HDtracks, Pro Studio Master, Acoustic Sounds, Pono & Other Hi-Res Legal Downloads

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

As my new Oppo BDP-95 plays 96/24 flac files burned to data discs (& stunningly well I might add!), I have discovered this site. Haven't bought anything yet, as they are pretty pricy, but in case anyone's interested..............

https://www.hdtracks.com/

I believe Chesky records is running this, but they have licensed a significant amount of Warners (& some of the other majors) stuff, though you have to look hard, as there's also lots of unknown artists.

I have to admit I'm pretty stunned at how good hi res sounds on this puppy, & it's not even close to being burned in yet (in my experience, most digital gear takes about a month of being powered up before it shows it's full quality).

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

They just added The Doors debut in 96/24. I have heard the Japan SHM SACD. While it is the remix, the sound is wonderful.

BTW, does anyone know of any other Hi-res sites with major artists at a more reasonable price?

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Interesting, AP is starting to offer some of the same hi-res download as HD Tracks. Are they the same mastering? Me have no clue.I Whiole APis offering DSD for some titles, I THINK their $17.99 price for 96/24 is acoupe bucks cheaper than HDTracks

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Analog Productions has emerged as HD Tracks primary competitor in the USA. The sell Flac, AIFF & DSF. For flac they are q bit cheaper than HD Tracks. Their catalog is expanding. One interesting title is a 96/24 edition of the never on USA cd Eric Andersen Be True To You. They also have numerous titles from major Rock & Jazz performers. The DSF files are mostly AP masters (a good thing); I'm uncertain as to who & how they're doing the flac's.

The Andersen is awfully tempting..............

http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.c ... goryID=365

Walter P · 20 Sep 2006

As much as I like purchasing lossless, I find that the Hi-Res stuff is just too expensive and of marginal interest to my "old" ears. That on top of the fact that selections are still very limited has just kept me from paying too much attention. When I think Hi-Res, here's what I see...

Mike Oldfield - Crises (Super Deluxe Edition)

From the Acoustic Sounds website...$43.98 for 24-96 and the listing specifically says..."Cover art included, liner notes not included"

From Amazon...$23.99 for the CDs and that obviously included cover art and liner notes.

This is only one example, but it kind of explains why I haven't taken the Hi-Res plunge. For my personal requirements, I'd much rather see the large dealers like Amazon, iTunes and such go 16-44 and have the same broad catalog that they have now. This would move me more in the direction of purchasing downloads. To this point, I've only purchased a few and in desperation situations.

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Unfortunately, the hi-rez distributors have largely imitated the mp3 model with regard to liner notes.

Linda · **Posted:** Tue Feb 11, 2014 4:54 pm

Walter P wrote:

For my personal requirements, I'd much rather see the large dealers like Amazon, iTunes and such go 16-44 and have the same broad catalog that they have now.

These little hi-rez speciality sites will survive about three days into the week that Amazon and iTunes start offering lossless. I suspect there are many people who feel like you do.

Walter P · 20 Sep 2006

Linda wrote:

Walter P wrote:

For my personal requirements, I'd much rather see the large dealers like Amazon, iTunes and such go 16-44 and have the same broad catalog that they have now.

These little hi-rez speciality sites will survive about three days into the week that Amazon and iTunes start offering lossless. I suspect there are many people who feel like you do.

The problem as I see it is that it takes someone with pretty substantial resources to negotiate with all of the major labels. Amazon and iTunes have a pretty good lock on that now. It would take something pretty dramatic to get a new player to carry all of the major label releases in lossless form. I'd love to see it, but I'm not holding my breath. On top of that, it seems that the majors get a little hinky when you start talking about lossless formats moving around.

Interesting sidebar...I purchased 4 new songs in flac directly from the Chicago website. On at least one of them, there was a message that there is some form of watermarking going on that notes among other things, the IP address of the purchaser. This is an interesting way of handling uncontrolled uploading to pirate sites. I'm not sure how well it would police the situation, but it at least seems like a step in that direction.

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Linda wrote:

Walter P wrote:

For my personal requirements, I'd much rather see the large dealers like Amazon, iTunes and such go 16-44 and have the same broad catalog that they have now.

These little hi-rez speciality sites will survive about three days into the week that Amazon and iTunes start offering lossless. I suspect there are many people who feel like you do.

