Should Sound Quality of Computer Audio be improved

Timlub- point well taken. It is not what you say, but how
you say it. "Soon all New Music will only be available as
Music Downloads" sounds like a dire warning. It screams
"Get rid of your SACD, MLP, DVD-Audio, Blue-Ray Audio, and
Vinyl. They will be gone. Your only access to New Music will be exclusively Music Downloads". "..Any Format that
has merit will stay"- doesn't quite jive with this. Selection in CD Resolution Music Downloads is certainly there. Selection in High Res. Music Downloads, is it there
to replace High Res. SACD/ MLP/ DVD-Audio/ and Blue-Ray
Audio? Is it there to replace Vinyl Selection? Do we lose
any Music Selection in switching over to "Soon all New Music will only be available as Music Downloads". To me
that is the most important part of "It is the Music that
Matters".
Not entirely sure that I got it right with DXD. I do
know that Sony Music has copied many of their Analog Master
Tapes to DSD. I do know that they are Remastering many of
these aging Music Releases in the digital domain. I am sure
that there will be mixed results. Not sure what the
Professional Studios are using these days for Recording.
I guess that the important thing is headroom. Having the
final Master of higher Resolution than the final copy,
Disk or Downloaded File. DXD will provide this since it is
stored as a File with many times more resolution at much
higher Sampling Rate. Live Recordings were made to Master
Analog Tape, I am certain the same will be done with New
Music in DXD- if it is not already being done. How will
limiting us to 24/192 Downloads eventually be affected by
DXD- I have no idea! I am pretty damn certain that the
Software for DXD will be really protected. How long that will last- I don't know! I did find a Studio here in
Seattle real close that uses DXD. I don't believe that it is the only one in the Country that uses it. I think that
the Motion Picture Industry is using DXD in Mastering their
Soundtracks- don't quote me on that. DXD could really take off in New Music Rcordings. New Music could certainly
benefit. Old Master Analog Recordings Remastered in DXD
might benefit based on how well it is Remastered. I
wouldn't necessarily chuck the Vinyl yet. I still think that high Sound Quality would thrive better if more variety in Formats is used- within reason. Reasonable
people can disagree.

Wow Petty - looks like the light bulb finally came on. No reasonable person is trying to wipe out any format. Whether or not I listen to SACD I derive absolutely no benefit from it being wiped off the face of the earth. I do believe that eventually optical discs may be a thing of the past but this doesn't mean I wish it to be so. I still buy the odd CD from time to time - and tons of vinyl.

Anyways, looks like cooler heads have prevailed. Surely the love-fest can't be far behind!

Enjoy the music - on whatever format you choose!

PO,

Regarding DSD and DXD in recording studios as a format the jury is still out. I think the ability to manipulate that amount of data has many technical problems today. Many manufactures do not support it (hense my above post) and have no immediate intention to support it. So to use DXD is difficult impractical and expensive for most studios. Obviously that will change if it becomes more widely used.

The guys that are using it, as I mentioned, are remastering/mastering guys. So the multitrack and stereo master are recorded using the usual suspects. Its only the end stages of the production process where DXD or DSD may be used. Live recordings could be different be even these are recorded via multitrack mainly so unlikely to be what I would call "real" DXD. I.e used through out the whole process rather than just at the end.

There are those who say 192k is fine and those who say DXD is the first recording format to COMPLETELY DISAPPEAR sonically.

But as no one can really deal with it, what seems to be happening is engineers are bouncing between analogue and digital to make it work. I.e playing the output of the DXD capable DAC up the mixing desk manipulating in analogue then rerecording those manipulations back to digital!

It's a bit of a mess and while there are some amazing sounding pro AD-DA DSD DXD capable processors, how they integrate with standard studio equipment is a hassle for now.

I hear Linx are about to release a pro soundcard which is compatible and "cheap". But I have not seen it.

One day if it can be used all the way through the process we will have the finest recordings in history. But in a climate where there is no money to be made from music, it is unlikely many will retool at vast expense on the pro side to adopt it fully. (mastering aside)

I was on the Supratek website the other night.Mick has a blog that has some interesting info on his work with computer audio.Good reading.

Thanks for the tip on the Supratek blog. http://supratekaudio.blogspot.com/.

Very interesting and somewhat surprising.

Regards,