Outcome of the HD-Audio Challenge II

[MechEngVic]

5 hours ago, babadono said:

Just curious, are you comparing tracks that are 24/96 from their creation? No upconverting? Mr Waldrep is very adamant about a files "provenance" and that one needs to be very careful what they are listening to.

Good question...

 

I was comparing random tracks in Qobuz in their 24/96 vs. the same tracks in their "CD quality" which they say is 16/44.1. I'm gonna say, proly upconverting by Qobuz on many of the tracks. Chromecast Audio casts in up to 24/96 lossless, which is what I was using. I was doing none of the bit rate conversions on my own. Unfortunately my 1 month Qobuz trial is over, so...

 

I will tell you this: When I listen to authentic (recorded in hi-res) .DSF files on my laptop with the DSD Direct mode on Foobar2000, I swear they sound better than anything I hear in CD quality (completely subjective listening, no comparing). If you ask me to describe it: Less disturbances in loud, complex passages, more "empty space" in the subtle parts of quiet passages, more pronounced peaks of the sound envelope with longer decay.  But according to the experts, it's most likely just in my head. 

[codewritinfool]

I’ve said this before, but I guess I need to try it.

One of my computers has an optical input. I intend to couple the optical out of a streaming computer to the optical in of that computer and record a snippet of a “high-res” stream. Then I can look at the spectral content of that recording.

My guess is that most of the “high-res” songs are CD rips.

I will post results here if I ever try it.

[Edgar]

10 minutes ago, codewritinfool said:

My guess is that most of the “high-res” songs are CD rips.

 

http://tomshacks.blogspot.com/2016/02/hi-res-recordings-part-2.html