Recent content by rbbert

I would think it obvious that this discussion should be closed ;)

If one can't easily hear the excess dynamic compression on the 2004 Polydor SACD of Tumbleweed Connection I despair.

You are crazy, I don't know how else to express it. Downsampling is not "digital hocus pocus"; it is throwing away some information, but a file downsampled to 24/96 still has more than 4x the information than a file upsampled from 16/44.1, to say nothing of the improved sound from doing the A>D...

It has been about 20 years since I compared, and my system has changed dramatically since then, so I will do some comparisons again (I do notice that the last 2 or 3 times I listened to this album's digital versions it was to the SACD; I also have an unknown gen R2R)

Are you kidding me? You are trying to equate downsampling from 24/192 to 24/96 with upsampling from 16/44.1 to either of those formats??

Also remember that even with a new hi-res transfer, the eventual release may sound bad due to too much compression and/or unpleasant EQ in the remastering. I have never said or thought that all hi-res releases necessarily sound better than all CD versions and I know it is true for many albums...

You may doubt, but all the evidence indicates that nearly always there is a new transfer made for a hi-res release; usually only once at the highest resolution available, then other formats are downsampled from that.

As far as your first sentence, this has never been in doubt. The real point of contention is whether or not, and/or how often, that happens with recordings that were originally analog, and my contention is not that often; after analyzing thousands of hi-res releases from originally analog...

OK, can you list some of those? And FWIW, you did make the statement that you doubted that the record labels made new transfers for hi-res, so I guess you are backing down from that assertion?

Some albums with analog masters sold as hi-res that are really only 16/44.1

Can you post a few of these jazz titles? I am happy to see if they are true hi-res and have good mastering (i.e., not over-compressed or EQ'ed), because my experience with the type of albums you mention is that virtually all the hi-res versions are just that, although a few (not many) do have...

Just a few albums and artists where the hi-res versions are clearly superior to the CD's All the latest hi-res Pink Floyd All the Fleetwood Mac albums from the 2013-2014 "flat transfers" All the Pretenders albums from the 2013-2014 "flat transfers" (there are also a lot of other artists...

The articles seem (to me) to be directed at those listeners who are somewhat less knowledgeable than most of us here, but I may be overestimating the level of knowledge and sophistication here... At least I didn't notice anything that hasn't been discussed previously at audiophile forums such...

Sort of. I have thousands of hi-res albums that sound better than the CD versions, and maybe a few hundred (if that) where a CD version sounds better; your implication is that you have found the opposite to be true. This may be due simply to listening to different music. Admittedly I only...

Of course; my point is that if you care it isn't that hard to sort things out.