Continuing with CDs?

likely intentional to upsell you the "UHD" versions but who knows, could be any number of variables:

are they even derived from the same master? if so, are they volume matched?

can you download the raw "UHD" and "HD" tracks to your PC to properly ABX them?
if you can, can you ABX them after volume-matching and up-converting the 16-bit one to 24-bit?
it you still can, what about only the "UHD" track against a 24 -> 16 -> 24-bit version of itself?

Well, these are different albums altogether... newer releases tend to be UHD, maybe they are taken from a more "direct" source/master than legacy (HD) albums? They all just sound noticeably better, brighter, clearer, etc.

(There's no "upsell" involved, fwiw... Amazon Music Unlimited includes both HD & UHD)

Cassettes were the best-selling format in the '80s and in some ways were a privileged one (they had extended versions and extra tracks before CDs did).

― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Thursday, February 24, 2022 1:52 PM (four hours ago)

fair enough! maybe I'd say instead, the most widely consumed format for audiophilic consumption :) since I'm guessing a large part of the popularity of cassettes was driven by introduction of the walkman / it being the first truly portable format...

I just sniped a Dr. John CD, first time I’ve done that in ages. Got it for $1.05, so shipping was triple.

xxxp to myself – now listening to a brand-new (just released) r&b track that's only "HD" quality, and it sounds similarly not-great to the older HD ones. So there may be something more to it than newness/source.

without full disclosure of the technical specs used for the streaming audio, it's all just speculation. maybe they rip the originals at a higher bitrate for the UHD, who knows.

that being said, a separate thread for streaming audio quality actually seems like a good idea? I would follow even tho my interest is minimal.

Yeah - there was a little of that in the Continuing with Spotify thread (ppl wondering why Qobuz sounds “better” than others, etc.)

Qobuz is one of the streaming services that used to (probably still does?) sell watermarked Universal tracks

rest assured, the watermarks are audible (trivially ABX-able) because they're placed well within the most sensitive frequencies to prevent removal without totally ruining the music, of course

https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=89818.0
https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=111198.msg917267#msg917267
https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=117462.0

thank you for that, yes ilx poster Jon Not Jon has posted extensively about those UMS watermarks, I forget exactly where

Yeah I’m still pissed about that but haven’t posted about it for awhile.

As far as I could determine, there was nowhere in the digital marketplace one could buy non-watermarked UMG files - I even bought lossless files from UMGs own web store which were audibly affected.

Also I have not checked in a couple of years but there never seemed to be any re-uploading/replacement of the defaced UMG material after they stopped the practice in (?2014?)… new things released to digital no longer had the issue but the vast body of UMG stuff already released just stayed that way. At least as of a couple years ago.

This may be more a question for "Not continuing with CDs" – but why is it that when streaming from Amazon Music through my new Sonos speaker, "Ultra HD" (24-bit) FLAC sounds so much better than "HD" (16-bit)? In other words, 16-bit may be "CD-quality," but those tracks definitely do not sound as good as CDs to my ears (granted, I have not hooked up an actual CD player to the speaker, to see how CDs sound when played through it).

Different mastering and possibly mixing techniques. If the audience is expected to play the music on better equipment, then they can master it with a wider frequency profile, use more or less compression, and so on. People who consume "HD" audio can be expected to be upscale consumers, not playing the music on shitty earbuds. This means that they don't have to shovel important content into the earbud-friendly frequency range for a 16/44.1 master, and it's gonna sound better on a good stereo.

Such techniques apply just as much to 16/44.1 audio as they do to 24/96 or whatever, so it's not an intrinsic quality of the format.

If you want a valid comparison, use an audio editor to convert HD audio to CD-quality digital audio and compare. If you have a friend who can administer an ABX test, do that too.

It's also possible that the Sonos applies its own EQ curve to HD audio, so I cannot account for that possibility.

Finally reconnected my (secondhand) higher end DAC into the hifi signal chain, listening to some of Autechre’s NTS Sessions and it sounds so good I am just grinning to myself like an idiot

Not sure if this is the best place to post this but I'm having trouble burning FLACs downloaded from Bandcamp to CD (using K3b on Linux). The burn process completes fine and the CD will play but the tracks are silent!

I've just made a comp with a mix of Bandcamp files plus files procured elsewehere and the latter play fine. Very weird. If anyone has any ideas, appreciated. As far as I know they're not high res files.

Not sure if this is essential, but I always convert FLACs to WAVs prior to burning them to CD.

Good suggestion thanks. I'll give it a try.

...and then burn it as an audio CD, not a data CD.

