which rate do people buy?

[richard kimber]

I have a DAC that can do DSD 512.  I also have HQPlayer.

 

Native DSD has a recording of The Rite of Spring that I'd like to buy.  It is offered at:

DXD, 64fs, 128fs, and 256fs.

 

It was digitized at DXD.  Is this one to go for?

 

What buying strategy do people use in these circumstances?

[mansr]

My general rules:

• Never buy an upconversion, PCM or DSD
• Never buy a PCM to DSD conversion
• Avoid DSD to DSD conversions unless price difference is insane
• Never pay extra for PCM above 96 kHz
• Pay no more than 15% extra for 96 kHz over 44/48 kHz

[jhwalker]

47 minutes ago, mansr said:

My general rules:

• Never buy an upconversion, PCM or DSD
• Never buy a PCM to DSD conversion
• Avoid DSD to DSD conversions unless price difference is insane
• Never pay extra for PCM above 96 kHz
• Pay no more than 15% extra for 96 kHz over 44/48 kHz

 

Very much the same here.  

 

If there is a recording I simply must have, I will spring for the original (in this case, DXD multichannel) rather than one of the downsampled options . . . but for most recordings, 48k is plenty,  or 96k if that's how it's offered.

[mozes]

53 minutes ago, mansr said:

Never pay extra for PCM above 96 kHz

I recently started following this rule for PCM. The truth is that I arrived at this conclusion after I figured out that I can’t tell any difference in SQ between 96Khz and higher sampling rates.   Maybe I don’t have golden ears.

[mansr]

53 minutes ago, mansr said:

Avoid DSD to DSD conversions unless price difference is insane

Additionally, if a DSD original is too expensive, prefer a PCM conversion over a lower rate DSD. The latter will have gone through a PCM stage anyway. Buy DSD conversions only if PCM isn't available.

[adamdea]

1 hour ago, richard kimber said:

I have a DAC that can do DSD 512.  I also have HQPlayer.

 

Native DSD has a recording of The Rite of Spring that I'd like to buy.  It is offered at:

DXD, 64fs, 128fs, and 256fs.

 

It was digitized at DXD.  Is this one to go for?

 

What buying strategy do people use in these circumstances?

Buy the 16/44. 24/96 or 88 if you must and it's not much more expensive. 

 

I have a subscription to the B & W Society of Sound which give access to one LSO recording and one other per month at 24/96 or 16/44. After years of downloading the 24/96 I don't even bother anymore and go for the 16/44. Ditto for the Suzuki complete bach cantatas. I actually paid for the higher resolution files, in case I ever want the surround mixes but I only bothered to download the 16/44 for now. IMHO the only reason to buy higher rez two channel is if you don't trust the downconversion. But really there's no excuse for anyone botching it when audacity and dbpoweramp perform it as accurately as saracon.  

 

Of the other options DXD, 64fs, 128fs, and 256fs. Well clearly if it's digitised at DXD then the other can't offer anything, so I guess just you could buy that if you don't mind storing 100Khz+ of exquisitely recorded modulator noise. 64fs offers no advantage over 16/44. 

[mansr]

3 minutes ago, adamdea said:

I have a subscription to the B & W Society of Sound which give access to one LSO recording and one other per month at 24/96 or 16/44. After years of downloading the 24/96 I don't even bother anymore and go for the 16/44.

Since there is no price difference here, I pick the high-res version, just in case. Disk space isn't a problem.

[adamdea]

1 minute ago, mansr said:

Since there is no price difference here, I pick the high-res version, just in case. Disk space isn't a problem.

I know. Makes sense. I just got a bit impatient with the downloads, my nas is filling up and quite a few of the recordings are ones I wouldn't rush out to buy. So I started to think, why bother? 

[GUTB]

Always buy the original master sample rate. For most that's 96 kHz. For native DSD recordings (Channel Classics, Merging, etc) always buy the master DSD rate. If an MQA version of a PCM album is available, and you are confident in its heritage (review the album notes, release date, studio, etc) AND you have a native MQA DAC, get the MQA version. 

 

Analog source albums are best on reputable mastering studios and vinyl pressings (MoFi, Analouge Productions, etc), and second best on DSD / SACD if your DAC can do native DSD decoding.

[audiventory]

4 hours ago, richard kimber said:

What buying strategy do people use in these circumstances?

As rule, sample rate is player/operation system driver/DAC matter. There are not general recommendation by sample rate value.

I'd recommend check different sample rates for your audio system.

Read details here https://samplerateconverter.com/content/how-improve-sound-quality

[richard kimber]

Thanks for the comments. In this example DXD would seem to be the choice.

[Kal Rubinson]

On 2/1/2018 at 12:06 PM, audiventory said:

As rule, sample rate is player/operation system driver/DAC matter. There are not general recommendation by sample rate value.

I'd recommend check different sample rates for your audio system.

The issue is what format/resolution to buy and, since system hardware can change, it would be a mistake to base a purchase on this moving target.  Buying the original recording format/resolution obtains the closest to the "original" (mastering aside) and still allows the user to play it as-is or resample to suit him to suit his hardware, even as it changes.

[sdolezalek]

5 minutes ago, Kal Rubinson said:

Buying based on the original recording format/resolution obtains the closest to the "original" (mastering aside) and still allows the user to play it as-is or resample to suit him to suit his hardware, even as it changes.

 

Kal: I fully agree with this approach, but it also raises two questions, if you buy something other than the "original" then presumably the seller has used some up or down conversion software to arrive at the other choices.  1. Are sellers using Audiventory or is there some other preferred solution for vendors? 2. Are those solutions better than using HQ Player on the fly, particularly when HQ Player allows us to make output/filter choices that work best with our individual hardware?

[Kal Rubinson]

5 hours ago, sdolezalek said:

1. Are sellers using Audiventory or is there some other preferred solution for vendors?

Who knows but, imho, what do you do when you change your DAC?  Buy it again?

 

5 hours ago, sdolezalek said:

2. Are those solutions better than using HQ Player on the fly, particularly when HQ Player allows us to make output/filter choices that work best with our individual hardware?

I do not know.  As I suggested, I get downloads, if possible, in the same resolution as was recorded.  Typically, I resample to 24/192 PCM in order to use REQ.  When I choose not to use REQ, I rarely resample.

[Ralf11]

I just buy used CDs, except when I hear that the SACD of an album I like sounds a lot better (regardless of why...)