Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

HD music is different than normal music which you listen to daily, HD music is encoded in the highest quality and produced the way the artists wanted it to be heard.  The people who founded Chesky Records recently developed an online store that sells high-resolution music, HDtracks.  Every song comes with the complete album artwork and PDF liner notes.

The music they offer are available in FLAC format and 96kHz/24 bit rate, which is a lot higher than music on a CD (44kHz/16 bit rate).  HDtracks’ content comes from audiophile labels such as Chesky, 2L, and Reference Recordings.  HDtracks claims that they will be adding new artists and their music in the 96/24 format every day. 

Unfortunately, the music they sell won’t be cheap, an album is set to cost $15.98 and a single song will cost $2.49.  I haven’t heard any music in HD yet, so I can’t say whether it is worth the money or not.  However, based on what I read, it does sound pretty good.

Also, founder of HDtracks, David Chesky, had this to say about his site overall:

“When I first downloaded one of my own 96/24 albums and played it back on my home system, I was not prepared for what I heard. I have never heard any disc with this caliber of clarity, sound staging, and openness in the top end. The sound had none of the digital artifacts we all hate, so the sound was totally relaxed. These one-to-one HDtracks files sounded exactly like the master recordings I was accustomed to hearing in the studio. Then I downloaded a Reference Recordings album and could not believe what I was hearing. After all these years, to hear a Keith Johnson and Tam Henderson recording in 96/24 – it blew me away. Hi-res files on hard drives are a major step forward in sound.

Then again, he is the founder, what else do you expect him to say?

Read [HDtrack]