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High-res audio comparison: Linn Records Free High Res Samples

Newman

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Pluto

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This brochure for the Sony PCM-1610
Oooh… nostalgia :p
…actually used slightly modified recorders - ones that disabled the chroma signal, so they were B/W recorders anyway
If I remember rightly, the simple lack of a colour sub-carrier within the incoming signal 'told' the recorder that it was monochrome, at which the machine was supposed to switch off any of its colour processing circuits that could degrade the signal.

The area that did involve some (possible) modification of recorders was when the PCM pseudo-video was recorded on domestic machines. It was advised that the dropout compensator be disabled and any necessary correction be left to the PCM adaptor. The Sony Betamax recorder of choice at that time was equipped with a switch to do so, but I used mainly VHS and I never knew of anybody who used anything other than a standard, unmodified machine.

I have no idea whether or not the U-Matic machines used for mastering had their dropout compensator disabled.
 

Pluto

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It's playback that is compromised because of handling and ferrous residue so a high quality copy is made first.
Hugely fascinating. Nowadays, we can make a (PCM) copy of an analogue recording that includes any and all artefacts up to a few hundred kHz, which probably safely covers any bias-related phenomena. But once you need to put an analogue copy of a tape into the evidential pot, I reckon a good lawyer can sufficiently stir that pot so as to render its evidential value minimal ;)
 

dualazmak

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In any way,,,

My huge digital music library and many playlists consist of a mixture of 44.1 kHz AIFF tracks ripped from CDs and HiRes tracks/albums download-purchased, many of which have the HF noises in 25 kHz to 176.4 kHz. It is not good mentally, psychologically or electronically, and maybe not good also for my ears and brain.

I really don't like these HF noises getting into my DAC8 PRO, amplifiers and SP drivers including highly efficient Be-tweeters and metal horn super-tweeters.

I am seriously testing, therefore, high-cut (low-pass) digital filters before the digital signal enters the DAC8PRO, as shared here to here. This is my self-defense measure as an end-user audiophile and music lover.

Alternatively, if necessary and feasible, you can directly "edit" the HiRes music file to erase the HF noises as shared here to here. If you do not have too many "insufficiently/improperly engineered" HiRes tracks/albums, this is another (ultimate?) self-defense measure.
 
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Spkrdctr

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On response above 20 kHz, I am testing this Barefoot speaker and while I didn't go up that high, the company did:

index.php


They claim flat to 40 kHz!

I don't see any reason at all to test speakers over 20khz. It seems to me to be heading down the road of pseudo science. But, that is only my personal opinion. If someone can't hear above 18khz (probably 90% of the adult population) then why test to 25khz? I might need it explained to me as I can be wrong every other year when it rains in May. I just try to keep my mistakes to a minimum! :)
 

Spkrdctr

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In any way,,,

My huge digital music library and many playlists consist of a mixture of 44.1 kHz AIFF tracks ripped from CDs and HiRes tracks/albums download-purchased, many of which have the HF noises in 25 kHz to 176.4 kHz. It is not good mentally, psychologically or electronically, and maybe not good also for my ears and brain.

I really don't like these HF noises getting into my DAC8 PRO, amplifiers and SP drivers.

I am seriously testing, therefore, high-cut (low-pass) digital filters before the digital signal enters the DAC8PRO, as shared here to here. This is my self-defense measure as an end-user audiophile and music lover.

Alternatively, if necessary and feasible, you can directly "edit" the HiRes music file to erase the HF noises as shared here to here. If you do not have too many "insufficiently/improperly engineered" HiRes tracks/albums, this is another (ultimate?) self-defense measure.


I'm not following why any 25khz and up noise would bother you. I think I may just be dense today or old age is hitting me. I'm assuming it is 25khz sound you are saying bothers you but how do you hear it? Thanks for the info. Maybe I just need more coffee today......
 

voltronic

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I wonder if any of you are familiar with this example of major overkill:
High Definition Tape Transfers

Full disclosure: I did buy this Stravinsky recording from them years ago in 24/192 FLAC before my eyes had seen the snake oil. It does indeed sound spectacular, but look at the other formats it is available in, and the associated prices. I just looked at the spectrum of the first track, and it does indeed have musical info up to around 44 kHz when the cymbals are involved, but that's it. It also has two clear "beacons" way up at 76491 Hz and 87462 Hz.
 

