Where to buy downloadable bit perfect software ?

[mikelm]

Is there any way to download bit perfect music ?

I like the itunes convenience of getting just the tracks that one likes and leaving the rest

But I suspect that if I download a track from itunes and then convert to 44100 / 16 bit WAV that I am not going to get bit for bit perfect version as compared to buying the CD.

Does anyone know about this stuff ?

I am now fairly committed to PC / vista / XX High End - which is the best source I have heard - so I would like a way of downloading software straight into my notebook

all suggestions welcome

mike

 

[spzzzzkt]

If you mean 16bit/44.1khz and 24bit/96khz, uncompressed formats you could try these for starters:

http://www.hdtracks.com

http://www.linnrecords.com/

http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=3550

 

[mikelm]

Thanks for these links - I particularly like the HD tracks site because it has such big selection

But I am also interested in mainstream commercial music as well as specialized labels etc.

For these regular mainstream commercial releases is there any way of downloading bit perfect copies of do we still have to buy the the CD's ?

Or is itunes the only option ?

cheers

mike

 

[dangus]

If you already own the music on some other medium, you may have a right to download digital versions without paying again. Lossless files (flac, ape) can increasingly be found on "illegal" p2p networks, so I've heard. If that's not an option, complain to the legit online music sources that you want faithful lossless files in flac or ape.

 

[mikelm]

The file sharing route does not really appeal and I do not really want to start lobbying about this.

I think my next step will be to do some A / B comparisons of CD's loaded using EAC as WAV & FLAC and the same tracks using the different possible formats from itunes.

I suspect that with rock music the differences will not be significant but classical or female vocal etc will probably be more revealing.

If anyone else has done these comparisons I would be interested to hear your impressions.

mike

 

[spzzzzkt]

there is an interesting comparison of formats here:
http://www.stereophile.com/features/308mp3cd/

loss-less distribution is of far more benefit to labels that don't have the kind of access to physical distribution that major labels command.