Smithsonian Folkways FLAC Downloads


Has anyone tried these? Smithsonian has a giant collection of American folk music. I'd like to sample some, but it would be good to hear about the experience from someone who has downloaded FLAC files from the website. How's the sound quality? Which ones did you get? Any problems with the download manager?
Thanks!
Danny
rosedanny
OK then. I'll answer my own questions. I downloaded an album by Nani Wolfgramm and The Islanders called "20 Golden Hits of Hawaii" (steel guitar instrumentals) in FLAC form. The sound quality is good, a lossless file of a compilation CD, the older recordings sound older with tape hiss and such, and the newer ones are less noisy. But all in all it's a satisfying sound through my Squeezebox Touch/W4S DAC-1 digital front end. The process was painless, the file dropped right into my "music" folder with tags and artwork. I'll be downloading more of these. Most of them are only $9.99. I'm on a folk music spree lately, and they've got a pretty deep catalogue. If anybody looks the website over and has recommendations, I'd love to hear them.
Danny
Downloaded a Phil Ochs album "Broadsides 1," and a Barabara Dane album "I Hate The Capitalist System". 10 bucks each, FLAC lossless, decent, but not great sound. OK, I'll stop yapping.
Thanks for this thread Rosedanny. I wasn't aware that there were Folkways albums available on FLAC. Very cool.

I'd love to know any stellar sounding ones you may come across.