HD Audio - better sound all round?

Not strictly an Mp3 topic but we have had some good debates on here - so I'm asking: I have been experimenting with playing music through an AV receiver both CD's & streaming internet radio, applying different speaker/audio settings. So far nothing is as pleasing as my Hi-Fi rig BUT I have now seen that there are Blu-ray audio only discs available and the claims are staggering.
Amazon.com Review:
This disc contains all 15 tracks from Tom Petty's 'Mojo' in high-resolution 48K 24 bit PCM stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound.
The 48K 24 bit audio on this disc has 256 times more resolution than a CD, providing greater detail and reproducing the music's full dynamic range, from the softest to the loudest sounds. To achieve full dynamic range it's necessary to master with less overall level, so this disc might not sound as 'loud' as a standard CD or film soundtrack.
To compensate for this, turn up the volume!

So that's great news, no more overblown 'digital overproduction' loudness and presumably a warm vinyl sound to boot. I'm guessing it won't take off in any great numbers because of the publics lack of interest in quality BUT it may be the future for CD's and 'analogue' reproduction.

So before I jump in, has anyone here listened to Blu-ray music through HDMI and AV receiver/decoder?
If so, were you blown away?

You'll get a better response here than on the Rock forum...M.C....

I am looking forward to better than cd downloads now quoted at 24 bit 384 khz from HD tracks. Trouble is to make use of these superior quality files one needs to have a pc soundcard that can handle 24 bit and up to 384 khz (most are 192 khz or 96) also if streaming to an amp - a dac which can do similar. The alternative is to burn the file to a dvd disc (because of the extra info which is too large to fit onto a cdr) You then have to play it back on a dvd player which may downgrade the sound back to 44.1 khz depending on its chipset etc. Ultimately i would prefer to go down the NAS/pc hard drive storage via better soundcard/DAC hdmi. A streamer might be more useful with inbuilt dac so as to easily interface with the audio files. Bit of an expensive option at the moment - but the prices are dropping.

Are the blue ray audio discs the same as blue ray spec discs? I was under the impression that blu ray spec doesn't actually contain more info but are pressed far more accurately so the laser doesn't have to rely as much on error correction and anti jitter which can effect sound quality overtly. The finer indentations would allow higher capacity on a disc. Do the BD audio discs play back on BD players - if so does that mean via tru HD quality sound or similar?Blue spec play back on normal cd players so its just about better tracking that's all. This would be a most subtle effect at best.

Blu-ray uses a different laser to dvd and cd.it is finer and can pack more data into a disc and hold high-res video and sound..A dedicated cd player will not be able to play back blu-ray disks..A universal player will..Although unless you own very high end quality seperates all this extra sampling rates and frequency extension will be a waste of time..And i'm talking tens of thousands of pounds here..Sorry to burst the bubble but anything above 24 bit 96khz is a waste of time for 99% of us..

The most affordable streamer for music is the cambridge audio NP 30 which i think can do 24 bit 192 khz. Its around the £400 mark and is very adaptable. just about everyone is bringing out streamers of varying quality all vary from a few hundred to Naims at around £3,500. Musical Fidelity do a neat little box which is fast at around £1300 which has just won an EISA award. The Naim is way above most people's budget especially with a recession on. So basically you will need

a) A NAS drive with a couple of large hard drives - which you can use as a personal server for your home so you don't have to leave a pc on 24/7. They are more energy efficient too.
b) 24 bit PC soundcard preferably 192 khz.
c) A decent streamer with a good DAC ie the Cambridge one (An iphone, ipad or other smartphone can then be used as an interface.
d) if you use a cheap streamer a seperate DAC might be a good bet such as the DAC Magic plus.
You may be able to get a very good sound for about £600. which should match a mid price hi fi seperate.

Your average BD player. playing back music is not going to do it better than a proper seperate cd player of decent quality. A universal player made by a proper hi fi manafacturer should fit that bill if you go down that route. But you'll be looking at around half a grand to get anything remotely good quality wise.

There is an easier way thems zargb5...Buy a blu-ray player with thems Usb inputs and connect it to thems amp with a s/pdif co-axial or optical cable thus using your blu ray player as thems transport only.Put youses music on usb flash drives or hdd.and plug them straight into the usb input on youses blu-ray player..Streamers totally unnecessaries.

You could always buy a Dune HD player and connect it direct to your AV. I have the Dune HD Smart D1 (+ the HE Add-On module for an extra hard disk) which can play HD audio upto 192Khz/24-bit. FLAC, MKV, WAV, PCM, DTSHD, TRUEHD etc

It's bloody brilliant. I've watched/listened to a few music blu-rays now that have 192Khz/24-bit audio and they sounded brilliant.

