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Tea For the Tillerman by Cat Stevens-which sounds best?

One of my "all time" favorite albums is Cat Stevens Tea For the Tillerman. I have it in the following formats:
1. A& M Record
2. Island British Pressing
3. 180 gram vinyl
4. Regular CD

Note: You might think I have enough, but have the audiophile bug to find something that sounds better,
for example, with more information on the source.
I saw HD Tracks sells a hi def streaming version of Teal Fro the Tillerman for 
 $25.00 in Flac format at 192HZ and 24Bit.  This has more information than a standard CD.
I ask you, should I save my money or is HD Tracks version better than what I currently own?
In short, going forward is a streamed version giving us 192HZ and 24 bit going to enable a listener to hear more
of the song or album than a regular CD?
Thanks. 


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Showing 1 response by craigl59

craigl59
307 posts
 

You need to find out if the HD version is native or not. Given the age of the album, I assume it was recorded on tape. Normally, high-res digital transfers are remasters done off of the original source. If that is the case, than a 192/24 transfer will sound markedly better than a redbook CD -- assuming that the playback equipment can show the improvement (it must be very good).

Have purchased a number of high def items from HDTracks and, mostly, been disappointed. Find that if you resample a CD in a media engine such as JRiver to 192/24 with their utility SoX the improvement in downsample play is surprisingly good. The improvement is largely in noise reduction and bit rate. Try this before you dismiss it as illogical.

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