Hi-Fi-Insight News and Reviews
Twentysomething – Jamie Cullum (US Import Dual Disc)
July 8th, 2010
Format: Dual Disc (CD/DVD)
Audio: CD side 2 channel 16 bit PCM @44.1 khz / DVD Audio 2 channel 24 bit PCM @96 khz/ 5.1 24bit PCM @96 khz
Country: USA
Label/Date: Verve/2004
Track Listing:
- These are the Days
- Twentysomething
- Wind Cries Mary
- All at Sea
- Lover, You Should've Come Over
- Singin' in the Rain
- I Get a Kick Out of You
- Blame it on My Youth
- High and Dry
- It's About Time
- But For Now
- I Could've Danced All Night
- Next Year, Baby
- What a Difference a Day Makes
- Frontin'
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Blue Train - John Coltrane (US Import DVD audio)
July 8th, 2010
Format: Double Sided DVD (Dual Format)
Audio: DVD Audio 2 channel 24 bit PCM @192 khz / DVD Video 2 channel 24 bit PCM @96 khz
Country: USA
Label/Date: Classic/1999 (Original album first released in 1957 by Blue Note: 53428)
Track Listing:
- Blue Train
- Moment’s Notice
- Locomotion
- I’m Old Fashioned
- Lazy Bird
I originally purchased a 2004 Rudy Van Geller CD re-master of this album about six years ago purely on a whim as I was keen to explore Coltrane’s music and as it was on offer at £4.99 at the local HMV, it seemed a good value. “Blue Train” is one of Coltrane’s finest albums and was originally released eight years before the “A Love Supreme”.
Given that this album was recorded in 1957, the sound quality is excellent and I assume it was originally recorded on a ‘tube’ tape machine. Whilst the CD re-master sounded OK, I have always felt it was a little sterile if I am being critical. Fortunately the two digital soundtracks on this double sided DVD will more than satisfy any audiophile as both have been mastered to a very high standard. Although I can listen to 192khz digital audio via my computer’s Xonar D2, my preferred digital listening is PC digital output (bit perfect) to a Quad 99CDPII which will accept up to 24/96 via SPDIF. [...]
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DualDiscs
July 2nd, 2010
Having now got the taste for high definition 24 bit/96khz digital audio, I was keen to explore what other content is available other than downloads. DualDisc is crudly speaking a CD and DVD glued together to give two formats on one disc. DualDisc first started appearing about five to six years ago but never really caught the market, one of the main stumbling blocks being that not all CD/DVD drives (especially slot loading types) could read the discs as the thickness of the combined disc caused all sorts of problems with some hardware.
However what is not always well documented is that the video side of the DualDisc normally contained a high quality 24/96 PCM soundtrack. There is unfortunately one caveat that confused many people and me alike. Back in 2005, I purchased a DualDisc copy of Duran Duran's Astronaut (the first comeback album with the original line-up). Because this DualDisc was released through Epic/Sony, the DVD only has "enhanced audio", which means the PCM audio track is recorded at 16/48 with an additional 'lossy' Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The reason for this is the Sony went out of their way to ensure the DualDisc format did not offer a similar sound quality to their propietry SACD format. The general consensus amongst audiophiles is that SACD and 24/96 PCM offer a very similar sound quality. This is a crying shame for the format and means that anyone looking to purchase these discs as a means to accquiring high quality audio really need to do their research properly and be sure what is on the disc. [...]
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High Definition Audio
June 1st, 2010
Having successfully set up a very high quality bit perfect PC -> DAC system that is capable of 24/96 playback thanks to the Quad 99CDP2's digital input and the onboard Realtek's digital output, it was only a matter of time before I took the plunge into 24bit audio primarily out of curiousity as to whether there was any significant improvement over standard 16/44.1 CD playback. [...]
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Beresford TC-7520 DAC
January 16th, 2010
Regular visitors to this site will know how much of a fan of high quality computer based audio we are and in particular pc audio devices that offer true bit perfect audio performance.
The Beresford TC-7520 DAC is a high quality and highly rated DAC that is perfectly suited to PC digital audio applications because of the inclusion of a USB digital input as well as one other toslink input and two co-ax digital inputs. You only have to do a bit a of research in the various online audio forums to see how many people rave about the Beresford's TC-7520 DAC's performance, to realise the company are on a winner with this particular digital to analogue converter. [...]
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