The real treasure for digital downloads of classical music is Linn Records. Linn has produced some of the world's finest electronics for music reproduction for many years. But Linn also has a small music label, and their recordings are flawless.
Last year they began to provide DRM-free music downloads - with a twist. They provide three levels of downloads: 320 kbps MP3 (their low quality), full quality CD, and studio master. (Just for reference, their low quality stuff is the same as DG's downloads and is better than Amazon's.) The studio master recordings are my interest, and I've been collecting them. A bit more about the technology later.
I swept up this recording by Sir Charles Mackarras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. I'm a very tough nut when it comes to the Mozart symphonies. I was raised listening to Mozart performed by George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra, and there are very few directors and ensembles who can compare even more than forty years after those recordings appeared. This recording, however, is in every way equals to Szell's artistically. Tempos are astringent and propulsive; phrasing is transparent and precise. The ensemble is exemplary in every way. And the overall musical effect only improves on repeated hearing.
Its sound, though, may be the finest symphonic recording I've ever heard. My highest praise to Linn's engineers.
Back to the studio masters. CDs afford a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. Linn's studio masters are a full 88.2 kHz - twice the sampling rate of any commercial CD available. The bit rate of these digital tracks is almost 2600 kbps - that's ten times the information that Amazon's tracks provide, and twenty times what tracks from the iTunes Music Store have.
There are real complexities in listening to these tracks because lots of equipment won't play them. (For example, they won't play on any iPod.) I play them on my Mac Pro through Magnaplanar speakers. They also are huge. A single recording is about the size of a DVD - roughly 2.5 gigabytes. And Linn sells them in two formats: Windows Media and FLAC. FLAC is an open-source audio codec. I buy the FLAC versions and convert them into Apple Lossless tracks using a great open-source tool called Max. Once they're converted to Apple Lossless, iTunes plays them just fine.
And they're really fine. Linn says these recordings have the same quality as their SACDs. If you're inclined to careful listening and you don't mind a bit of fussing getting things to work, do check out Linn's studio masters. And whatever you do - get this recording!
Comments