B&W Music Club now doing 24-bit FLAC

[cornishmanc]

I am Mac-based so may be too much messing around for me but looks an interesting development:

 

 

http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=3550&utm_source=bowerswilkins&utm_medium=email&utm_content=us&utm_campaign=newalbums-portico

 

[Mike in MD]

But it is still only 44.1 sampling rate. Is this so much better than the redbook CD at 16/44.1 ??

 

Mike

 

 

[arin]

Hi Mike.

Some say, and most pro-audio people agree, that bit rate is much more important than sampling frequency and by that I mean the higher the better.

 

In several tests I made myself, it was easier for me and some friend musicians and audio engineers to pick out different bit rate than sampling frequency.

 

But I believe that different ears could react differently!

 

Ciao!

 

Arin

 

[Mike in MD]

Hi Arin,

 

I use bit rate and sampling frequency (rate) to mean the same thing: 44.1, 88.2, 176.4, 48, 96 or 192. So maybe we are talking about the same thing.

 

the issue of 16 bit or 24 bit words is the "size" of the amplitude information in the music data file.

 

Do you mean that you can clearly hear the difference between 16 bit words and 24 bit words that are both in a data file at 44,100 "samples" per second ??

 

Mike

 

 

 

 

[Roseval]

When recording you always need some head room as you can’t predict what the loudest part will be. If you record at 16 bits and leave 6 dB headroom you are effectively recording with 14 bits resolution.

Do the same with 24 bits and you are recording with 22 bits resolution.

Recording at 24 is almost standard I think

CD don’t support 24 so the whole thing has to be reduced afterwards to 16 bit.

You have to add dither and do a couple of more things I have not fully clasped.

If I understand B&W correctly you get more or less the 24 bits masters.

As a lot of recordings are done at a higher bit rate, they are probably down sampled to 44.1 just to reduces the size a bit.

If this yield audible improvements is of course a matter of trying.

 

 

[catastrofe]

I don't know which is more important, sampling frequency or bit-depth.

 

What I do know, is that the B&W selections downloaded as 24 bit FLAC and converted to 24 bit AIFF using Max sound great through i-Tunes on my Mac Mini!!!

 

I think I'll be signing up for full membership. . .$60 for 12 full length albums. Can't get that deal at any store!

 

:-)

 

[Mike in MD]

I think that you have provided the answer that Cornishmanc was looking for when starting this thread.

 

I also think that it is a great buy for 12 albums. But I would really, really like hi-rez.

 

Mike

 

 

[arin]

Hi Mike,

as Roseval already stated, I'm talking about resolution (bit rate) not sampling frequency.

 

If you listen carefully at the end of a piece of music or anywhere the instruments stop playing you usually can hear some ambience or reverb decaying: that's where you can clearly hear the difference between a 16 and a 24 bit recording.

The 24 bit is clearer and without any grain or distortion compared to a 16 bit recording.

And as Roseval said, you have more dynamic range to play with so all the quiet passages are more defined and...resolution!

 

Changing the sampling frequency you get much more subtle differences..if any at all!

 

As I said, for me the resolution is much clearly evident.

 

Ciao!

 

Arin

 

 

 

[arin]

Sorry,

I forgot to mention that I've been a proud partner of the B&W Music Club for 5 months now and I'm really happy with their offer and music: the recording quality is to a very high standard and the music itself is quite interesting.

 

And now their offer of 24bit FLAC is the icing on the cake!

 

 

Ciao!

 

Arin