Fabiolous 5,491 Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 Hello everyone, I was wondering whether the highest sound quality possible for Madonna albums are CD rips or whether they are the same quality as Spotify? Otherwise does anyone know what the best sound quality would be? I think the file extension should be wav? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Peanutbutter Horseman 3,652 Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 Here's the scale from best to worst... "Studio" Quality: 24bit 192khz/96khz. Can be multiple formats (including WAV, FLAC, M4A) when bought from online stores like hdtracks.com, qobuz.com etc. A lower setting still better than CD is 24bit 48khz. Only a few old Madonna albums are available in this quality, along with newer live releases (both digital and bluray rips). "CD" Quality: 16bit 44khz. Can be multiple formats (including WAV, FLAC, M4A) when bought from online stores like qobuz.com or 7digital.com etc. or ripped from CD. Tidal also has lossless streaming, in the most expensive version. Lossy (compressed): 320kbps or lower... Spotify has 320kbps ogg vorbis encoding, similar to 320 MP3. You want the first option if you have a high quality audio system. You want the second version if you listen to music on your phone but have great headphones and lots of storage space. You can settle for the third version if you listen to music on your phone with earbuds. FLAC and lossless M4A are basically like a RAR archive of a WAV, removing the stuff that's inaudible (while still delivering lossless quality). There's no reason to keep stuff in WAV, it's just taking up extra space. PS. It's also important to note that you can re-encode from any lossless format to any other lossless format using software like dbpoweramp without losing any quality. But when you convert something to MP3, you've compressed it and lost quality. Enrico, EffKayy and A. A. Aardvark 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabiolous 5,491 Posted September 18, 2018 Author Share Posted September 18, 2018 @The Same Partsthank you!!! That's so informative!! So Rebel heart will be higher sound quality if bought online compared to a CD rip? What albums are available in studio quality? Mr. Peanutbutter Horseman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Peanutbutter Horseman 3,652 Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 Technically it's the same, but I'll always prefer a digital download to a CD rip, because a CD rip has a laser reading some metal in some plastic, so why not skip that step and get the exact file that was put on the CD in the first place? These 4 albums http://www.hdtracks.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?Label=Label%3ASire-Warner-Bros&ea_a=Label%3ASire-Warner-Bros&ea_bc=&ea_c=&ea_path=-madonna&q=madonna And for live stuff: Rebel Heart Tour, MDNA Tour, Sticky & Sweet Tour and The Confessions Tour are or have been available as 24bit downloads at some point. Dunno about other stuff. Again, you should do some research into the stuff you use to play music (for example, some PC soundcards only allow you to play 16/44, so even if you buy these HQ files, you might not be able to get the full experience) before buying anything above 16/44. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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