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If Radiohead releases studio-quality 'King of Limbs' downloads, will anyone listen?


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Discussion over at the radiohead forum from those who have listened to it suggests that the files have come from the vinyl master rather than those released as the original download and CD.

 

I'm very excited to grab these, hoping the back catalogue gets released eventually.

 

Excuse the laziness at not searching for this first, but any way to burn your own SACD from 24bit files? Doubt it, never heard of recordable SACDs. I ask because I have an Esoteric SACD player but doesn't play DVD-A.

 

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DVD-A is dead, SACD will die soon.

Downloaded (or ripped) Hi Res files is the future.

Just my opinion.

 

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I bought the wav files when they made them available for king of limbs, and if there were an option for 24 bit then, I would have bought that instead. However, I ain't gonna re-purchase it. I mean, let's face it, a lot of their sound effects are basically distortion and noise.

 

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I can't believe they reward us early adopter/downloaders with a surprise 24 bit release that costs LESS than the February 18 download ($11 vs $14).

 

An early response on the Hoffman forum says this:

"They are 24 bit 44.1kHz FLACs. Anticipating your next question, peak limiting/RMS levels are identical to the previous 16 bit..."

 

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"I mean, let's face it, a lot of their sound effects are basically distortion and noise."

 

Pretty much true of all music, recorded or not. How the tongue is pressed against the mouthpiece, how the fingers press on the strings, how the foot pumps the wah-wah pedal...

 

Music is, at its most fundamental, distortion and noise. Otherwise, the same instrument would sound exactly the same no matter who played it.

 

(I purchased the flac - sounds good!)

 

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Hello,

 

Thanks to the OP, I got my 24-bit FLAC copy today and compared it against the 16-bit WAV. Here are my comments:

 

1. Both 16-bit and 24-bit versions have the SAME analog compression. The Prism Orpheus RMS display was mostly yellow/orange, but never red, indicating high compression. So unfortunately, both are LOUD (albeit tastefully done).

 

2. Both versions are 44.1 khz.

 

3. The 24-bit sounds better than the 16-bit. Improvements include added "air" around instruments, especially guitars, cymbals, drums and backing vocals. Also, all sorts of little details "came out", which I previously didn't notice.

 

4. The image has more depth. I can hear instruments such as drums moving to the rear, and guitars/vocals coming to the front.

 

5. I didn't expect that adding 8 more bits would have such an impact to the sound on (arguably) the same master. I can conclude that the 16-bit CD format is perpetually flawed no matter how much $$$ or DACs you throw at it. 16 bits don't cut it!!!

 

THERE IS NO SUBSTITUE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

 

Why can't the record labels understand that audiophiles want 24-bit vinyl masters? Can't they get it? How come MFSL (Mofi) gets it and no one else in the pop/rock genre?

 

Mac mini (Pure Music) -> Prism Orpheus -> Manley Monoblocks -> Harbeth SHL5

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this was the "back to guitars" album? I downloaded the 24Bit FLAC last night and gave it a listen. Sonically it's compressed and it's too early to judge the music itself on one listen.

 

Ah well, it was only $3 more than the CD.

 

Bill

 

 

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"Every additional bit doubles the word-size."

 

No. Doubling the size of a 16-bit word requires another 16 bits, not another 1 bit.

 

I'm sure you meant to say that each additional bit doubles the range of values per sample.

Adding 8 bits results in a 256-fold increase in the range of values, therefore 256 times the amplitude resolution.

 

 

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No way to burn a SACD that I know of. Remember that SACDs use Direct Stream Digital (DSD) which is a completely different sampling algorithm from PCM.

 

I did burn a DVD-A from the FLAC files using the app from Cirlinca and it plays back nicely using my Denon combo player.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Radiohead released a 12" vinyl for Record Store Day in the UK that included two tracks leftover from the King of Limbs sessions, "Supercollider" and "The Butcher."

 

If you pre-ordered The King of Limbs from Radiohead's website, you can now download the two new tracks in WAV format.

 

I just downloaded them and discovered that they are 24-bit. One is 24/44.1 and the other is 24/48.

 

Nice.

 

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