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Digital remastering of CD's

What do you suppose the CD manufacturers are waiting for to put out only digitally remastered to 24 bit discs for older recorded music, classic rock, older jazz, etc? I continually replace all of my older vinyl LP's but only want to buy CD's that have been digitally remasted to 24 bit or HDCD. You can find these scattered throughout a retail CD store but they're still in the minority. These digitally remasted CD's to 24 bit sound SO much better. Example: I just purchased CCR-Willy & the Poor Boys CD. This was one of the LP's I needed to replace. Not digitally remastered to 24 bit but I took a chance on it. Well, it sounds down right awful. Horrible. No bass ext, muffled, etc. How could Fantasy Records even sell this product? Conversely, I purchased Jackson Browne "Late for the Sky" remasted to 24 bit. What a huge difference!!

Why do the record companies not smply remaster all of these older recordings to either 24 bit or HDCD? I realize it can be expensive but with CD sales declining, it could be one way to boost sales and renew interest in buying CD's. It could be a boon to the CD business. Can someone in the know explain this to me? There are so many older jazz recordings alone that I would love to have but I will not purchase because they sound so tinny, muffled, and simply terrible.

pdn
jlc76
37 posts
 
I recently purchased CCR's Bayou Country on SACD and the most striking thing about it was....the tape hiss!!! It was the worst I have ever heard. Was the original LP this bad? I am thinking of getting their other titles but not if they have this hiss. I am 32 so my only exposure to CCR before this was what I heard in movies and on the radio (which is quite a lot).

I would have thought they would have done something to eliminate that amount of hiss.
kops's avatar
kops
478 posts
 
try to find versions of your favourite music in new SHM-CD format (CDplayers compatible) from Japan.
carl109
134 posts
 
"Why do the record companies not smply remaster all of these older recordings to either 24 bit or HDCD?"

Celtic66 is spot on. The vast majority of the music-buying public are after quick internet or store downloads of compressed files to their mp3 disc/ipod/cell phone to play at ear-bleeding volumes.
There's simply not nearly enough CD buyers out there who would buy remastered discs to justify their time and expense. Changing the CD format to 24bit/96kHz is something that should have been done a decade ago to help prolong CD's, but the market couldn't even embrace 20-bit HDCD.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Carl109 - HDCD is 16-bit. Bit #16 (LSB) switches dynamic range of the signal represented by only 15 bits.
carl109
134 posts
 
Yes Kijanki, technically correct.
(From Wikipedia: "HDCD encodes the equivalent of 20 bits worth of data in a 16-bit digital audio signal by utilizing custom dithering, audio filters, and some reversible amplitude and gain encoding."

My point was that the market ignored a very good, backward compatible improvement on standard CD's (HDCD) back when CD's were still being sold in high numbers. The proliferation of digital compressed music in the mass market will eventually spell the end of redbook CD's, let alone any high-res discs.
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