Unfortunately, the big corps could indeed kill both sites anytime they wanted to ( though they're not as small as you think; HDTracks is actually Chesky Records, & Acoustic Sounds is actually Analogue Productions; another record co.that actually has more well known jazz releases from major artists then Hoffman has rock releases.) . Also note, that the mp3 s.o.p. is to only include a front cover; NO notes. About 1/3 of the hi rez releases do provide notes in a .pdf booklet.

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Walter, both the main hi-res sites do have contracts in place with the major labels (& AP also has contracts for physical SACD releases). I obviously have not read them, & 1 issue of concern is that Warner pulled 2 Jackson Browne high res titles due to contractual issues a couple months ago (Hi res goes out of print also!). I suspect the contracts are similar to how Jazz label Mosaic Records does business.

Linda · **Posted:** Tue Feb 11, 2014 5:48 pm

Geff R. wrote:

(though they're not as small as you think; HDTracks is actually Chesky Records, & Acoustic Sounds is actually Analogue Productions; another record co.that actually has more well known jazz releases from major artists then Hoffman has rock releases.)

They're small from my perspective. I did some searching on HDTracks, just a bunch of artists that I'd love to have completely in hi-res. Artists with some history and decent-sized fanbases, ones I don't consider obscurities:

Paul Weller
Badfinger
Supergrass
Oasis
Teenage Fanclub

.... and on and on in this vein, and I found literally nothing. No inventory at all. Weller and Oasis have had SACDs out in the past, and HDTracks didn't even have those recordings. The site is very narrow in its focus, which is fine, but there's no way I (and by inference, any collector who falls outside HDTracks' tastes) could switch to this model in its current form. Amazon or Apple or Neil Young need to do this on a much wider scale.

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Don't get me wrong; if an Amazon had a huge 96/24 catalog with no audible watermarking & could beat the current price structure, I'd be there.

I have trouble with the pricing as it is. While yes, the quality is higher; the costs of producing & providing the content are much lower than on physical media (at that size; for a business as small as mine those savings would NOT scale & would actually be prohibitively expensive). Someone (most likely the license holders: SURPRISE) are getting wealthy, AGAIN

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Though it turned out the glitch is on their master, this is still AWESOME Customer Service! 2 years old & they still were willing to replace a defective item!

Geff wrote:

As this is regarding a very old order from 2/29/12, if the answer is no I'll understand, but it doesn't hurt
to ask.......

Order #HDXXXXX was for Ani DiFranco Which Side Are You On. I have a huge collection, & today was the first
time I gave it a serious play. There is a drop out at aprox 1:14 on track 2, "Unworry". It's not my media, as I have
redundant backups that all have the drop out. Does your master have the same issue? If not, would it be possible
to get a replacement of the one track?

Thanks!

HDTracks wrote:

Hi Geff, I have re-created your order on the new website and it is now available to download. (Instructions snipped by Geff)

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

There is now a 1978-87 Cars box in 96/24 for $93 or 192/24 for $130.

They've also got the Jackson Browne Tribute in 96/24 for $24 (not unreasonable for a 2 cd set), but oddly it's not in there new releases section, I could only find it on there site by Googling it:
http://www.hdtracks.com/looking-into-yo ... son-browne

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

I just bought the 96/24 Jackson Browne Late For The Sky. Will report on sound quality later. Right now, just wanted to comment that HDT's new download manager has helped with the slow speed downloading problems with the site; it's downloading at a reasonable speed (subjectively; I don't have a means to measure the speed)..

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Geff R. wrote:

Though it turned out the glitch is on their master, this is still AWESOME Customer Service! 2 years old & they still were willing to replace a defective item!

Geff wrote:

As this is regarding a very old order from 2/29/12, if the answer is no I'll understand, but it doesn't hurt
to ask.......

Order #HDXXXXX was for Ani DiFranco Which Side Are You On. I have a huge collection, & today was the first
time I gave it a serious play. There is a drop out at aprox 1:14 on track 2, "Unworry". It's not my media, as I have
redundant backups that all have the drop out. Does your master have the same issue? If not, would it be possible
to get a replacement of the one track?

Thanks!

HDTracks wrote:

Hi Geff, I have re-created your order on the new website and it is now available to download. (Instructions snipped by Geff)

I forgot to update this; the drop out (about 1 second) is on their master & as of today has not been corrected.

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Another legal download site is going hires. There's a counting Crows equivalent of a 2 cd set I'm really looking at:

http://www.livedownloads.com/live-music ... edownloads

This site seems to focus on Pearl Jam, CC's & Jam bands. It's mostly 44/16, but they're expanding into 96/24. Haven't heard any yet.

