Kiss 2014 Vinyl Reissues (Pt5)

Is there a 12 step program? I think I am gonna buy more later this week too.

 

Well, gee, it only took me half an hour to decide which LP's I wanted. I went in thinking I would get only albums I didn't already have the re-issue vinyl for. Once I started browsing, it hit me that these are essentially the masters that those albums were cut from -- so I had to get more. Of what I did not already have, I got Alive II and Elder. I also picked up Dynasty, Unmasked, and Paul's solo. Those I do already have on 2014 vinyl. I just can't pass up having the masters for those. I'd like to also pick up Smashes Thrashes and Hits eventually. Maybe Killers. And I'd like to have Alive! Those can wait. Anyway, the ones I got are all downloading now...

And I still have not picked up my Japanese Creatures CD yet. Sheeesh...

 

if it's not prying too much, what's the grand total (in $) this week on Kiss hi-res downloads?

 

Probably a little over $200. I bought the Zeppelin too so you have to subtract that from the grand total. I had coupons though

 

Did someone call me?

 

About $74 for me, and I'm still going to get the Japanese Creatures CD.....probably around $20. Just call it a Benjamin.

 

Did anyone else order from prostudiomasters? I'm not sure I like their downloader. It forces you to download to your C drive, unless there's a way to change that, which I don't see. If any of you know how to change this, please chime in.

Good golly, it's only on track three of the first download. Can you guys keep an eye in this for me? I've got things to do. Thanks a bunch!


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EDIT:
Answer from ProStudioMasters Support: "The feature you are suggesting - an option to select the destination folder for downloaded files - is under development and should be available in the future."

Swell.

 

Thank you very much for all of that info. My challenge is that my sound system is in the living room, which has great acoustics (boy, do I owe my wife for that) and we share our computer in our home office, so I can't pair them together or even get a separate computer as I am pushing it with the appearance and space with the living room.

I've seen some players out there that can take USB drives. I have also heard of people burning to DVD-Audio (or CD, although CD may defeat the purpose). I could probably add another player to my system (I have a Rega Apollo, which is strictly CD). Are either of those viable options?

 

Yes the most popular option is the Oppo universal players. They sound very good and can play any disc and just about anything from a USB drive.

 

that is an impressive haul, though.

 

Yeah first time for me for Pro Studio Masters too and I am not liking the download manager either. I can't find a way to change the directory is downloads to either.

 

Yeah an impressive bill too I am psyched though. I think this is as close as you are gonna get to what the masters sound like period so I think it is worth it!

 

And here all this time I've got two Oppo players with USB ports and it never even dawned on me to try hi res audio with it.

 

Yeah, I think Mij nailed it. Oppo's are really great players and they have professional-grade optics, which means the picture you get, even from a DVD, blows away pretty much every other consumer player. It also solves your hi-res file problem. You should look into getting one. I would even recommend hunting down a used one.

 

*sigh* Still on the first album, Track 5, Under the Rose. I'm seriously wondering if this will even be finished by morning. You know what else? I don't think these come with pdf's of the artwork like HDTracks.

 

They don't but the artwork in the metadata is higher resolution than what HDtracks provides.

 

Thanks a lot, I appreciate the info! I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight knowing that being able to hear all of these albums like they should be heard may finally be within reach. I have bought and sold so many pressings of each album on CD it's ridiculous, yet never really satisfied. I hope this is what I have been waiting for.

 

That is why I am still up (1:45 in the morning here and I have to work tomorrow)

 

You on the east coast, Mij? I'm in California. I think I'm going to play back Gotham on the DVR then get to bed. These downloads are on their own, now....

 

Have you tried the 2014 vinyl reissues? Or you do you only do CDs?

 

Unfortunately, I gave up on vinyl around 1984. The occasional pops and clicks drove me mad and I went to CD. I must say though that I miss the warmth and stereo separation of vinyl.

However, it sure sounds like these high resolution Kiss downloads really may be "it". I am going by what I can tell from my computer speakers listening to samples and I don't usually listen to music on my computer. Still, compared to other things i've tried playing through it tonight, these sound really good.

Can anyone advise which audio format is best if I'm going to get a player that takes USBs for my system and if any particular site is better to purchase from?

 

LOL! On the East Coast here too, I'm going to be dragging…

 

If you have a really good pair of headphones, listen with those. You'll hear more detail. As for audio formats, I prefer FLAC. It has all the audio quality of a wav file, but the file itself is half as large. Maybe Mij can weigh in on his preference. As for a site, I would recommend HDTracks. ProStudioMasters has a better deal right now, but I don't like their downloader. Three hours later and I'm still downloading the Elder...

 

just want to chime in for sandimascharvel that when dealing with hi-res audio, very high resolution FLACS can be quite large. basically, even though FLAC is a compressed format, start loading up your hard drive with 24/96 and 24/192 FLACs and you'll see that hard disk free space diminish rapidly. for instance, I purchased the 24/192 FLACs of Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours album from ProStudioMasters a couple of weeks ago and that album, which is in mono, now occupies more than a gigabyte on my hard drive.

but yeah, would still recommend going with a compressed lossless format like FLAC and ALAC and avoiding stuff like AIFFs and WAVs unless you really don't give a damn about hard disk space

 

Yes. Absolutely correct. Anyone that plans to collect hi-res files needs to be aware of the storage space required. Although FLAC is about half the size of a wav file, you still have a very large file -- much, much larger than the average mp3. It is exactly analogous to hi res images. They require far more storage space than standard def.

Thanks for bringing this up. He needs to know this going in.