That's thems another great way of doing its..

I have almost completely stopped buying CDs mastered after 1995 because of the ridiculous amount amount of dynamic range compression the record companies are applying to almost all new pop/rock releases. A few years ago I really thought I was beginning to going deaf because I wasn't getting much pleasure out of listening to the new CDs I was buying. Then I put a 20-year-old disc on and my hearing returned! Some of the post-2000 CDs are so bad that they have serious clipping (sounds like crackling on the loud bits - once you've noticed it, it will drive you mad). Even discs which don't clip are mastered way too loud and have lost all their "punch". Very few modern pop/rock discs are even using anything close to the full 16-bit/44.1kHz audio quality of CD, never mind pushing it to the limit. If HD audio recordings were just 24-bit, high sample rate versions of recent CDs there would be absolutely no point at all in buying them.

Several years ago I thought about buying most of my new albums in DVD-A format as I'd heard that the DVD releases weren't mastered as loud as the CD releases. The reason I didn't switch to buying DVD-A was that, at that time, there wasn't any easy way to rip the music for streaming from my music server to my hi-fi (the DVD-A encryption is different to video discs). Now I have software that will rip the audio from DVD-A discs but I don't have a player in my lounge which will play them any more. When I was recently shopping for a Blu-Ray player I found that almost all of the mainstream manufacturers have removed support for DVD-A discs from their current products (although I could still rip them on my PC). It also appears that few, if any, DVD-A discs are being produced now. DVD-A is dead.

Blu-Ray audio (BD-A) is almost certainly going to be another turkey. The record companies will make sure that the copy protection is more severe than DVD-A's was and it won't be easy to rip the high quality audio. I bet that not many BD-A discs will be produced, not many players will play them, and there will be almost zero consumer demand for them. When the format goes obsolete you may be left with an unplayable music collection. Streaming from a music server is the future, anyway. The files are easily portable to other devices and there's no need for a motor whirring away in the room while you're listening to music.

I have bought albums in hi-res audio format (24-bit FLAC, 96kHz) from HD Tracks in the USA. The dynamic range on most of them is superior to CD. However, I was surprised to find that some of the 24-bit files had slightly less dynamic range than CDs from the 1980s (but still good, and still way better than most modern CDs). The real shock, though, came when I bought most of Fleetwood Mac's "poppy" albums (1975's "Fleetwood Mac" to 1987's "Tango the Night", plus 2003's "Say You Will") in 24-bit/96kHz format. The audio on the albums which were originally released in the 1970s and 1980s had excellent dynamic range (more than the old CDs I'd ripped, which themselves were actually quite good) and they sounded great. But "Say You Will" was mastered stupidly loud and sounded absolutely terrible: the audio had been butchered in the same way that it is on most new CDs! So paying for 24-bit hi-res doesn't necessarily guarantee you're actually going to get a hi-fi recording. Try to find some reviews before buying, if you can (and that's not easy).

Interestingly, HD Tracks offer some of Paul McCartney's albums both with and without dynamic range compression. I wonder if anyone actually chooses the compressed version...?

Unfortunately, the men in suits have now demanded that HD Tracks stop selling to customers in the UK (there is a way around that but I'm not going to reveal it here in case they plug that hole), and there aren't many other people doing 24-bit downloads yet.

Can I hear a difference between 24-bit/96kHz and 16-bit/44.1kHz recordings? No, I can't. I've converted hi-res audio files to CD quality and compared them and I really can't hear any difference, even though I have a good audio streamer (Slim Devices/Logitech Transporter) and a good hi-fi. My main reason for buying the 24-bit versions of albums, where I can, is that they usually haven't had the volume turned up to 11 during the mastering process like most current CDs have, and that is the real difference between CD and HD audio. But even this advantage could disappear when HD audio becomes mainstream and no longer a premium product and the quality drops to rock bottom (like it did with vinyl and then CD).

Not having a 5.1 sound system yet (just stereo) I can't comment on the wonderfulness of HD surround sound.

I still recommend buying 24-bit recordings even if you haven't got a hi-fi system which will handle them yet. It's easy to convert the hi-res recordings to 16-bit and lower sample rates for use now, and when you upgrade your equipment in the future your music collection will be ready. On most releases you should also get the benefit of less dynamic range compression compared to the CD version.

MP3 has been around since the mid-1990s. Computer storage capacity and Internet bandwidth have improved by several orders of magnitude since then, so why do Amazon still only offer music in MP3 format with no option for lossless (never mind hi-res)? I reckon a lot of the people reading this thread will never buy MP3 music. Come on, Amazon (if you're reading this), get some 24-bit FLAC files into your download store!