Madonna HDTracks

I took the plunge on this over the weekend. I'm still new to this process of burning hi-rez discs. The .wav files look good with plenty of range intact. The disc sounds better than the original CD thanks to the higher sampling rate. It's a little sharper and cleaner. My favorite part was the end of "Live To Tell" with the vocal layers coming through really nice.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Excellent. You convinced me to purchase and download.

 

It wasn't, read this: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep07/articles/classictracks_0907.htm

 

OK...

I read the article before, but overlooked this little part. I was not aware that in 1985 the Sony F1 was 12-bit.

Now I know.

 

Well, "Like A Virgin" and the S/T are up on HD tracks today. If you sample LA<V, thwe entire songs are up for sampling. An error?

 

Someone posted the DR of all four
http://dr.loudness-war.info/index.php?search_artist=Madonna

 

At your service. It cost me a lot of money.

 

Thank you!


So LAV is 24/96? Interesting -- I wonder how they pulled that one off given the digital constraints as mentioned earlier in this thread?

I'm glad I didn't go nuts on the remastered vinyl, then - these might end up being cheaper for once (the vinyl is import only, at last check). If LAP goes up at 24/96, I might have to push the button for that one.

 

Thanks Henry, Oh and Roebeet everytime I see your profile pic it keeps reminding me of Ministry's Twitch,lol

Awesome album covers!

 

Not for long! As soon as another album catches my ear, I change it.

 

You meant these, right ? Dynamically they look very nice. How is the sound quality?

 

Ooh cool - S/T and LAV!

 

Yes. I have been giving some of the tracks some critical listening and I have to say they sound really, really good. No complaints here.

 

I'm going to do some comparisons, but when I played LAV, I didn't notice much, if any difference between the HD Tracks version and the original CD. I would love to support all these non-rock and non-jazz recordings on HD tracks, but I just can't afford to buy them all just because they are there. I have to carefully pick and choose.

What the Madonna HD tracks have convinced me once and for all is that the remasters that came out a few years ago just don't sound very good. I will sell the ones I did buy. I'm so glad I held on to my 80s-era CDs!

I really wish the other labels would step up to the plate like Warner and Universal has with HD Tracks. This means YOU, Sony!

 

You know guys, forget what I said. I am comparing the versions I have against the HD Tracks versions, and I am convinced that the HD tracks are superior. Now all I have to do is decide between 96k and 192k.

 

The only Madonna I have on CD is Like A Prayer, which is an extremely good recording & mastering. The HDtracks albums are at least as good, I would say, although there are no common tracks to do A/B comparisons.

 

Madonna - Madonna - 02 - Borderline spectral freq.

Good analog extension.
DR13 is slightly less than original CD DR14.

 

Madonna - Like a Virgin - 02 - Like a Virgin spectral freq.

Clear evidence of digital cutoff at redbook levels
DR14 is essentially the same as the original CD DR14, but the RMS values do differ (i.e., not an exact copy).

It's disappointing that this album doesn’t include Into the Groove which has been included on the non-US versions and the remaster.

 

Madonna - True Blue - 02 - Open Your Heart spectral freq.

Good analog extension.
DR13 is slightly better than the original CD DR12.

 

Madonna - Who's That Girl (Soundtrack) - 01 - Who's That Girl spectral freq.

Good analog extension.
DR12 is slightly less than the original CD DR13.

It’s too bad you have to purchase this entire album for a few Madonna tracks.

 

I've been comparing the 192k vs. the 96k version, and it seems to me that it probably won't matter in this case.

After doing my listening tests, I have concluded that the original CD isn't the best. The HD versions sound like the remasters except that the remaster was compressed or limited for loudness. The little thing that convinced me was to listen to "Material Girl". That triangle is all I needed to compare. It's bright. clean, and clear on the HD versions.

I don't know if "Into The Groove" is on any domestic release in it's original 12" form, but I have a CD3 of it.

 

I have ITG on the B-side of "Angel" 12-inch, and Spek seems to indicate that it's analog. But the "Angel" remix A-side, as expected, has that hard cutoff at ~20khz.

I noticed this shortly after I got my GT40 ADC, and it was the first time that I realized that a single could actually have an analog source on one side and a digital source on the other.

 

Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that it’s on the Like a Virgin remaster (it’s not), but it is (original mix) on the non-North America versions of the original CD issue of Like a Virgin and it should be included with this HDTracks release of Like a Virgin - especially since there is little other reasons to purchase this release in hi-def.

 

Worth $7 a punt per album, or literally nothing in the 96k over and above 192k ?