Or, you could just stop worrying about any hi-res and learn to love Red Book. (It’s not such a strange love after all, once you realize we can’t hear any better anyway.) Listen to what you already have.
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I disagree. Provided that, in addition to a good amplifier and DAC, the speakers are correctly placed and convert the incoming signals into sound waves at the correct time and without distortion across all frequency ranges (not really possible with normal cone drivers), in most cases, assuming a good recording, you can clearly hear the difference between 16/24, 24/44.1 and /96 of the same album, recorded, mixed and mastered at least in the highest released resolution. With 24/96 vs. /196 it becomes more difficult. With good headphones it is generally easier to hear differences.
Even in old age, our hearing can still perceive very subtle differences in the direction of incoming acoustic signals. It is more a question of timing accuracy for locating the signal than of the individually audible sine frequency. Not to be confused with Bob Stuart’s time smear sales argument.
But that is a different topic and is discussed often enough.
I downloaded 2 dsd tracks from Qobuz but Roon shows them as corrupt, even when trying to play them through my Naim Muso 2. If I play them natively through the Naim app they work fine (and sound great). Any ideas why?
It is a different topic, but I just want to remind you that, unless you’re comparing tracks whose different resolutions are obtained by actual down-conversion of the highest-available resolution tracks, you’re not comparing apples to apples, even if it’s the same album, since releases at different resolutions are most probably the result of different mastering. (And that’s before even getting into the blindness of the listening tests.)
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Given a choice between three different versions of the same old thing and one emerging record, I’m definitely with giving the emerging artist/s a go. Redbook is just fine, really. But priorities… either way the business gets paid.
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I hope they offer DSD streaming. They’d be the firsts doing it. It’s nothing technical. Heck, I stream them myself from my own collection with Roon via Tailscale when I’m traveling. Not an issue.
True. But even in the cases when the masters themselves were digital, some labels like 2xHD go above and beyond with the treatment of the material: 2xHD - Technology
I have several albums from them and I’m beyond impressed with the quality. Everything I’ve played from them is just the best, not just in my reference system but also less revealing ones.
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Nicely said. And if an emerging artist (outside of the ballady jazz trio or quartet) chooses to offer their new releases as DSD, I would be über interested! I see some new releases and they are PCM 24/88.2 which makes me ponder if they have an SACD out there somewhere, but I haven’t seen it happen. I doubt it will, but oh well.
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I’m all for SACD as a variant of physical: maybe retailing DSD with this download model will demonstrate that there still is interest now that audio equipment can do it justice. A long time ago I thought the SACD-player was the bees knees… but was it that Sony got paid a license fee for the media whereas Redbook didn’t have that requirement? I thought that might have spoiled the party… especially when file sharing was at that time going nuts as a (free) competitor? I am curious, is all, and my curiosity probably not relevant.
Yeah, bring on a luxury format if it will sell!
Red Book did pay royalties, but the patent expired in 1986. It seems SACD patents expired around 2020.
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SACD and DSD Is all great … I have currently around 180 DSD albums in my roon library (many ripped SACDs and digital purchases).
What makes them special is the transfer process and the mastering. Transferred from tape and mastered for SACD like Sony did with the bob Dylan SACDs is all really nice 
But current stuff that was also made for Dolby atmos Blu-ray’s and the same pcm master is used for the SACD and LP?
I hope qobuz adds more DSD albums especially thinks that are usually sold in Japan (Sony releases , three blind mice SACD reissues. )
Using PCM88.2 is not a sign a recording is made for SACD/DSD or might be published as such. Many studios and recording engineers use PCM88.2 just because it is double the sampling frequency of PCM44.1 used for CD.
I also like 2xHD and currently have 24 albums from them, most of them in DSD 128 or DXD. I hope that Qobuz will soon offer the entire 2xHD range and I’m already looking forward to getting new releases with my Sublime subscription at a much lower price than with NativeDSD.
2xHD uses either transfers from analog master tapes or, for new productions, DXD recordings as the source.
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It has been a sign, but I agree it isn’t commonly one. It was a sign that Billy Joel’s The Stranger and Michael Jackson’s Thriller used the SACD as the source for the HiRes file when they were 24/88.2.
Me too. Do you know if all those current Blue Note legacy albums Qobuz has in DSD are from Japan? Those titles were not included in Sony’s US releases twenty years ago. If so, I hope that is a good sign.
No idea. Sorry .
I went back to Studio Duo from Solo Sublime to include my Wife
Looks like it’s from the Analogue Productions 2012/13 release mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio from the original analogue source
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Great News: Qobuz offering DSD
Not so great news: I bought several tracks as a Qobuz Sublime member and they do not give me the option to download in DSD. They just started offering this last week, I assume their downloaded needs an update. Regardless, interested if anyone has successfully downloaded their purchase.
I have downloaded DSD from HDTracks and Prostudiomasters without problem in past. The discount with Sublime is generous
Not for streaming, downloads/purchase only
Edit: Apologies, late to the chatter-party!