XXHighEnd

Hi,

24/96 master quality track available here:

http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html



That seems to be interesting:
http://www.stereophile.com/news/010508ref/


what do you think?

Good listening

I'm eagerly waiting for those :)

G'day hires, 
:welcome:

and thanks for the link :smile:

I downloaded the Surround 5.1 DTS 24 BIT / 44.1 kHz file ( 87 MB ) and it played back perfectly using XXHE. I have quite a number of surround DTS albums already which XXHE handles seamlessly so it was no surprise that the sample worked as intended. I haven't tried the bulkier files yet though but may do so towards the end of the month if I have some bandwidth spare. ( Yeah I know ... its a pain the way aussie ISP's don't have reasonably priced plans that are truly unlimited, but that's predominantly due to the dominance of our largest telco over here .. grrrr )


Did anyone pickup on the statement in that article "We're only working with Windows XP, because Windows Vista is currently a disaster for audio," says Martin. "Vista tries to control and play files its way, which is not what we want."

They obviously haven't heard of XXHE then. :clapping:

I'm a little dubious whether distributing those large files across the net is a viable plan, certainly not to regions such as OZ where we have such restrictive bandwidth plans. At around 3.6 GByte for 60 minutes playtime ( WAV @ 24-bit/176.4kHz ) they had also better have some really fast servers to spit the data out. To get that 3.6 GB in 2 hours ( their suggestion ) would need a sustained download speed of around 500 KByte/sec, and that's pretty darn quick compared to most other sites out there. I'll settle for a disc to arrive via post methinks.

Cheers all,

Russ

G'day there Russ,

Sure someone noticed, because I was told before. Where ? I thought on this forum, but I can't find it anymore. Maybe it was PM.
Anyway, I thought to support 96/24 decently first before giving them a call.  :):)

Peter

Sadly this track has something wrong in its header data. I did not take the time to look for exactly what it is, but might you ever receive the 96/24 XX version :bored: ... this track won't play ... :no:

Others do allright. :secret:

I told you on the forums :)

Good idea. Beware that they have also 24/174.6

True. But that will work "by itself" now.
If anyone has a link to such a file I'll be glad to test it ... If that is a link to a private page, please PM instead of making it public (because of copyright and stuff).

They will sell the files on (data) DVDs. No downloads.
I havent found any 24/174.6 file on the net to try. Yet.

I downloaded the 175MByte 24/96 FLAC version overnight to trial ( http://www.lindberg.no/hires/2L38SACD_tr1_stereo_96_flac.zip )

I expanded it back to WAV using dbPowerAmp and it played fine in XXHE. My Juli@ driver panel indicated it was locked at 96000 and my receiver ( Sony TA-E9000ES ) was showing 24bit @ 96KHz so I reckon all it well.

The exquisite music was the give-away though that it was working as intended :smile:

This hi-def content is certainly alluring!

Cheers all,

Russ

May you not have seen it already, 2L uploaded the B.Britten for 96/24 stereo now : http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html

Their latest album they're giving away for free and in 24/96 wav format.... other formats available too.

http://theslip.nin.com/

I have downloaded it, but I get "Unrecognized WAV header data'' as error message. Tried it twice but the problem is still there.

G'day Leo,

I'm not a huge fan of NIN, but I grabbed the smallest of the tracks ( the first ), and I got the same error message as you experienced.

I cleansed the track by running it through dBPowerAmp ( simply perform a "convert to WAV" function ) and XXHE was then happy.

Give that a try if you haven't resolved the problem by yourself yet.

Cheers,

Russ

thanks for that advice, I will try dbPowerAmp to clean the file.

And it worked, just as the doctor ordered. Thanks.

Here's the assistant of the doctor : I  solved the source of the problem. Seemed better to me. :)

Comes along with the next version.

From their download page :


        :blob8: :blob8: :blob8:

Hahahahaha, I must have the wrong equipment then.

Can this be played distortion free, anyone ? :yahoo:

You never heart such heavily distorted music exactly as distorted as it is supposed to be :)

When I finally was able to play the cleaned wavfiles (via db Poweramp) I didn't like it either and quickly removed the files.

The hirez music I buy from iTrax and Linn is pretty nice however.

I must honestly say that the drums -when playing alone- gave me an indication of good quality indeed. Sadly this comes to maybe 20 seconds throughout the whole album. ;)

I never throw away anything. Come over and look at my junkyard ...
:)

hehe You guys just aren't using the right medication...but ya, I'm a bit of a NIN fan...distortion and all.  His album just before this, Ghosts ... all instrumental... is interesting to me... cellos and all.

Anyway, the point is... I sure hope more groups follow his example and realize the benefits of releasing the master tapes quality to the public and skirting the record companies altogether, and make their money off their concert tours.  Unfortunately I'm still in 16/44.1 territory; I hope I can put something together this summer that will break that barrier though.

Ya, I'm a bit of a NIN fan as well. And the distortion doesn't bother me, per se. But if you open these files in a WAV editor, you'll see all the horrible clipping. To me, that's just unacceptable (for any recording). I HATE THIS "LOUDNESS" WAR!

But, FWIW, I downloaded the 24/96 as well as the standard 16/44.1 and there was a clear difference. Mostly in the space and reverb surrounding the vocals.

And as Dave said, I hope more groups follow his (Trent) example. And I hope recording engineers turn down the loudness and start giving us dynamic recordings again. Just say no to clipping.