As CD's are really on their way out, I realized that I need to find some good download sources. I'm looking for CD quality sound with some good dynamic range. So far, I have all of my music library is in itunes in the Apple Lossless encoding. Since I have a 160 gig. iPod I've had no problem having access my music collection uncompressed (from the original cd). What bitrate should I be looking for? I've looked for high quality download sites and usually they have all of this underground music that I've never even heard of. What are some good sites to get these higher quality downloads? I listed to blues, rock, classic rock and metal.

Rhapsody steams at a higher bit rate than most, and I'm pretty sure you can download some high quality songs too. I have a subscription, but never bothered to try it or figure out how.

There have been a few sites posted here in the past offering 24 bit and lower downloads, but I can't seem to find them. I do remember there wasn't much mainstream music though.

I don't know how "low" you are willing to go, but 7digital.com has a large selection of music that can be downloaded at 320 kbps.

I like HD Tracks , up to 96/24 and pretty good selection.

Dave Matthews Band sells downloadable songs and albums in flac on their website, but I don't know if other bands do the same. If you are looking for music from a high profile band, maybe check out their website as they might do the same.

CD's aren't on their way out, not for a long long time. Buy used CD's and avoid the nasty remasters. This way you save money, have a hard copy that you can rip to FLAC, and end up with the better digital master.

Do you usually buy used CDs online? … any website recommendations you care to share.
Like your avatar , is that a new crocoduck like species? :P

It's a doggull!


At this point I almost always get my used CD's online. When I used to live close to local used music shops I would always pickup whatever looked interesting. Now I usually stick to the Amazon marketplace, there's lots of early CD releases to be found dirt cheap there.

Otherwise I check other forums for used CD postings, and sometimes good deals on some DCC/MFSL discs can be found.

It does seem to be the trend that by remaster they mean compressing the hell out of it. It's funny since when DVD or Blu-ray movies have advertised that it is a new remaster, the quality is usually an improvement over the original.

All remasters are not bad, as I have some bad originals, Styx cds IIRC, with songs that were oddly recorded much lower than the rest and the remaster version corrected it, then again it could have been just my cd from a bad batch.

http://www.linnrecords.com/

Their catalog is limited; basically just classical, jazz, and some 'world' music. But they care deeply about sound quality and offer many of their albums in super-high quality "Studio Master" 24-bit, 96khz+ (up to 192khz) FLAC or WMA files. That's better than what you get from a CD. It's basically SACD quality.

Be warned though, the "Studio Master" FLAC albums are enormous, > 1GB per album. And a little pricey, ~$24. But if you want to test the upper limit of what's available via downloaded music, that'd be the way to go.

I just heard on the latest AVRant podcast (titled "Salk and Boston Acoustics...") that iTunes has 256kbps with almost all of their catalog. But since they use AAC compression it is really equivalent to a 312 kbps mp3. I tried google searching to find out iTunes download compressions and such a couple weeks ago and came up empty handed, so I'm glad that I stumbled upon this. Since amazon has 256kbps mp3's it sounds like iTunes offers better quality.

Hmmm, last I knew iTunes downloads were 128kbps and a quick look into a couple of older 2007 articles, they state EMI products are now 256kbps but the others are 128kbps; so unless they have upgraded the other producers to 256, iTunes is a mix.

They have upgraded across the board and also don't have DRM any more.

Good to know, Thanks I feel a little better about downloading songs now but I still like having the cd better

The Pirate Bay and look for 320, matey.

I would just like to add that if you put in the search engine flac; you will see everything available in flac codecs.
I have the c200 Popcorn hour media player, (300.00) and
have used the Western Digital Media Player (120.00) They are both great for playing all known codecs. Both can be connected through HDMI, optical or RCA.
Don't mean to derail the topic but I beleive this a great way to get music for nothing, and being flac codecs the clarity is amazing!