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A couple of high res audio questions.

shaharidan

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A while ago @amirm posted some videos under his name taking a look at some of the high res sample files from a few of the download sites.
It seemed in all cases in the videos, downloading CD quality would have been the best choice over higher resolution.
This seemed to be due to noise shaping in DSD and the higher res included some tones that would have been cut off in most cases by going with CD quality.
So, am I misunderstanding something?
The videos are couple of years old, have things changed?
Are there download sites that reliably provide high quality high res downloads? I have only used HD Tracks, pro studio masters, and band camp.

I'm also wondering if there is value in up sampling something that was originally an analogue recording?
A fair portion of the music I enjoy was recorded prior to digital recording.
For that music it seems like whatever format had the best mastering would be the way to go.
Is there any benefit to taking an analogue recording and making it higher res than a CD?

Thanks,
Mike
 

Sal1950

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Is there any benefit to taking an analogue recording and making it higher res than a CD?
No
Whether from a analog or digital master, 16/44.1 will provide all the information your ears can hear.
 
D

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The few so called hi-res recordings that I have heard were not actually taken from the same recording. For example, Camera Eye by Rush the Hi-res version, on careful listening is not the same version released to the public on the cd of Moving Pictures album. So the comparison is not apples to apples.

IMO upsampling maybe called Hi-res, but what you are doing is just taking a recording and by upsampling, a dac can infer information that is not really there in original recording. Thus it can smooth out a recording or perhaps elevate the noise floor, making them easier to hear.

PS Audio gives a basic explanation of what is going on in this Youtube video.
 

Blumlein 88

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The few so called hi-res recordings that I have heard were not actually taken from the same recording. For example, Camera Eye by Rush the Hi-res version, on careful listening is not the same version released to the public on the cd of Moving Pictures album. So the comparison is not apples to apples.

IMO upsampling maybe called Hi-res, but what you are doing is just taking a recording and by upsampling, a dac can infer information that is not really there in original recording. Thus it can smooth out a recording or perhaps elevate the noise floor, making them easier to hear.

PS Audio gives a basic explanation of what is going on in this Youtube video.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!!:!! WRONG!!!!!
 

Mnyb

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To actually be hirez it can not be an old analog recording in those cases CD quality is good enough to “package” the whole deal.

If we put aside the audibility issue there are real hirez recordings done with state of the art equipment and those contains more information than your CD audio. Done by AIX (itrax) or 2L among others.

Then we have some modern popular recordings that are victims of loudness war mastering and/or other “production values” that are technically done with hirez capable equipment but in the end mangled to sound good on a BT speaker.
How hirez are those ? “Now with clipping artefacts all the way to 30khz “ :)
 
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