Best way to purchase/download music?

Mofimadness - What John Siau is talking about is update rate of D/A IC. This IC (AD1853) is updated in Benchmark DAC1 from asynchronous rate converter (AD1896) at about 110kHz independently of input rate. The reason for that is not only 20dB better filtering but also lower THD of the DAC at 110kHz compare to THD at max update rate of AD1853=192kHz. Penalty for that is bandwidth of 55kHz vs possible 96kHz but there is very little harmonic info above 55kHz. It all has nothing to do with input rate. He is also talking about oversampling rates in general terms since DAC1 is not oversampling but upsampling meaning that rate is not even multiple anyway. In case of Benchmark DAC1 it is in order of million times upsample then downsample to 110kHz thanks to mathematical manipulations.

In general 192kHz carries more info than 96kHz but I doubt you can hear any improvement.

Does Downloading HD Tracks also allow for transfer to iTunes? Keeping everything in Apple Lossless would be convenient for our iPhones, sharing, etc. I would obviously keep the original downloads....just like I keep cd's.

The one thing I really like about not buying cd's is I like buying one or two songs at a time and not the whole album

Very interesting John. You may have a valid point, because I don't have the same files in a lower resolution to compare.

My 96kHz files are all Jazz, and they are open and fairly involving for digital. I expect that from these recordings. They were very well recorded. My 192kHz files are old Rock classics, and even though I heard more detail than I remember from the past, they did sound somewhat flat and uninvolving. Hmmm. However, I credited the SQ to the recording and not the file resolution.

I will have to listen and compare apples with apples.

Thanks,
Kenny

i buy used CD's for the bang for the buck, either at the local music store or online through amazon. i've just started trying some high rez music from HD Tracks with very positive initial results. i also bought jriver to replace itunes, along with the JRemote app (which is a must) for my iphone/ipod touch/ipad. pretty happy so far, and am looking forward to investing in more HD Tracks soon.