soundproof wrote:

Puncher wrote:

I don't suppose iTunes is about to start selling lossless music???🤔

 

It is, according to some pretty convincing chatter.

 

Keeping fingers crossed!!! Hoping for a one sum uppgrade to lossless quality for existing purchases!

mbee wrote:

For all those who are in search of a VERY RELIABLE lossless/HD download website, I can only recommend the french link : ALL albums are available in lossless, you can choose your prefered filetype (FLAC, WAV, WMA, ALAC, AIFF), and re-download what you've bought infinitely, in any quality you want (lossy/lossless), or even UPGRADE to HD when available, only for the price of the difference.

That's the perfect site for BS5 owners, and it will become available in english soon (but you can already find what you want and understand how to buy, even in French).You have to install a downloader for the files you buy, and you can even set it up so that all files will be directly downloaded on your BS5 library!

Qobuz does not "upconvert" any file or rip SACD, they are not cheating on quality, they are sourcing HD files directly from the majors.

Thanks. Qobuz works perfectly.

mbee wrote:

For all those who are in search of a VERY RELIABLE lossless/HD download website, I can only recommend the french link : ALL albums are available in lossless, you can choose your prefered filetype (FLAC, WAV, WMA, ALAC, AIFF), and re-download what you've bought infinitely, in any quality you want (lossy/lossless), or even UPGRADE to HD when available, only for the price of the difference.

That's the perfect site for BS5 owners, and it will become available in english soon (but you can already find what you want and understand how to buy, even in French).You have to install a downloader for the files you buy, and you can even set it up so that all files will be directly downloaded on your BS5 library!

Qobuz does not "upconvert" any file or rip SACD, they are not cheating on quality, they are sourcing HD files directly from the majors.

Hi guys,

More than lossless, Qobuz make it possible to buy albums in a Studio Masters quality too.

Thanks again Marc for making me discover this website, now I don't buy music from iTunes anymore 😁

Cheers,

EdouardG wrote:

Hi guys,

More than lossless, Qobuz make it possible to buy albums in a Studio Masters quality too.

Thanks again Marc for making me discover this website, now I don't buy music from iTunes anymore 😁

Cheers,

 

I never understood the iTunes hype, anyway. For some Euro's/Dollars more one could/can buy the CD. And then one can rip it in any format you prefer! 

The price - quality ratio of iTunes files is to low if one compares it with a CD. 

Carolpa wrote:

EdouardG wrote:

Hi guys,

More than lossless, Qobuz make it possible to buy albums in a Studio Masters quality too.

Thanks again Marc for making me discover this website, now I don't buy music from iTunes anymore 😁

Cheers,

 

I never understood the iTunes hype, anyway. For some Euro's/Dollars more one could/can buy the CD. And then one can rip it in any format you prefer! 

The price - quality ratio of iTunes files is to low if one compares it with a CD. 

I agree with you about iTunes and the quality of their records available in the store.

But about Qobuz, you won't (easily) find any Studio Masters cd's on the market...that's why Qobuz is a Great alternative.

Cheers

We have to assume that the period of compressed music will be a blip on the radar as digital music advances. It was, so far as I understand it, a matter of scarcity of storage. Now that storage is cheap, files can grow. Now that the cloud is here, memory will become effectively unlimited. 

EdouardG wrote:

you won't (easily) find any Studio Masters cd's on the market...that's why Qobuz is a Great alternative.

 

for sure this will be the future.

But for now an alternative is ripping DVD (Video / Audio), ripping Blurays and even ripping the DSD layer of a SACD. I already have a collection of about 1200 tracks in 24bit (up to 192kHz) resolution. 

bayerische wrote:

soundproof wrote:

Puncher wrote:

I don't suppose iTunes is about to start selling lossless music???🤔

 

It is, according to some pretty convincing chatter.

 

Keeping fingers crossed!!! Hoping for a one sum uppgrade to lossless quality for existing purchases!

Here's an article about the majors planning to abandon the CD-format next year. They'll sell through downloads and streams - which then sets a clear context to what happened to ALAC. Which is as much as I should say on the topic. :-)

Carolpa wrote:

EdouardG wrote:

Hi guys,

More than lossless, Qobuz make it possible to buy albums in a Studio Masters quality too.

Thanks again Marc for making me discover this website, now I don't buy music from iTunes anymore 😁

Cheers,

 

I never understood the iTunes hype, anyway. For some Euro's/Dollars more one could/can buy the CD. And then one can rip it in any format you prefer! 

The price - quality ratio of iTunes files is to low if one compares it with a CD. 

Not defending iTunes, as IMHO they should have given the lossless option 2-3 years ago.

However, iTunes or online music stores are great by offering the possibility to buy one song, not the whole record. They offer previews or should I say "prelistening" before you buy, great for finding new music. Everything in the store ~20 million songs are always available and never "out of stock". No brick and mortar music store could ever come close to 20 million songs in store, it would take over 1 million cd's to do that.

IMHO the quality of the current iTunes file is very good, not perfect but very good.