So HDtracks claims: In regards to the high resolution albums that we offer, all of our 96/24 albums are from the original studio masters. For some of the 88.2/24 albums, they are also from the
original analogue tape masters. Whats glaring by its omission is that Puget Sound says it is doing DVD-A transfers for HDtracks (in addition to SACD). Query: why does HDtracks omit mentioniong DVD-A? Many DVD-Audio releases are older, standard definition audio recordings that have been remixed in 5.1 and upsampled to DVD-Audio's higher resolution. However, the fidelity of the upsampled audio will be limited by the source material quality and may not exceed the quality of existing CD releases of the same albums. In a peer-reviewed blind listening test published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, the authors were unable to find any proof that stereo DVD-Audio as a format sounds different from CD. The author suggests that differences in the mastering for particular DVD-Audio and CD may explain perceived differences. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Audio The representative from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra characterizes Hdtracks as a retailer, not a record label. As such, that is why the Orchestra does not make available its masters to Hdtracks. Considering the discovery of this information as to the Orchestra, it is probably prudent to inquire directly to every record label that is in the Hdtracks inventory and ask them how Hdtracks prepares its downloads for their recordings too. Do these other labels make their masters available or only the DVD-As and SACDs? And then a further inquiry is needed. If a DVD-A was supplied instead of the master, what is the bit depth and sample depth of those discs? DVD-As can be made at: 16-, 20- or 24-bit depth and sample rates of: 44.1 kHz 48 kHz 88.2 kHz 96 kHz 176.4 kHz 192 kHz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Audio Thus dont assume that just because it is a DVD-A that it was manufactured at any particular resolution. And this is the most important point: the fidelity of the upsampled audio will be limited by the source material quality. In other words, if the source material is, for example, 16/44.1 and is upsampled to 24/96, it still has the fidelity of 16/44.1. It is a fancy copy, but that is all it is, a copy of the original. And as to the claim that master tapes were used as the source of some downloads, again one must check with the respective record label to verify this, and even if it was supplied, please re-read earlier posts in this thread regarding the fidelity of tapes. As far as the setup for the SACD conversions, the equipment mentioned is at Puget Sound studios and the studio owner has stated he does upsampling during the conversions. -- mortslim ------------------------------------------------------------------------ mortslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11039 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=74688
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