neil wrote that statement a year ago, May 2011. If he still expects 2012 to be the year of hi-rez he'd better finalise that new format he's working on, and soon.