The Cars: Studio Album Collection: 1978 - 1987 24-192 HDtracks

[Somsak]

Comparing the MFSL SACD to the 192/24 download of the first Cars album, I prefer the MFSL.

[John Dyson]

On 5/28/2014 at 8:44 PM, sjohnson said:

It's been awhile for this thread so my apologies for posting at this late date but I thought I'd post my recent experience with 24/192 version of Heartbeat City. I'm not sure if the separate Heartbeat City album songs are identical to those in the Studio Collection but the sound quality of the HDTracks standalone 24/192 Heartbeat City album is dismal. Makes me wonder if the download was bad but then again I doubt it since all tracks have the same issues. Overemphasized high frequencies, anemic midrange, and 'shallow' soundstage are the main complaints. I have the vinyl which even with a low to mid range level turntable setup is way more musical and listenable than this release. I've had better overall sound fidelity buying $5 CDs and ripping them with DBPoweramp than most of my high rez HDTracks purchases but I went for it since The Cars are one of my favorite 80's bands - a lot of fun to listen to especially Heartbeat City and Greatest Hits.

 

Nonetheless maybe my download did something averse to the files so if there are any thoughts or observations around this release I'd be glad to hear them.

 

 

Thanks

 

Steve

I hate to bring it up -- but I have found that HDtracks unknowingly sometimes sells DolbyA encoded material.  The symptoms that you describe (terrible sound stage, overemphasized (actually compressed) high frequencies, and weak midrange) -- that sounds like a description of undecoded DolbyA.  My HDtracks Carpenters' album is also DolbyA encoded.

 

John