Lossless Audio Downloads

[Nestor]

So does anybody know who we can complain to at the various CD manufacturers ? If nobody says anything, the CD manufacturers are going to continue using a line of logic that doesn't make sense, and we'll never get our good sound back.

The only think I can think of is to complain to artists and record companies; or stop buying cd's that sound lousy.

How about: "Dear Lars, I love your music but the sound on your recent cd's suck! If this continues, I'll have to download your music illegally as I don't feel the sound quality is worth the money"

Or something like that.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

As long as people continue to buy their crap product, they have no incentive to make a better product (and internet downloads are the golden f*king goose. They don't even have to make, warehouse, or distribute anything).

Very few people bought into their "hi rez" formats. The format war (DVD-A/SACD) certainly didn't help anyone. As far as the label is concerned nobody wants "good" mastering... the people who complain didn't buy their "better" product, so why listen to their gripes?

 

[Nick250]

There is a good chance the stereo SACD and/or DVD-A will have improved sound quality over the stereo CD version. This, however, is not due to any known *credible* technical limitation of the format that relates to audibility. There are examples where a different mastered version was used on the different formats -- the CD version typically being dynamically compressed to a greater extent for reasons attributed to the loudness war issue.
-Chris

Thanks for the explanation Chris.

To add my take on the "loundness wars". You can have loud with no dynamic range or quiet with no dynamic range. It's just a matter of adjusting the volume control.

Nick

 

[Jack N]

"Very few people bought into their "hi rez" formats. The format war (DVD-A/SACD) certainly didn't help anyone. As far as the label is concerned nobody wants "good" mastering... the people who complain didn't buy their "better" product, so why listen to their gripes?"

I know what you're saying, however it's because those same people were too greedy to decide on which format to go with. Nobody bought into them because they didn't want to get stuck with equipment and CDs that might quickly be obsolete. Also, the "Hi-Rez" formats wouldn't work very well for the carry-along players and other low-end equipment. For what it's worth, I have SACD, but the selection of CDs leaves a lot to be desired.

I still think that if enough of us complained to the right people, maybe they'd start to think about their line of reasoning. But it doesn't do any good to complain to just anyone that comes along, we need to target the right people. Does anyone out there have some insight to the recording industries ?

 

[Jack N]

Anyone ???

 

[JKL1960]

I wish I knew someone I could call to get this mess fixed up.

Part of the problem is the proliferation of cheap playback devices. Computer speakers, portables, car stereos, Bose Wave radios and the like all sound better with compressed source material because they typically have poor dynamic range themselves. It's only when you play this stuff on better systems that you really notice.

It's still a shame and something that really annoys me. I wish they would build compression into the playback devices so people who don't know better could use it and we'd get music in all its dynamic glory.

 

[Jack N]

I hope that someone who can help get the ball rolling will find this thread some day and help out. I guess in the mean-time, I'll be pulling my old 3BXs out of mothballs. The CDs now days are starting to sound worse than vinyl, except for the scratches.

 

[PHANofPHUNK]

music sites

If live music is what your looking for these will be helpful.
etree.org
tradersden.com (tons of audio and video both pro shot snd hand held)
oink.com (you need to be ivited though)



actually tredersden has the same website lay out as this.

 

[Jack N]

tradersden and oink don't seem to be audio sites.

 

[PHANofPHUNK]

audio dl's

Sorry about that Jack its tradersden.org not net and oink is .net tradersden rages. tons of video. have you downloaded bit torrent files before?

 

[AUtiger]

lossless

Here's a site dedicated to lossless http://etree.org/ Hope it helps.