40 CTI Supreme Collection Albums Available as Stereo DSD Downloads

King Records and e-Onkyo Music have partnered to release 40 albums from the CTI Supreme Collection produced by Creed Taylor as Stereo Direct Stream Digital (DSD) Downloads. It's an interesting move since these albums are not available as Super Audio CDs (SACD).

The downloads have been created from the second generation Analog Master Tapes used by King to press the original Vinyl LP and CD editions of these albums. The releases include classic albums by George Benson, Hubert Laws, Patti Austin, Jim Hall and many others.

If you have an Oppo 103/105 or a DSD Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), these are worth checking out !



White Rabbit - George Benson (e-Onkyo Stereo DSD Download, King/CTI Records KICJ 2313)
http://www.e-onkyo.com/music/album/kicj2313/
http://www.e-onkyo.com/feature/31/
http://www.e-onkyo.com/news/58/

radical

what is dsd?

elguapo511 said:

radical

what is dsd?

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DSD stands for Direct Stream Digital.

It's the digital format used on Super Audio CD (SACD) releases. In some cases, like many of the Multichannel SACDs released by Telarc, the albums are recorded in DSD and then released as SACD discs from the original DSD recordings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Stream_Digital
http://www.pstracks.com/pauls-posts/dense-you/8874/#comments

In the case of the CTI reissues, King and e-Onkyo went back to the 2nd Generation Analog Master Tapes in Japan and created this new high resolution audio series. I have some and they are very good !

It should be noted that these are also available as 192/24 wav & flac files. Certainly more compatible for most here.


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cool.
they should do that with all recordings. it would save the industry.

elguapo511 said:

cool.
they should do that with all recordings. it would save the industry.

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I'm sure it will depend on how these sell. They certainly sound very good here in Stereo DSD.

For those that have interest, it should be noted that Onkyo Music is a Japanese site and is only in Japanese which can make ordering these downloads a bit challenging. From what I understand, Google Chrome's translator helps, but there is still a bit of a guessing game involved - unless, of course, you can read Japanese.


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"Other Side of Abbey Road" - George Benson

That was a nice LP. It must be in that list.

elmer said:

For those that have interest, it should be noted that Onkyo Music is a Japanese site and is only in Japanese which can make ordering these downloads a bit challenging. From what I understand, Google Chrome's translator helps, but there is still a bit of a guessing game involved - unless, of course, you can read Japanese.


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Click to expand...

I've been to that site, didn't seem as daunting as others I've ordered from.
Yikes, looked up White Rabbit, 3800 yen == $36.
Not SHM territory but dang near

Since I was last on that site, they've expanded considerably.
Some of Google Translate is interesting to say the least.
Albums I've never heard of:
Elton John - Brick Path to the Twilight
Style Council - Cafe Brew

elmer said:

For those that have interest, it should be noted that Onkyo Music is a Japanese site and is only in Japanese which can make ordering these downloads a bit challenging. From what I understand, Google Chrome's translator helps, but there is still a bit of a guessing game involved - unless, of course, you can read Japanese.


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Yes, Google's Chrome web browser helps a lot when navigating, listening and ordering from the e-Onkyo Music site.

Some of the European music, disc and downloads sites are restricted to European customers. That is not the case with e-Onkyo.
Anyone can order from their web site.

JonUrban said:

"Other Side of Abbey Road" - George Benson

That was a nice LP. It must be in that list.

Click to expand...

According to e-Onkyo, the 40 album downloads were carefully "hand selected" from the CTI catalog. They could certainly release more if these are successful.

I have the 2 George Benson DSD downloads I found there - White Rabbit and Good King Bad. Both are good, but my favorite is the White Rabbit album.
Some excellent arrangements that compliment Benson's guitar playing. Recommended !

I you don't care about DSD, you can get most of these on HDtracks.com in FLAC, WAV or ALAC. And for a bit less money too: $17.95 vs ¥ 3,800 for the Benson White Rabbit.

sukothai said:

I you don't care about DSD, you can get most of these on HDtracks.com in FLAC, WAV or ALAC. And for a bit less money too: $17.95 vs ¥ 3,800 for the Benson White Rabbit.

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Actually the ones on HD Tracks are different. They are from the later release of the albums on Masterworks.
The ones on e-Onkyo are from the original record label, CTI and were mastered in Japan.

bmoura said:

Actually the ones on HD Tracks are different. They are from the later release of the albums on Masterworks. The ones on e-Onkyo are from the original record label, CTI.

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Is the CTI release better? Is the CTI release worth double the price? Maybe it is, but there are other releases (such as CSN and Eagles) that are released by the same label on both sites, yet the e-onkyo site has much higher prices.

I also question whether it makes sense to get these in DSF/DSD format when they were originally recorded in analog. Wouldn't it make more sense to go with PCM?

sukothai said:

Is the CTI release better? Is the CTI release worth double the price? Maybe it is, but there are other releases (such as CSN and Eagles) that are released by the same label on both sites, yet the e-onkyo site has much higher prices.

I also question whether it makes sense to get these in DSF/DSD format when they were originally recorded in analog. Wouldn't it make more sense to go with PCM?

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At eOnkyo, Analog Masters were used to create the DSD Downloads and PCM Masters were used to create the PCM Downloads. Since the engineers doing the mastering/download creation were different at both download sites, and the sources are different, I suspect all three versions of these albums (HD Tracks/PCM, eOnkyo/PCM and eOnkyo/DSD) will have some sonic differences.

But that's what makes music listening so interesting....

bmoura said:

At eOnkyo, Analog Masters were used to create the DSD Downloads and PCM Masters were used to create the PCM Downloads. Since the engineers doing the mastering/download creation were different at both download sites, and the sources are different, I suspect all three versions of these albums (HD Tracks/PCM, eOnkyo/PCM and eOnkyo/DSD) will have some sonic differences.

But that's what makes music listening so interesting....

Click to expand...

... and expensive.

bmoura said:

At eOnkyo, Analog Masters were used to create the DSD Downloads and PCM Masters were used to create the PCM Downloads.

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At some point in time, the PCM masters were created from Anolog masters, no?

I couldn't resist purchasing the HDTracks version of White Rabbit to compare with this CTI version and to my ears the HDTracks version mastered by Masterworks has less hiss during the quiet parts and sounds a little fuller. I don't think there are any general conclusions to be drawn other than that for this title, the less expensive HDTracks version is at least on par and maybe better than the CTI version.

sukothai said:

I couldn't resist purchasing the HDTracks version of White Rabbit to compare with this CTI version and to my ears the HDTracks version mastered by Masterworks has less hiss during the quiet parts and sounds a little fuller. I don't think there are any general conclusions to be drawn other than that for this title, the less expensive HDTracks version is at least on par and maybe better than the CTI version.

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Which CTI version - the PCM or the DSD?