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Hi,
I have recently made a discovery that I wanted to share with my fellow audiophiles.
As we know, the world has been moving to direct digital downloads for some time. iTunes is now the second largest music provider. The downside to this is that the audio quality of these lossy downloads is an anathema to true lovers of music and sound.
Thankfully, more and more labels are starting to fill the void with better than redbook (44k/16b) audio downloads. Linn Records has been providing Flac files at up to 96k/24b for some time now.
One of the challenges is how to get these files to play back on your audio system at full resolution. The obvious approach would be to author DVD-Audio discs on your computer and then play them on a DVD-Audio compliant standalone player. Unfortunately, not all DVD players can also play DVD-Audio files. Another approach is to play the files with a computer based system or server such as the Slimdevices Slimserver and Squeezbox products. The one glitch is the Squeezebox 3 currently tops out at 48k/24b and that leaves only the Transporter product at $2k that supports the 96k/24b files.
I recently learned of a free open source project called Lplex that ingeniously skirts these problems by allowing one to burn DVD discs that contain full resolution audio up to 96k/24b using a standard DVD video disc layout. The trick here is it embeds the full pcm bit stream into an Mpeg2 container so that it can play back literally on any DVD player.
I have tested this with several hi-def sources. I purchased the the Linn SASC Vol 3 Sampler from the Linn website in the Studio Master quality (95k/24b) and downloaded the files. You do need a high bandwidth connection as the files in Flac form are over 1 gb. Once you have the files it is merely a matter of dragging and dropping the directory onto the Lplex.exe program and a command window will open up and proceed to create your DVD. This may take some time. At the end of the process it will create both a DVD directory with the files in the proper layout for a DVD. It will also create an ISO file which is an image file that is very easy to burn to a DVD disc. I would suggest you use the free Imgburn to burn the ISO file.
So for no more cost than the purchase of hi-rez audio files you too can enjoy them in full fidelity on your audio system.
I'd like to acknowledge Robert Collins, who I don't know personally but took the time to inform the audio torrent community about the Lplex program and provide some great live hi-rez audio torrents.
Hope this helps some of you.
Here are the links:
http://audioplex.sourceforge.net/
http://www.imgburn.com/
http://www.linnrecords.com//index.aspx
Follow Ups:
If you choose to use an external DAC, this requires you to have a DVD player that is capable of outputting the full 24/96 signal on its SPDIF coaxial. I believe most DVD players down-convert the signal to 48 kbps or 16 bit to adhere to the SPDIF bandwidth limitations. Does anyone know which DVD players can output the full 24/96?
I have to try putting a Linn studio master onto DVD. Are the FLAC studio masters 5.1 or 2 channel?
All the studio masters that I have downloaded are 2 channel 24 bit FLACs. They are at various sampling rates, e.g. 96, 88.2, 48, 44.1. This information is available for each album from the appropriate web page.
Tony Lauck
"Perception, inference and authority are the valid sources of knowledge" - P.R. Sarkar
That looks very interesting.
I've read about two other software programs that do something similar, but I haven't actually experimented with either yet.
Here are the ones I've read about:
http://www.audio-dvd-creator.com/
http://www.dvd2one.com/
From what I can tell, both allow burning 24/96 audio files (I'm not sure about FLAC though) to a DVD disc that can be played on any DVD capable player (similar to the DAD discs).
I looked into these because I am in the process of setting a vinyl rig to digital conversion and the phono preamp offers 24/96, so I was looking for a solution to get the 24/96 data on a disc once it's ripped to a HD. And these programs look like they might work nicely.
Now I'll add Lplex to my list of software to evaluate.
Thanks for the post!
-Gary
You can get a hi-res soundcard for your PC and enter the wonderful and somewhat weird world of computer audio. It can be a learning experience, which is why there is a forum.
Hi,
I'm not sure of the point of your post? I am very experienced in pc audio topics. I run a linux based slimserver with about a terrabyte of audio in lossless Flac. I also record my own music using various DAWs, usb/firewire DACs, etc.
The point of my post was to illustrate how someone can play back hi-rez audio files can do so with the simplest of tools and hardware. Judging from other threads here, there is some interest in such an approach.
-CB
I've been doing this on my iMac. 24/96 from LP, through Audacity, and then iMovie and iDVD to create a DVD-V disc that only contains the audio and the menu. It isn't hard and it sounds incredible. The hardest part is adding track titles and finding menu art that you like.When I simultaneously recorded at 24/96 and at 16/44.1 I heard firsthand how much better 24/96 is. 24/96 sounds like the LP, 16/44.1 sounds harsh like a CD. The bass at 96k is tuneful all the way down, where at CD quality it gets lost beyond 60hz or so. It just didn't sound right.
If it had a 24/96 capable DAC to output the sound?
David
Now the legitimate question would be, which is a good dvd/universal transport?
Let's say something that costs less than Esoterix UX-03.
I Think i'm better off straight with computer transport ;)
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