Buying Hi Res audio... is it true Hi Res?

[ale76]

Hi everyone, 

I usually purchase my Hi Res files from a couple of well established websites. 

Lately I  tried to verify the files I bought using Spek. 

Spek will show you the spectrogram of the files and the frequencies that are populated. I did that because I read about a lot of "fake" hi res being sold and so I wanted to check myself. 

I made some research online and found that Spek was the good way to go. So I downloaded the software and made a couple of test. 

Very annoying results..

 

I tested the "Live in Hamburg" album from Esbjorn Svensson Trio, which I purchased in FLAC 24/96 format. 

 

When I analysed the spectrogram of each track, I could not find anything above 22khz, which tells me this is a 44.1Khz file, or maybe a 48khz if I want to be an optimist...

 

I am not questioning the quality of the recording here, what I am questioning is the real format vs what is sold and advertised. 

If I knew this album was a 44.1 khz, then I would have bought the physical CD and rip by myself, or I would have bought a FLAC 16/44 download saving money and HD space.

 

HAs anyone made any check on your purchased HI Res files? 

 

 

 

[Teresa]

Back in 2012 (before my dementia) I wrote this article Are Your High Resolution Recordings Really High Resolution? You might find it interesting.

[ale76]

@Teresa I did follow your guide and got this..

Is that a brick wall filter before 22khz? 

It's from a 24/96 album I bought, but if the analysis is right I am seeing a 320 kbps or a 16/44 FLAC if I am lucky...

Am I right ?

[kumakuma]

Deleted

 

[Ralf Hutter]

Here's the HDTracks 24-192 download of KoB So What

[Ralf Hutter]

And here's a needle-drop of the MFSL 45rpm Kob So What

[Teresa]

14 hours ago, ale76 said:

@Teresa I did follow your guide and got this..

Is that a brick wall filter before 22khz? 

It's from a 24/96 album I bought, but if the analysis is right I am seeing a 320 kbps or a 16/44 FLAC if I am lucky...

Am I right ?

 

Yes that's a classic brickwall filter.  A brickwall filter looks like a steep cliff, whereas normal microphone rolloff looks more like a rolling hill. From what I see it's a 44.1kHz music file, hopefully it's lossless.

[Musicophile]

On 5/26/2020 at 10:49 AM, ale76 said:

Hi everyone, 

I usually purchase my Hi Res files from a couple of well established websites. 

Lately I  tried to verify the files I bought using Spek. 

Spek will show you the spectrogram of the files and the frequencies that are populated. I did that because I read about a lot of "fake" hi res being sold and so I wanted to check myself. 

I made some research online and found that Spek was the good way to go. So I downloaded the software and made a couple of test. 

Very annoying results..

 

I tested the "Live in Hamburg" album from Esbjorn Svensson Trio, which I purchased in FLAC 24/96 format. 

 

When I analysed the spectrogram of each track, I could not find anything above 22khz, which tells me this is a 44.1Khz file, or maybe a 48khz if I want to be an optimist...

 

I am not questioning the quality of the recording here, what I am questioning is the real format vs what is sold and advertised. 

If I knew this album was a 44.1 khz, then I would have bought the physical CD and rip by myself, or I would have bought a FLAC 16/44 download saving money and HD space.

 

HAs anyone made any check on your purchased HI Res files? 

 

 

 

Where did you buy this? 
 

Qobuz sells it only in CD quality and Highresaudio that typically has all ACT Highres releases doesn’t even feature it. 

[ale76]

@Musicophile my mistake, I meant “Live in Gothenburg” as per the screenshots and I purchased that on HRA

 

[Musicophile]

22 hours ago, ale76 said:

@Musicophile my mistake, I meant “Live in Gothenburg” as per the screenshots and I purchased that on HRA

 

Interesting, I don't own Gotheburg, but based on this I just checked the supposedly 24/96 album of Live in London, purchased from Qobuz. 

 

Clearly 24/48 at best, as seen on the Musicscope plot below. 

 

Maybe ACT have an issue with their EST live releases?

 

In any case, I'll try if I get my money back from Qobuz, HRA should be able to do the same.

 

[ale76]

2 hours ago, Musicophile said:

Maybe ACT have an issue with their EST live releases?

Maybe.. I sent them 2 emails but I did not receive any feedback yet. 

What I received is something from HRA, the MusicScope analysis of the "Live in Gothenburg" album. 

According to their charts, there is some minimal content above 24khz. 

The same can be seen in the Sonic VIsualizer graph while Audacity and Spek do not show anything above that frequency

 

 

[Musicophile]

10 hours ago, ale76 said:

Maybe.. I sent them 2 emails but I did not receive any feedback yet. 

What I received is something from HRA, the MusicScope analysis of the "Live in Gothenburg" album. 

According to their charts, there is some minimal content above 24khz. 

The same can be seen in the Sonic VIsualizer graph while Audacity and Spek do not show anything above that frequency

 

 

I’ll reach out to Qobuz customer service in the next days. Let me see what they say.