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Streaming Newbie buys some HD versions and realises he's in a disappointing minefield

Rico

Bloody Colonials
I was going to extend the Talking Heads thread here Talking Heads 24/96 Releases https://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/talking-heads-24-96-releases.165195/ as a thread dredge, but as I wrote this I research more and found this was a broader topic. So we'll see if fellow fish can help me navigate this shitty situation. It's far worse than buying a new copy of DSOTM on vinyl and finding the sax and guitars sourced from different tracks on the master tape! Arggh - it didn't need fixing! That master tape wow and flutter/pitch shift was fine on the fadeout...

Forgive me if this has been well-covered before; I could use your wise counsel.

With my comparatively recent entry into streaming, I purchased the 24/96 Remain in Light. I'm... puzzled. Firstly I didn't realise I was buying a remixed album. Had I known, I might not have bothered. I still have my early-80's NZ vinyl pressing, and a CD copy purchased in Canada in the mid-90's. They're etched into mt memory. Sadly I'm having issues ripping the CD copy. Oh joy, I can purchase a download at higher bitrate! I duly purchased from Cobuz. And listened on my newly upgraded streaming source (from ND5XS+XPS to NDX+XPS).

The 24/96 version is interesting; a revisit of one of my all-time favourite albums. Some of the murk around Tina's bass is gone (though it's leaner - do I like this??), and Chris' percussion is brought more to the fore... but in some cases Byrne's vocals are very different... one track (I forget at the moment which) his vocal is a mere echo! "Something's not right here" I think to myself... I'm sure Byrne (famously egotistical) wouldn't have reduced his vocals to a mere shadow during remixing? I think I read something about this being two channels from a 5.1 remix? That would make sense (no pun intended). And that sucks. Update: confirmed in the darko audio link here: https://darko.audio/2011/07/talking-heads-remain-in-light-2496-on-hdtracks/

Also much discussion on Steve Hoffman site here: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/thre...ualdisc-set-the-superior-choice.142774/page-3

Now I usually don't read into all this nerdistry; I want to get on and play and enjoy my tunes, whether it's at work on spotify and cans from my phone, on a dusted-off cassette in my workshop, in my car from CD (or my toy e30 BMW via a modern stereo with Spotify or a memory stick WAV file), from my LP12, or streaming from my NAS to my streamer or a streaming app on my phone... yes loads of ways to consume audio. Oh! I missed FM, which I also consume.

So: this buying HD versions (of any material) is clealy a mixed mag, one must tread carefully. How you you folks get the info you need? Example: I now see that on HD Tracks (for example) I can check out who's futzed around with/remastered Massive Attack's Blue Lines (24/96), but this info is completely absent from the Remain in Light 24/96. I'm still thinking over Blue Lines (I purchased this a few months back from Cobuz, downloaded the FLAC and WAV versions, preferred the WAV, and proceeded to wrestle with the running order being different from my UK CD copy! I think I have the tagging right now...

I'm wondering if I should try 24/96 or 24/192 versions of the first three Depeche Mode albums... but where do I find decent info about whether they're remixes, who did it, why. And will I like it?

My NZ (mid-80's) CD print of Speaking in Tongues has always been murky. Playing the vinyl (clear Rauschenberg limited edition) is wonderful (and I always thought it better than the black vinyl on release - cost me $10 on sale while current (down from $39.99) instead of $10.99 for the regular, at the time!). I digress... should I buy a HiRes copy? Probably not, if it's been remixed!

Here's an EXCELLENT & thought-provoking article about Beck's superb Morning Phase:
https://darko.audio/2015/02/disrespecting-artistry-becks-morning-phase-as-a-hi-res-download/

"With no physical product to consider, the hi-res version must be judged solely on its sonic merits. No that the album sounds bad per se, but I hear zero difference between the 24bit/96kHz HDTracks version of Morning Phase and the CD-ripped to FLAC in 16bit/44.1kHz; a conclusion explained by the MusicScope analysis.

Beck is a celebrity endorser of Pono. He can clearly be seen criticising the lifelessness of MP3 in this Pono promo video and yet MP3 compression has somehow made it into Morning Phase’s chain of creation . Who’s disrespecting artistry now?

Ponying up for the hi-res release of Morning Phase just isn’t worth the money. More troubling is we have to buy it to find out. The door slams after the horse has bolted. How do consumers know what they are buying before they buy it? How can they be confident that a hi-res download will sound better than the CD?"
Ouch!

I'm not sure if I've wandered into a metaphorical jungle, or a minefield. Should I be asking Cobuz for a refund on the Talking Heads album, or chalking it up to experience?

And here's a practical question - if I end up with a rip of the 16 bit Remain in Light and keep my 96/24 copy (no refund of course), how do I get the two to co-exist on my NAS (I run Asset UPnP) so that I can *choose* which to play via the Naim app?

I thought streaming was supposed to be easy. How do ya'll get by?
 


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