High Res - RCA Living Stereo Downloads

[sometimesuk]

Hi,

 

Does anyone know if it is possible to download any of RCA Living Stereo records in high resolution, if so where?

 

I have quite a few of the SACD releases, except I dont have a SACD player. IMO, they are of very good quality. I've listen to modern high def. 24bit/384kHz of the same material, which sound very clean and detailed, but IMO the Living Stereo recordings are better, they have more body to them and are no less detailed.

 

The SACD layer has a high res file on there, so its only a matter of time, before it becomes available to download.

 

Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[jhwalker]

I've been looking for them, too, and have found them, of course - as illegal rips

 

I'd be happy to "shell out" for this whole collection:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Stereo-60-Collection-Box/dp/B003UCPEJ2/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1313455477&sr=1-5

 

if it were made available as lossless downloads - even better if we got the SACD version

 

 

 

[sometimesuk]

That box set isnt all of the titles available on the Living Stereo lable.

 

Did you mean, you have been looking for legal copies? I've seen a few illegal download links for that box set, but personally I dont see the point, as it would just be standard 16/44Khz, most of them are heavly compressed anyway.

 

I think the offical Living stereo SACD website has been dropped too, so doesnt look as if there much hope of them being reissued as downloads in the near future.

 

[regnaD kciN]

I doubt you'll be seeing any of these for a while, as Sony seems pretty resistant to hi-res downloads.

 

OTOH, if you can find a PS3 with model number starting with CECHA-, CECHB-, CECHC-, or CECHE- and running an OS of 3.55 or lower (check on eBay -- they generally have a number of such systems available), you can do your own pure digital rips to 24/88.2 or 24/176.4 PCM. (Google "sacd-ripper" for more information.) I'm in the process of converting my RCA and Mercury SACDs to 24/88.2 to use with my Squeezebox Touch, with perfect results so far.

 

 

 

[sometimesuk]

stuipid question, but If I bought a PS3 that outputs highres audio, how would I record it, and transfer it to HDD?

 

would I need a decent PC with a recording soundcard? or would I have to use it as a dedicated player?

 

[regnaD kciN]

...since this method just does a digital file dump. But you do need a PS3 that plays SACDs (only the early models do) and that has not had its firmware upgraded beyond 3.55. (If you have 3.56 or above, sorry, you're SOL.)

 

The most complete instructions (including download links) I know are found here:

 

http://www.ps3news.com/PS3-Hacks-JailBreak/sacd-ripping-tool-for-ps3-custom-firmware-arrives/

 

Once you get those programs installed, you dump either an ISO or (as I do) the 2-channel DSDIFFs to a USB hard drive (must be FAT32, not NTFS) or flash drive. Then, take that drive to your computer, copy the files over, and convert them to WAV at either 24/88.2 or 24/176.4, using either Korg Audiogate (free), Weiss Sarcon (very much NOT free) or Foobar2000 with the SACD plugin (also free).

 

There's one more optional step -- using SoX (once again, free), trim 0.00057 from the start and end of each WAV to eliminate a slight static noise that is endemic to SACD converted to WAV. I have a batch file to do that on my home computer; however, I won't be home until the end of the week, so I can't post it until then.

 

Once you're done with the processing, of course, you can convert the WAVs to FLACs for better storage. The resulting files can be played back on your computer using Foobar or MediaMonkey, or can be streamed to your audio system with a Squeezebox Touch (but only if the files are 24/96 or below, so you'd have to convert to 88.2 sampling rate instead of 176.4).

 

Hope this helps.