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Studio Master Downloads: classical recommendations

Elephantears

Elephantears

Trunkated Aesthete
Have any of you computer audio folks got any recommendations for high res files in 24/96 or 24/192?

I notice Linn are starting to release some old Decca studio masters on 24/96, and the Solti Mahler 8 is tempting. Any other classical recommendations?

My taste includes ... early vocal and choral music, all Bach, Mozart piano concertos, Beethoven late piano works and late quartets, Schubert chamber music, then skipping the mid C19 to Brahms, Mahler and the fin de siecle; particularly all of Debussy, French art-song, then into C20; Schoenberg, Berg, Henze, Messiaen. Lots more but that's just what comes to mind.
 
I've got a few. I'm not in the business of paying stupid money for something thats not a physical entity so shelling out anything over 6 odd quid is a no no from me.

Anyhow as I said I have a few. Kate Bush last effort, The Doors La Woman and one of the Talk talk albums.

How do I listen? Primarily with my ears but my system comprises SB Touch, CA Dacmagic, Electrocompaniet 1.3 amp and ProAc studio 140 floorstanders.

How do the hi res tracks sound. Grand but I'd be pushed to be persuaded that they are considerably better or the best thing! I do however tend to listen to music rather than hi fi.
 
Christ, I'll be driven to the Linn forum at this rate.

I'm quite capable of judging if they are a rip off or not; but I'll have to try first! So any good recordings folks
 
Elephantears said:
Christ, I'll be driven to the Linn forum at this rate.

I'm quite capable of judging if they are a rip off or not; but I'll have to try first! So any good recordings folks
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I'm not trying to drive you anywhere, but unless the original recording was recorded using mics capable of 24/96 resolution, which the Solti Mahler 8 wasn't, nor was any other analogue recording, then you'd be better off spending your cash elsewhere 24/96 cannot reveal what is simply not there.

Don't be fooled by the numbers game...

If you want well recorded classical, Try Hyperion, ECM and Chandos.
 
And you might want to check if your ears and speakers go up to 40kHz too.
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It's an octave more than the conventional limit for human hearing. The wider bandwidth makes the transcription problem simpler.

If I record anything I run my ADC at 96k24bit, because I can, because it removes the digital process from the equation and because there's no downside. If I were preserving a Solti master I'd use at least that rate, and if I were to want to buy a copy of that master I'd expect the same rate.

There's no excuse for the Linn price structure though.

Paul
 
@ £18 per album they can shove it! Ridiculous pricing for a non-physical format, even if it is high-res. Good old greedy Linn :/
 
Thanks for the heads up on this. It's been a while coming, but from what I have read, Universal have been mastering all their Analogue tapes at 24/96 at the Emil Berliner studios, some of which have come out on SACD in Japan, though at substantially more than the DL price (which I agree is a tad OTT -- should really be £10 a pop to be competitive, but they'll inevitably drop in the way that CD prices have).

I may pick one of them up (prob the Mahler 8 as I have the CD to compare it to) to see how they sound, though if the Japanese SACDs are anything to go by, then they should sound great!
 
Elephantears, you need to make friends with some local audiophiles that would let you borrow a download on a USB stick - just to see if you like it. I'm sure the good folks at Linn Records wouldn't mind.

Although, I did hear of one chap who couldn't sleep for a week afterwards out of sheer guilt.

Louballoo
 
I seem to recall you can download some 'test' tracks from Linn to ensure your setup can play back high resolution files; it's possible there's a classical one in that lot.

Mick
 
louballoo said:
Elephantears, you need to make friends with some local audiophiles that would let you borrow a download on a USB stick - just to see if you like it. I'm sure the good folks at Linn Records wouldn't mind.
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Yes, I see a new era of USB stick audiophile crime ahead. However I don't know any champagne drinking Linnies in South London to share the digital wealth.

I think I'll do some wine tasting with the free samples on the Linn website this weekend to see how much the fancy files make a difference.

I do share the general distaste for £18 downloads.
 
muzzer said:
Have you seen this site?
http://www.channelclassics.com/
Plenty of discussion on CA forum, quality is supposed to be excellent.
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Cheers, this looks interesting; lots of choices for format and resolution. Price structure goes CD, then SACD or 24/96 download, then finally 24/192

24/96 files are £14 and 24/192 are £16.50, so its not quite as bad as Linn records, although I notice that there is only a tiny difference in file size between the 24/96 and 24/192 downloads.
 
Elephantears said:
Yes, I see a new era of USB stick audiophile crime ahead. However I don't know any champagne drinking Linnies in South London to share the digital wealth.

I think I'll do some wine tasting with the free samples on the Linn website this weekend to see how much the fancy files make a difference.

I do share the general distaste for £18 downloads.
Click to expand...

Elephantears - whereabouts in Sarf London?
 
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