Where to get 24 bit music/ sound files

[Bluecube]

I've had a Squeezebox Duet for a while now and just found out that it can play 24 bit music files. Does anyone know where I could find such files as I'd really like to see what difference there is over 16 bit files.

TIA

[IronWarrior]

Hmm, look for .flac audio.

[g8ina]

DTS audio ?? Plenty of that floating around.

[Terbinator]

DTS audio ?? Plenty of that floating around.

The issue there is that they would most likely to be film soundtracks and live performances rather than straight up songs, which i think he's after.

Hmm, look for .flac audio.

Flac rips still tend to be 16bit, unless there's some way of ripping them to a 24bit format - although if you're after getting as close to the original in the first place I'm not sure why you would do that.

[g8ina]

You could grab a turntable and rip some vinyl yourself

[jim]

I've only ever seen it in relation to vinyl. If I knew anything about audio I'd have a stab at why I think that's the case, but I'd more than likely be wrong.

[Bluecube]

Thanks all. Yes, the only 24 bit tunes I've seen have been taken from vinyl which I think misses the point of having 24 bit files (IMHO). I know that Nine Inch Nails released some stuff a year or two back in 24 bit format but it's not exactly tuneful... I'll keep looking!

[Unique]

https://www.hdtracks.com/

legal too

[Bluecube]

Most of the stuff I've tried to buy there isn't available for download in the UK - a ridiculous situation!

[krazy_olie]

If you have an hdcd (tool - lateralus is a common one) you can use hdcd.exe to decode it in to a 20 bit wav file. you can also do it in foobar if you don't fancy the command line.
It's a bit of a hack though.

[shaithis]

Unfortunately most of it is on SACD.....which can only be played in a SACD player or ripped using a very specific combo of PS3 hardware, firmware and 3rd party software.

Floyds Dark side of the Moon on SACD is amazing though!

[krazy_olie]

SACD is high res, but it does't use 24 bit bit audio, it uses 1 bit DSD which is different from conventional PCM.
DVD-audio is usually 24/96 so maybe buy one of those?

[Lowe]

There's no noticeable difference from a consumer playback point of view for 16bit or 24bit audio. it will have been mastered and dynamically compressed to a certain extent meaning that the majority of the audio will be in the 'loud' part of the dynamic range anyway.

24-bit audio comes into its own when you're recording. It means you don't have to run the meters so hot to get a good signal to noise ratio, and you're not running the risk of hitting the 0dBFS limit. Happy days

[Bluecube]

I thought the whole point of 24bit audio was that it was identical, or least much closer to, the original studio recordings without any compression or reduction of dynamic range that occurs when reduced to 16bit.

[scaryjim]

Most of the article I've read discussing the issue suggest that you'd need exceptional hearing to pick up any differences outside the dynamic range that 16bit can produce anyway - i.e. 16 bit encoding is already sufficiently close to the sensitivity of human hearing that any gains from moving to 24 bit are minimal at best, and completely indistinguishable for the vast majority.

[Lowe]

As said, 16bit is already sufficient. Pop and modern music simply doesn't use the available range.