Linn Records 24/96 master material - how they process

[soundcheck]

Hi folks.

Just to share with you folks a little conversion I had with Linn, see below.
I was surprised how quick and open they responded.

------QUOTE ----------------

Hello Linn.

I just looked at your very interesting Master-Quality downloads
offering.
1.
I would like to know if your 24/96 tracks offered for download are 1to1
digital copies from the master-files, without dvd or cd-redbook writing
in between?
Just to make sure that these files did not catch any additional jitter
during e.g. CD production processes.

Yes they are.

2.
Are the 44.1 materials converted from the master-files?
Would be great to know which method, tool , dither asf.) you used to
convert them.

Yes they are. The masters are recorded at 88.2kz 24 bit and are then
sample rate converted down to 44.1kz 16 bit. The reason we use 88.2 as
the original recording format is that, because it is a simple multiple
of 44.1, a very simple SRC can be used and this seems to sound better.
We normally use one of the few remaining Pacific Microsonics HDCD
encoders to do both the sample rate conversion and the subsequent
dithering down to 16 bit. This seems to sound better than the standard
dithering options available, and also has the advantage that if you play
the files back on a HDCD compatible player then there is an additional
performance advantage.

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Dithering is still still an issue as you can read! Let see if e.g. ssrc does a better job.

Today I commented on the 44.1/88,2 formats as the less favourable choice
compared to 48/96 in a PC environmment for the majority of users.
Let see how they comment on this.

Cheers
\Klaus

[PeterSt]

Thanks Klaus.

Just to note : Dithering is always at order at DOWNsampling. Note that when you go from 44K1 to 48K, this also implies downsampling ! (from the common denominator back to 48K).
So it is not needed (wanted !) when going from e.g. 44K1 to 88K2.

Peter

[soundcheck]

Hi Peter.

Just to add:

1. From 24bit to 16 you won't get around dithering

2. If doing any conversion in the digital domain in realtime on a PC or DAC/DSP the conversion (float calculations)  ususally is done in 32/64 bit word length, which implies the necessity for dithering when going back to 24/16 anyhow.
To get best dithering results 64 bit wordlength calculations are highly recommended.

Cheers
\Klaus