ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

Listening Feedback Room
copies of Keith O. Johnson’s masters,
with 24-bit precision and a 176.4 kHz
sampling rate. Why does he use 176.4
rather than the more common 192 kHz?
It’s because 176.4 is exactly four times the
CD’s 44.1 kHz rate. Downsampling can
therefore be done with fewer artifacts.
For those listening at full resolution, the
difference is insignificant.
This is moot for the moment, because
currently-available hardware doesn’t
support either of those sampling rates.
And when we tried to open an HRx file
with Amarra, we got this warning.
With iTunes we can downsample on
50 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
the fly to 24/96 (but not, alas, 24/88.2), cello had a wonderful resonance. The
and the result is magnificent. We are soprano seemed more distant, denoting
eager for future computers to allow us increased depth, but at the same time
to hear everything that is on those discs. the balance between cello and soprano
But that’s for the future. Pure Music, was improved, which of course had
unlike iTunes, downsamples those files musical significance. Choral voices were
to 16/44.1, the Red Book standard. Forc- easier to pick up, and the counterpoint
ing 24/96 operation THIS through MAGAZINE the com- was IS clearer INTERACTIVE!
as well. Steve noted that
puter’s Audio & Midi Utility resulted It work in the three dynamic ways. transition between soft
in playback… at double In the speed. table of contents, and click loud on sections, an article which title, is a key to the
There are workarounds, and you as we are shall whisked emotional right to tension the article. of the piece, is more
see, but for the moment In the we list decided of advertisers not fluid on with the second-last Pure Music. page,
to use the HRx files. click instead on an we ad name, used and It go wasn’t right to that the there ad itself. seemed to be
two music selections in 24/96 resolu- Then click anything on an ad, wrong with iTunes, but Pure
tion provided and to your us on browser flash memory will take by you Music right was to the getting advertiser’s more out Web of the page. piece.
Fidelio, a Montreal Remember record label. when you’d have The to second circle little high-resolution numbers selection
The first selection was the on a Schubert card you would was by then a Montreal mail in? Rom-inspired group,
Ave Maria, featuring Vincent Doesn’t Bélanger’s that seem the like Manouche a long time Swing ago?
Quintet, playing I
cello, with organ and a soprano. Both Fall in Love Too Easily.
versions were very good, but Pure Music Though it sounded, like the other
was clearly superior. The organ’s lower selections, very good with iTunes, the
notes were particularly rich, and the enhancement brought to it by Pure