Linn Forums

Hi all
I just purchased Mozart Requiem:
http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-moz...-sacd.aspx
as Studio Master Flacs,
and to my disappointment, it sounds very weak, (low volume), compressed, dull and full of hiss...
I am hoping I'm doing something wrong, as this is supposed to be a reference quality label...
I've tried it with Winamp, Flac plugin installed on my XP, and through my
squeezebox 3 to my hifi system.
Both sound bad.
I checked the 24bit Flac test file provided here by Linn, first, which played flawlessly,
http://www.linnrecords.com/linn-download...files.aspx
and is of incredible quality.

Any insights on this issue?

thanks
Itai

Try it on a Linn Sneaky DS...or any of the better DS's, and report back.

Wow, you can play SMs on your XP box. I can't.

Please tell me more about where to get that FLAC plug in.

I'd contact Linnrecords.

'troll

I've arranged a Majic DS audition at my house, hope it'll solve the mystery.

Warren
It plays back on regular Winamp, after you install Flac on your XP.
http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

Studio Master is at 96kHz/24bit

Dependant on your sound card in the PC, this will be resampled. Unless you have a professional grade sound card (and the necessary drivers and software for Winamp to handle this at full resolution) this will have most likely been resampled to 48/16 which will damage the sound quality.

Similarily SB3 downsamples 48/24 by rather crudely dropping every second sample, so this will again damage the sound quality.

To judge a studio master you need a decoder which supports 96/24, which is any Linn DS unit, and a fair number of professional grade sound cards (M-Audio Delta is an example). The check you are currently making is flawed as audio is being altered (unless you are using a good sound card)

rockfather
Thanks for the explanation.
Why is it that the test file sounded amazingly good on my systems?

Good question .....don't know !!!

Ok, I've checked the Linn test file again, and it is 88.2Hz/24bit.
Is that the reason it plays on my systems?
I geuss...

I have the same record (Mozart Requiem) and I agree, his quality dont match the usual high level of hi-res Linn records!

PS Flac files listened with Akurate DS.