DSJR

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I'm not following why any 25khz and up noise would bother you. I think I may just be dense today or old age is hitting me. I'm assuming it is 25khz sound you are saying bothers you but how do you hear it? Thanks for the info. Maybe I just need more coffee today......
Have you seen what many tweeters are doing at 20 - 30kHz? There nay not be music up there, but noise spikes may well upset these tweeters taking off.
 
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amirm

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I don't see any reason at all to test speakers over 20khz. It seems to me to be heading down the road of pseudo science. But, that is only my personal opinion. If someone can't hear above 18khz (probably 90% of the adult population) then why test to 25khz? I might need it explained to me as I can be wrong every other year when it rains in May. I just try to keep my mistakes to a minimum! :)
I have extended the bandwidth for some of my tests because members want to know if there is a brickwall filter in active speakers and such. Also, the extended response allows more harmonic distortion products to be shown.
 

dfuller

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Have you seen what many tweeters are doing at 20 - 30kHz? There nay not be music up there, but noise spikes may well upset these tweeters taking off.
Indeed, metal tweeters especially don't like this.
 

dualazmak

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I'm not following why any 25khz and up noise would bother you. I think I may just be dense today or old age is hitting me. I'm assuming it is 25khz sound you are saying bothers you but how do you hear it? Thanks for the info. Maybe I just need more coffee today......

If you have enough relaxed time, you would please first see watch (with your nice coffee) all of the four amirm's YouTube clips in his threads;
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-high-res-music-antonio-forcione-video.23083/

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-live-from-minster-from-the-lake-poets.23095/

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...pcm-vs-mqa-vs-cd-2l-sampler-comparison.23172/

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...son-linn-records-free-high-res-samples.23366/

Then, you would please read carefully my posts here to here.

The issue has been also discussed around 2015 in Japan, like in this page even though in Japanese;
https://sandalaudio.blogspot.com/2015/09/blog-post_17.html
I hope your web browser would properly translate it into English.
Where, "Niserezo (偽レゾ、ニセレゾ)" means "sham HiRes".
The article is really nice and delivers almost the same messages as amirm just gave to us.



Yes, a kind of...

I believe, however, this is a serious disappointing "quality control" issue in HiRes industry and business. And Amirm pointed in his YouTube clips that "it could trigger oscillation or amplifier problems such as intermodulation , aliasing down, using up headroom, possibly even baking a tweeter voice coil...", even we cannot hear the sound over 20 kHz.

At least for me, I would like to have my self-defense measures, as shared in my above post #204.
 
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dfuller

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The widely used Vifa ring radiators have been doing that for..... over ten years?
Yep, that's the exact tweeter in them - a Vifa XT25.
 

dualazmak

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Hello friends,

As amirm kindly informed us, many of the "nicely and properly engineered/processed" HiRes tracks/albums have "meaningful" music signals (not noises) in 20 kHz - 40 kHz Fq zone.

And I once read and know that 22 kHz - 50 kHz sound cannot be heard with simple sine-wave-tone tests, but when the "music sound" in such high Fq is mixed with high quality music sound of 10 Hz - 20 kHz, the 22 kHz - 50 kHz sound signal may have unproved audible preferable effects.

I am discussing with LUPISOFT (the company developing and distributing EKIO), therefore, for the possibilities of setting-saving the cut-off Fq of the High-Cut (Low-Pass) filters at anywhere between 20 - 96 kHz, since I always run EKIO in 192 kHz operation.

If this would become possible, I would like to set the cut-off point somewhere around 30 kHz to 40 kHz.

For the details, please visit my post here through here.

