Legal high quality music in New Zealand

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Acrux

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Master Geek
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Topic # 95582 8-Jan-2012 20:08

I have done some searching about here to see if there is any way to legally purchase "very high quality music" from inside New Zealand. So far I haven't found a thread about better than or at least CD quality music. Firstly let me say I'm looking at the sort of stuff from HDTracks ( https://www.hdtracks.com/ ) in the USA. I'm not looking for MP3 anything. Lossless Flac and some of the high bit rate and bit depth stuff. So I can get the same experience as an SACD but from a file. So far the Linn site is the only thing I have found http://www.linnrecords.com/

To play it I have a Cambridge Audio DACMagicPlus DtoA a nice pair of Kef XQ5 speakers and a Denon AVR-3310 amp. Yip I am already buying CD's and using Poweramp to get them into FLAC but these are of course 44khz 16bit. I am wanting to see if there really is a difference with the studio master level music. I can play up to 24bit at 196khz via this DAC.

So far most of the international providers like HDTracks seem to only support users in the USA or Europe.

Perhaps I've just been searching for the wrong things?

Thanks Dave.

grolschie

597 posts

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Reply # 566409 9-Jan-2012 10:39

Bandcamp?

cyril7

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Reply # 566411 9-Jan-2012 10:42

Hi, I have purchased quite a number of recordings from Channel classics.

Cyril

NZtechfreak

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Reply # 566414 9-Jan-2012 10:53

I buy CD's and rip them to FLAC, I suppose you have reasons for why you wouldn't just want to do this?

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geekiegeek

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Reply # 566430 9-Jan-2012 11:10

Its not just a New Zealand problem. There are not a lot of CD quality downloads anywhere. There are sites like HDTracks but the selection is very limited. As started by a previous poster, your best bet is to buy CDs and rip them.

When you live your life on Twitter and Facebook, and are only friends with like minded people on Twitter and Facebook, you are not living in the real world. You are living in a narcissistic echo chamber.

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tigercorp

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Reply # 566436 9-Jan-2012 11:26

The OP is after 24bit at 196khz quality.

Is it possible to rip CDs to this level?

codyc1515

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Reply # 566437 9-Jan-2012 11:28

Maybe not what you are looking for but Spotifys meant to be coming to New Zealand fairly soon. It does offer a higher quality stream for paying users.

cyril7

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Reply # 566438 9-Jan-2012 11:32

The OP is after 24bit at 196khz quality.

Is it possible to rip CDs to this level?

Clearly if its redbook then its only 16bit 44kb/s so no upscaling is going to achieve anything.

Cyril

Acrux

56 posts

Master Geek
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Reply # 566449 9-Jan-2012 11:56

Thanks guys yes I know I can rip normal 44.1 16bit CD's the idea was to be able to seriously try out higher definition audio. We have been told for years that we have been sold a pup going from records to CD, I was trying to see for myself. Not to worried if it's 96 or 192khz. I do have a Denon 3910 DVD player that does SACD very very well. I was looking to see if there was a source of file based high quality audio available that I had not found. Will definitely check out Channel Classics and bandcamp.

grolschie

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Reply # 566533 9-Jan-2012 15:21

With Bandcamp, FLAC is available but the sources might not always be HD audio i.e. they might be lossless CD quality for example. I'm not sure how many tracks/albums on there would be from an HD audio source.

Acrux

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Master Geek
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Reply # 567453 11-Jan-2012 16:55

So far I have purchased from Linn Records this album

The Avison Ensemble
Vivaldi's Concerti Opus 8
(including 'The Four Seasons')

I got it in FLAC 96khz 24bit the files are very large and took a while to download but man are they nice. I have listened to a number of different versions of the Four Seasons and some of the violin solos were haunting. The complex sections resolved well into sounding like a number of different instruments, not everything mushed together. There was an overall smoothness and an analog quality warmth to it. Very happy so far.