MAJOR Boo Boo. The Hi res are 48/24, NOT 96/24. I also don't recommend using this site with XP. It's doable, but a real pain.

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Geff R. wrote:

Another legal download site is going hires. There's a counting Crows equivalent of a 2 cd set I'm really looking at:

http://www.livedownloads.com/live-music ... edownloads

This site seems to focus on Pearl Jam, CC's & Jam bands. It's mostly 44/16, but they're expanding into 96/24. Haven't heard any yet.

MAJOR Boo Boo. The Hi res are 48/24, NOT 96/24. I also don't recommend using this site with XP. It's doable, but a real pain.

Don't buy the Crows 8/17/14 with the expectation of hi-res sound. Good music, but really mediocre sound; it's distorted (clipping?).

I guess it's still an OK deal for $18 for the equivalent of 2 discs, but calling it "HD" is deceptive.

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Was browsing HD Tracks tonight. 3 comments:

1. The Grateful Dead is starting to release live shows in hi-res (also on other sites) at almost 2x the price of other bands. Whatever happened to that "hippy ethic"? hm.........

2. The entire Prince hi-res catalog has gone oop. I suspect it has something to do with the upcoming DE series. HD Tracks had everything from the debut-Parade; now they're all gone.

3. This one is just plain weird. That Grande person we've been talking about had her album released in hi-res. Huh?? Who's the target audience???!!

Oh, & I really want the recent 192/24 edition of the original Woodstock 2 double cd/LP set.

Bet ya if i buy it, the next day they'll issue one of the boxes in hi res (sigh).

It's also weird (I'm especially but not only thinking of the Dead here) that hi-res blu-ray is starting to often get cheaper than hi-res downloads. Economically, that doesn't make sense.

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Linda wrote:

Walter P wrote:

For my personal requirements, I'd much rather see the large dealers like Amazon, iTunes and such go 16-44 and have the same broad catalog that they have now.

These little hi-rez speciality sites will survive about three days into the week that Amazon and iTunes start offering lossless. I suspect there are many people who feel like you do.

They're actually growing. There's now at least 4 fairly major sites in the USA. And while they do have some overlap, they each have a number of exclusives also. The ones I have bookmarked are HD Tracks, Pro Studio Masters, Acoustic Sounds & Nugs.net. There's also more in Europe (& a couple classical music only ones here); I don't know if the European sites are allowed to sell to USA ip addresses or not.

No, they'd be no competition for Amazon (if Amazon ever goes hi res download other than The Beatles USB Key), but it's still a small market also.

Wish this would have happened when my ears were younger; while my hearing is much better than average for my age, it isn't what it used to be.

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Rather than starting a new thread...............

Acoustic Sounds wrote:

.......follows an agreement between Acoustic Sounds and Warner Music Group (WMG) to provide the company’s digital download music service with more than 1,200 high-resolution, mainstream albums by some of the most dynamic names in music.

The first wave of hi-res titles from such artists as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Tom Petty are available now, with new content being added daily.

“Adding Warner to our existing roster of major labels [Sony, Universal] is a huge win for us, the industry, and for those looking to enhance their high-resolution music collections,” said Kassem, who launched SuperHiRez.com last September with just 70 titles. “As far as we’re concerned, the more choices in high-resolution music, in both titles and formats, the better." Besides providing music in the highest resolution formats possible, Acoustic Sounds will also provide the provenance of all Warner recordings when available. Additionally, licensing deals continue to be discussed to provide customers living outside the U.S. access to the high-resolution music download service.

“Immersing yourself in a recording that sounds the way an artist, producer or engineer originally intended is an incredible experience. We feel that many will agree, and we look forward to high-resolution audio reaching a wider, growing audience,” said President, Artist & Label Services, Warner Elektra Atlantic (WEA), Matt Signore.

There are currently more than 1,700 albums available for download on SuperHiRez.com. By year’s end, more than 3,000 albums could be available, thanks in part to the deal with Warner, Kassem added.

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

Warner Brother Hi-Res Box Set sale this week at HD Tracks:

http://www.hdtracks.com/specials-of-the-week

Cars, Grateful Dead, INXS, Linda Ronstadt, REM, Van Halen, ZZ Top, Black Sabbath, Ramones, many more.

HDtracks, Pro Studio Master, Acoustic Sounds, Pono & Other Hi-Res Legal Downloads

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