Edit: LUPISOFT quickly updated EKIO incorporating my request, and now we can prepare-save-reload EKIO configurations with High-Cut (Low-Pass) filters of Fc at anywhere up to 96 kHz when EKIO is running in sampling rate of 192 kHz ; very nice, since I always operate EKIO in 192 kHz 24 bit given by JRiver MC (or Roon). Please visit my post here for the details.
 
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Pluto

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when the "music sound" in such high Fq is mixed with high quality music sound of 10 - 20 kHz, the 22 - 50 kHz sound may have unproved audible preferable effect
While I hate to rain on your parade, were that true the insertion of a low pass filter at, say, 22kHz in such material would cause an audible change. If the existence of content that high in the spectrum is of any audible consequence, it is just as likely to be the result of intermodulation products*. Not beneficial.

* intermodulation between the audible and ultrasonics which might result in unwanted distortion products in the audible region.
 

voodooless

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So in preparation for the lossless stuff, I just tried Apple Music for a bit. The result is: it kinda sucks. The interface is kind of slow, I can't bookmark artists, I seem to be missing some albums. The Album view of artists seems convoluted. Not really things I would expect from the usually good Apple UX.

Odds are good that I'll stay with Spotify after all then. They'll roll out Hifi probably a bit faster now, and I guess they won't charge extra for it.
 

Spkrdctr

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If you have enough relaxed time, you would please first see all of the four amirm's YouTube clips in his threads;
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-high-res-music-antonio-forcione-video.23083/

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-live-from-minster-from-the-lake-poets.23095/

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...pcm-vs-mqa-vs-cd-2l-sampler-comparison.23172/

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...son-linn-records-free-high-res-samples.23366/

Then, you would please read carefully my posts here to here.

The issue has been also discussed around 2015 in Japan, like in this page even though in Japanese;
https://sandalaudio.blogspot.com/2015/09/blog-post_17.html
I hope your web browser would properly translate it into English.
Where, "Niserezo (偽レゾ、ニセレゾ)" means "sham HiRes".
The article is really nice and delivers almost the same messages as amirm just gave to us.




Yes, a kind of...

I believe, however, this is a serious disappointing "quality control" issue in HiRes industry and business. And Amirm pointed in his YouTube clips that "it could trigger oscillation or amplifier problems such as intermodulation , aliasing down, using up headroom, possibly even baking a tweeter voice coil...", even we cannot hear the sound over 20 kHz.

At least for me, I would like to have my self-defense measures, as shared in my above post #204.


Thanks! I will watch and read. I like this site as when you ask, you receive!
 

MWC

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I have a pair of Adam A7X with tweeters that go up top 50kHz. SOS review said this about that aspect:
Its frequency response now extends up to 50kHz, but the design is also a little more efficient than its predecessor and so can generate higher maximum SPLs. Now, I don’t think even your pet bat is going to get much benefit from the extra frequency range per se, but a wider frequency response generally means an even flatter phase response within the band you can hear, so it isn’t just a case of ‘more for the sake of the spec sheet’. After all, if everything in your audio system had a 20kHz bandwidth (‑3dB), by the time your signal had passed through all the different units in the chain, the final frequency response would be way down at 20kHz.Developing new extended‑range HF drivers is one thing, but they need to be driven by adequately powerful, low‑distortion amplifiers that have a greater audio bandwidth than the driver itself. Adam’s design team apparently explored existing Pulse Width Modulation amplifiers but found that the necessary low‑pass filter compromised the frequency response of the ribbon tweeter, so they developed their own Class A/B analogue circuit, which works up to 300kHz. Again, this may seem excessive but it helps to maintain phase linearity.
~ https://www.adam-audio.com/content/uploads/2016/11/review-adam-audio-a7x-soundonsound.pdf
Is this journo-hack hogwash or is this a valid point?
 

Jinko_ITX

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Using ultra high frequency when recording doesn't only deal with how high of frequency sound you can hear but the resolution, the each Hz is a slice of that moment of recording. The more slices you have, the more accurate the sound will be. When playbacking a recording, the closer you get to the original recording frequency, the cleaner, more accurate more detail you will hear.
 
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