Anuar Brahem

Really? Upsampled? How do you know?

if this is true then for me it has sullied the Qobuz reputation.

I am surprised ECM would allow this.

I am not surprised. All of Brahem's albums (including Rita) sell in 44/16 on HDTrack. They obviously have a distribution agreement with ECM. How can a native 96/24 version pop up on some other site? Had to be upsampled. I can sell you a 192/24 version if you're interested.
 
I am not surprised. All of Brahem's albums (including Rita) sell in 44/16 on HDTrack. They obviously have a distribution agreement with ECM. How can a native 96/24 version pop up on some other site? Had to be upsampled. I can sell you a 192/24 version if you're interested.

Again...where is the proof it is upsampled? There ARE plenty of ECM releases available in 96 Khz on Hdtracks.

This is case where a statement on an internet forum is taken as truth with no data to back it up. We can do better than this.
 
Again...where is the proof it is upsampled? There ARE plenty of ECM releases available in 96 Khz on Hdtracks.

This is case where a statement on an internet forum is taken as truth with no data to back it up. We can do better than this.

Exactly my point. If a legit 96/24 was available hdtracks would be selling it, like all other 96/24 ECM releases. Reckless speculation of course, but I'll take a bet I'm right.
 
Exactly my point. If a legit 96/24 was available hdtracks would be selling it, like all other 96/24 ECM releases. Wreck less speculation of course, but I'll take a bet I'm right.

Sorry that is not how it works. There are different license deals all over the world. I can name dozens of albums sold in Europe in higher resolution and vice versa here in the States.

Really, c'mon now.
 
Sorry that is not how it works. There are different license deals all over the world. I can name dozens of albums sold in Europe in higher resolution and vice versa here in the States.

Really, c'mon now.

It does not pass the plausibility test. Hdtracks sells every 96/24 release ECM puts out, but somehow this particular album fell between the cracks? C'mon indeed.
 
It does not pass the plausibility test. Hdtracks sells every 96/24 release ECM puts out, but somehow this particular album fell between the cracks? C'mon indeed.

Let's have some definitive proof first. Listen I am appalled at the way HDTracks and the labels to do business. I don't know much about Qobuz. But I can tell you I won't make accusations without proof.

As far as I am concerned, selling upsampled Redbook is fraud.
 
Let's have some definitive proof first. Listen I am appalled at the way HDTracks and the labels to do business. I don't know much about Qobuz. But I can tell you I won't make accusations without proof.

As far as I am concerned, selling upsampled Redbook is fraud.

I think,it is all a big misunderstanding. I looked at the site and all I see is a 44/16 download.
 
I would guess this is 20/44.1. I'll compare the sound to my CD sometime tomorrow.

The Lover of Beirut spectrum.jpg
 
Do you mean 24/44.1?

I meant 20/44.1, because it's hard to say. Audition says the bit depth is 24, but the noise floor appears to be about -120 dB.
 
FFTs like those that come out of Audacity and Audition show only the noise floor in each bin of the FFT, not the noise over the whole audio band. To estimate the 20kHz bandwidth noise floor you need to account for the number of FFT bins. For example if there are 1024 bins (from a 2048 sample window) then the total (integrated) noise will be around 30dB higher than that indicated at a single point.
 
For comparison, here's the (apparently SACD sourced) HDtracks version of Tomasz Stanko's new album, so it does look like the Brahem is 24 bit also.

Wislawa.jpg
 
For comparison, here's the (apparently SACD sourced) HDtracks version of Tomasz Stanko's new album, so it does look like the Brahem is 24 bit also.

View attachment 8979

See this is why I am having trouble with your opinions here. They are light on facts. To the best of my knowledge, ECM does not produce SACDs. I believe they have released ONE or TWO in their entire history.
 
Andre, get a grip. This is from HDtracks (definitely official) and as you can see it's 24/88.2, and the spectrum response has the (noise floor) rise above 30 kHz characteristic of 2.8MHz DSD converted to PCM. True, it is the first 24/88.2 recording I've seen from ECM, but that doesn't change what it is.

I don't know how much audio mastering or waveform analysis you have done, but if it hasn't been very much you should try it some more. You learn a lot about what's going on behind (particularly) the bad sound of the majority of today's masterings, and also much of what's happening with the good sounding ones.
 
Andre, get a grip. This is from HDtracks (definitely official) and as you can see it's 24/88.2, and the spectrum response has the (noise floor) rise above 30 kHz characteristic of 2.8MHz DSD converted to PCM. True, it is the first 24/88.2 recording I've seen from ECM, but that doesn't change what it is.

I don't know how much audio mastering or waveform analysis you have done, but if it hasn't been very much you should try it some more. You learn a lot about what's going on behind (particularly) the bad sound of the majority of today's masterings, and also much of what's happening with the good sounding ones.

Dude, you really are losing credibility here. There are a dozen, if not more 88.2 recordings available from ECM on HDTracks alone.

Secondly, just because a recording is done at 88.2 does NOT mean it is from SACD. Since most ECM releases are on CD, it is an even fold down to 44.1. ECM does not record in DSD as far as anyone knows.

Yes, I have done quite a bit of analysis. Here is the tricky part. A perfecting good recording can be DESTROYED in the mastering process.

Ultimately I use the best instrument and tool I know for analysis...my ears.
 
I agree, perfectly good recordings can be destroyed in the mastering process, and in fact that seems to be today's norm.

As far as ECM and 24/88.2, it would appear that only recently have some of their albums been released this way; are you sure they are not recording in DSD at this time? I just checked some of their other recent albums (Micheal Formanek, Chris Potter) in 24/88.2; they also have that suggestion of a rise in response above about 30 kHz that isn't present on their 24/96 releases from analog masters (like Jarrett's Sleeper). And even some of their recent pure digital recordings are at 24/96 (Garbarek Live in Dresden, Jarrett Testament), although it does turn out that most of my pure digital ECM hi-res is 24/88.2; I should have checked more closely. I think all the hires from analog masters is at 24/96, 24/48 and maybe a couple at 24/44.1.
 
I agree, perfectly good recordings can be destroyed in the mastering process, and in fact that seems to be today's norm.

As far as ECM and 24/88.2, it would appear that only recently have some of their albums been released this way; are you sure they are not recording in DSD at this time? I just checked some of their other recent albums (Micheal Formanek, Chris Potter) in 24/88.2; they also have that suggestion of a rise in response above about 30 kHz that isn't present on their 24/96 releases from analog masters (like Jarrett's Sleeper). And even some of their recent pure digital recordings are at 24/96 (Garbarek Live in Dresden, Jarrett Testament), although it does turn out that most of my pure digital ECM hi-res is 24/88.2; I should have checked more closely. I think all the hires from analog masters is at 24/96, 24/48 and maybe a couple at 24/44.1.

And I in turn agree that destroying recordings in the mastering stage does indeed seem to be the norm.

I have followed ECM pretty closely, and I am almost sure they don't record in DSD. I could be wrong, and if any ECM.
fans have info on that, please post.

Ultimately, I appreciate what you are trying to do. But we need to be factually correct.

Maybe Bruce B knows more.

I also do have a bunch of ECM 96/24 releases, and a few 88.2/24.
 

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