I searched and could not find a thread about this. I heard Grrr! on Blu Ray Audio for the first time and I'm blown away. What do others think?

GRRR! on Blu-ray Audio - [iorr.org] , [iorr.org] , [iorr.org] .

Those who bought in 2012 the GRRR! HiRes-files on Qobuz should check now their Qobuz download archive as well as their backups - Qobuz deletes since 1-Oct-2024 purchases from its archive.

Did you notice track No.51 ?
It must be a secret track.
I can only listen to it when I'm in wabi-sabi state of mind.

i Always pick up any stones bluray.
the real stunner Is let it bleed on bluray

This is my huge frustration with the whole industry today !

You cannot routinely buy or source music in the best available digital format.

It's stupid .

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Spud

You cannot routinely buy or source music in the best available digital format.

What do you exactly mean with that?

You can buy/stream HiRes-files (HDtracks, ProStudioMasters, Qobuz, HighResAudio) and/or you can buy SACDs from MFSL/MoFi respectively Analogue Productions.

Yes, you can do all of that ...where the music you want is routinely available in the highest res formats.

So often it isn't ...and the stuff you end up downloading might as well be an MP3 or compact cassette in terms of musical information .

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Spud

So often it isn't ...and the stuff you end up downloading might as well be an MP3 or compact cassette in terms of musical information .

Sounds you're looking at the wrong places (or doin' something wrong) ....

The track that made my mind melt on it was Little Red Rooster interestingly.

What a great collection on blu ray. I'd passed on Let It Bleed and what was the other one, Exile? A mistake on my part.

A lot of these so called HD audio releases are just bloated FLAC files. Where it matters is the dynamics, not always the 24 bit 192 kHz, which by right should be amazing. However it’s nothing but a merchandising trick, especially with The Stones. But I will say Goats Head Soup turned out great with a Dynamic Range of 14 on the Dolby Atmos edition. Also, I’ve recently played Tattoo You Dolby Atmos on iTunes and it’s very impressive. I don’t know the stats on that one, but my ears say good.

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Irix

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Spud

So often it isn't ...and the stuff you end up downloading might as well be an MP3 or compact cassette in terms of musical information .

Sounds you're looking at the wrong places (or doin' something wrong) ....

So where do I shop to get genuine Hi Res [that's not compressed to hell] to stream or download ?

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frankotero
A lot of these so called HD audio releases are just bloated FLAC files. Where it matters is the dynamics, not always the 24 bit 192 kHz, which by right should be amazing. However it’s nothing but a merchandising trick, especially with The Stones. But I will say Goats Head Soup turned out great with a Dynamic Range of 14 on the Dolby Atmos edition. Also, I’ve recently played Tattoo You Dolby Atmos on iTunes and it’s very impressive. I don’t know the stats on that one, but my ears say good.

Could be...I don't know what the numbers or sources are. All I can tell you is that listening to the Blu Ray Grrr was experiential. Especially the early tracks, and like I mentioned Little Red Rooster.

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Spud

So where do I shop to get genuine Hi Res [that's not compressed to hell] to stream or download ?

See my post above. Regarding dynamic compression (loudness war), it depends on the mastering. There're excellent ones and also bad ones. But it's not the fault of the digital format itself.

Excellent masterings would be e.g. TSMR, BB, LIB by Bob Ludwig in DSD - [iorr.org]. The whole 2016 Mono-Box was available in DSD.

Bad masterings are e.g. the 2009 remasters (by Stephen Marcussen) for the post-1971 RS studio albums. But alternatively there're the much better Japanese 2011 SACDs (2013 SHM-CDs) with flat-transfers from the analogue tapes - [iorr.org] . For Hackney Diamonds, you could listen to the Dolby Atmos version instead (down-converted to Stereo).



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2024-12-05 18:35 by Irix.