Would imagine the burning software does that routinely anyway but there could be something a little "off" about the FLAC headers which means they don't get unpacked properly.

Here's an old forum thread about the same problem:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=225063

Unpacking to WAV first might be the way to go, as annoying as that extra step is.

xxp

Yeah, I’ve had problems with burns having glitchy spots when I burn them without converting to WAV first.

I always convert first, otherwise it's just putting more work on the computer during the burning process (converting on the fly) that increases the likelihood of burning any errors.

Thanks all, that worked. Never occurred to me to convert a lossless file. Convoluted but worth it.
Michael J - thanks for the link. Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

Bandcamp's great for allowing multiple downloads. I've replaced .flac downloads with .wav, and pulled .mp3s for the car, off the same purchases.

CD news - based on Discogs trends:

https://blog.discogs.com/en/cd-trend-popularity-sales-2022/

Lol so literally just an ad for Marantz

Listening to Siamese Dream in the car today, I realized that I’ve been throwing this particular CD around for 29 years – in and out of dorm rooms, apartments, boxes, bags, CD racks, hot cars – and I can still just slap it in a player, it sounds as good as ever, it’s as “compact” as ever, perfect-y sound forever (or long enough). Good format!

I imagine the popularity of Discogs has increased in that period... really meaningless without vinyl stats to compare with?

yaaa literally an ad, only stated at the bottom. Laaame

Siamese Dream is definitely an outstanding sounding CD

It sounds so good! I was wondering if I should check out the 2011 remaster at some point, but it's hard to imagine it sounding better enough to be worth it...

Nah, I'd stick with the original CD. The 2011 remaster squeezes the dynamics a bit. Not terribly so, but it doesn't improve things either.

can anyone recommend a place to buy digital major label catalogue albums that isn't amazon.com?

so i wanted to hear shadows and light and it's basically the same price for a used cd+postage as it is on itunes/amazon/etc. i'm not complaining, it's just ... big sigh, i don't want the cd but i want to be able to hear the album as i please and not give my money to itunes/amazon.

Qobuz lets you buy downloads too. You can check first if an album
Is for sale there.

Poster ufo steered me toward a place called 7digital in another thread - in the context of major-label releases that aren’t on CD (“7digital is where you want to go to buy mp3s from artists that aren't on bandcamp”).

i think the best way to do it is by going to joni's site. you can click on the amazon link from there in order to make here a little commission in addition to whatever else.

better still, you could get the files on slsk and put the money you save towards a t-shirt on her web store

make her*

i've had success with qobuz. they don't sell mp3s, though, if that's what you're looking for. https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/shadows-and-light-joni-mitchell/0603497922789

Try Dearborn music.net. I'm not sure how it works but in addition to a good stock of physical releases they seemingly offer mp3 downloads of everything.the digital content comes via something called Broadtime Tuneportals. Dearborn Music is a legit business so I assume these downloads are also legit. Btw they also seem to have a cheap DVD of shadows and light. Caveat their search is not the best.

thanks all — got it sorted!

how did you like shadows and light? used to own the album, remember it as uneven but with some highlights

oh, i've always loved it - just never had a proper copy. hejira and mingus have always been my favorite joni so i've just been youtubeing it the past year or so. it's `fusion joni`, but i don't mind the solos - always a pleasure to hear pat metheny and jaco, in any case! and plus, it has an ace meditation on "amelia."

nice, I'll revisit it

listening to the Amelia now, incredible

15 reasons why I STILL BUY CDs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfbzH6gCXp4

Video was way too long. I only made it to reason number one...

But yeah I still buy CDs. Partially giving up on vinyl. Prices have got ridiculous and I'm running out of space. I still have room for about 150 more CDs though.

Spotify sucks but I'm begrudgingly sticking with it to check out new music (and buy what I love) plus listen to songs I love but don't own.

I really hope the much vaunted CD revival doesn't happen. I love picking up gems for peanuts. Long may that continue...

I recently replaced all my jewel cases with sleeves (https://spacesavingsleeves.com/) and reduced my rack space by about 50%. Now I don't feel the pressure to sell stuff every year to make space for incoming CDs.

I wish those plastic sleeves had been around 25 years ago bc I went straight from jewel cases to binders, in the process discarding all the back cover inserts from my collection. With the sleeves it's easy to keep those.

I want to get those, but most of my shelves are set up in a way that I have the CDs stacked horizontally, rather than vertically (I know, I know, it is what it is until I can replace all the shelves too). I'm not sure those would work well stacked horizontally, but maybe I'm wrong.