Are many of you using the HD Track master tape recordings ?

RCHeliGuy said:

I'm pretty skeptical about a lot of things because of the amount of belief in astrology and magic regarding audio which discredits a lot of what I read. The placebo effect is so strong in some circles that it makes it hard to tell fact from fiction.

What I know is that the OPPO 105D is going to make listening to digital music very convenient and it should very cleanly drive my amplifier. I also know that my amplifier should very comfortably push the ML Ethos speakers. Past that this is all going just be a lot of fun!

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Bolded - definitely. One real problem is that people do hear differences but what they attribute to causing that difference is incorrect.

Ethos - you'll get a blast from those. It's good enough to be really impressive I'd say, with the right amps etc

User211 said:

Bolded - definitely. One real problem is that people do hear differences but what they attribute to causing that difference is incorrect.

Ethos - you'll get a blast from those. It's good enough to be really impressive I'd say, with the right amps etc

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I guess I'll find out if my amp is up to the task when the speakers arrive. I figure at 500W into 4ohm's it should do OK. Fortunately my back is still strong after many years of waterskiing

I've just read at a bunch of technical analysis of the HDTracks and it appears the real difference has to do with the mastering and having 24bit depth tracks less compressed.

It is hit or miss because some CD's are mastered less compressed. However for the CD's that were compressed hard the HDTracks 24bit recordings will show the biggest improvement. Interestingly enough the area this is most noticeably is exactly where HDTracks mentions you will hear it in the drums and bass guitar. So there is some truth in their advertising.

However if you were to take a 24bit /192kHz recording and resample it at 16bit/44.1kHz you shouldn't hear any difference.

So it looks like HDTracks biggest asset is giving us less compressed music.

That seems to make sense.

I'm not convinced my maths in post #15 is 100% correct but you get the idea...

It would be very interesting to know what their definition of a "master tape" is, because there would be very few "master tapes" you could actually listen to. They still have to be mixed, compressed, etc. so this would account for some variance.