Yes, Hackney Diamonds in Dolby Atmos is not compressed. I like That Macca had (download only) but uncompressed files for some of his box sets. Wish this idea was more widespread. Also, I should probably mention "Honk" in Dolby Atmos has some good stuff as well, but some I didn't care for.

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Irix

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Spud

So where do I shop to get genuine Hi Res [that's not compressed to hell] to stream or download ?

See my post above. Regarding dynamic compression (loudness war), it depends on the mastering. There're excellent ones and also bad ones. But it's not the fault of the digital format itself.

Excellent masterings would be e.g. TSMR, BB, LIB by Bob Ludwig in DSD - [iorr.org]. The whole 2016 Mono-Box was available in DSD.

Bad masterings are e.g. the 2009 remasters (by Stephen Marcussen) for the post-1971 RS studio albums. But alternatively there're the much better Japanese 2011 SACDs (2013 SHM-CDs) with flat-transfers from the analogue tapes - [iorr.org] . For Hackney Diamonds, you could listen to the Dolby Atmos version instead (down-converted to Stereo).

...and there's the rub

The problem is that the music industry does not have one universally accepted best format for the highest res commercially available recordings.

We all know how many variables there are in the recording and playback process...


There's an old adage that, ironically, was adopted in audio circles from the computer world ... "garbage in, garbage out "

If the source recording does not hold all the musical information that should and could be there, it doesn't matter how good the playback system is, and the results will remain very uninspiring .

Digital, at it's best, is today good enough...but the industry doesn't routinely deliver that potentially great sounding source material to us.

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Spud

The problem is that the music industry does not have one universally accepted best format for the highest res commercially available recordings.

Because there's no one best format - it depends on the music material. Sometimes DSD is the best, sometimes HiRes-PCM fits better.

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Spud

If the source recording does not hold all the musical information that should and could be there, it doesn't matter how good the playback system is, and the results will remain very uninspiring .

If the source recording is weak, then the artist and/or sound engineer wasn't interested in the sound quality. But it's possible to fix that to some degree via remastering.

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Spud

Digital, at it's best, is today good enough...but the industry doesn't routinely deliver that potentially great sounding source material to us.

As an industry (some call it Content Mafia) it's probably not their goal to deliver us always the best-sounding source material, since they wanna sell their items multiple times - repackaged. But there're solutions & workarounds if you know how and where to look. The depths of the Internet are helpful.

You're probably right,

The real issue is that, for may reasons, they're not really interested in providing the best sound quality ...

I'll just stick with my old gramophone. It'll likely see me out

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Whale
i Always pick up any stones bluray.
the real stunner Is let it bleed on bluray

Is it? I never went after it because it got bad reviews, that it was nothing special. I was quite satisfied with the 2002 SACD. I do have Exile on Blu Ray. It's incredible. In surround sound it's like the band, plus horns, crammed into your living room.

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24FPS

I do have Exile on Blu Ray. It's incredible. In surround sound it's like the band, plus horns, crammed into your living room.

But the EOMS BluRay Audio is 2.0 (stereo) only. The surround sound is then virtually made by your amplifier.

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Irix

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24FPS

I do have Exile on Blu Ray. It's incredible. In surround sound it's like the band, plus horns, crammed into your living room.

But the EOMS BluRay Audio is 2.0 (stereo) only. The surround sound is then virtually made by your amplifier.

i dont have the right equipment for surround and if you have the 2002 sacd that may be just as good as the let it bleed bluray
however my ears say indeed that the exile on Main Street bluray Is nothing special
eoms for me is best on vinyl
its probably all our differing tastes and imagination

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Irix

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24FPS

I do have Exile on Blu Ray. It's incredible. In surround sound it's like the band, plus horns, crammed into your living room.

But the EOMS BluRay Audio is 2.0 (stereo) only. The surround sound is then virtually made by your amplifier.

Okay. Whatever. But there had to be enough there for the surround sound to do its magic. Because every speaker is overflowing with music. More bits, more music.