Music downloads are going high- res

Acoustic Sounds raises the bar on quality

Golden- eared music lovers in search of the acoustic holy grail have a new online haven for high- resolution sound.

Audiophile music retailer Acoustic Sounds on Wednesday opened Super HiRez ( www. superhirez. com), a site the company says is the first to offer major label high- resolution downloads produced using Direct Stream Digital, the same technology used to make Super Audio CDs.

The Super Audio CD ( SACD) format, launched in 1999, remains popular with some uncompromising music lovers. Acoustic Sounds, which opened in 1986 in Salina, Kan., has grown from a specialty vinyl LP pressing facility to a global seller of albums, SACDs and other high- resolution audio discs.

“We sell more SACDs than anyone else in the world,” says founder Chad Kassem. “It’s closer to the sound of a vinyl analog ( album). Our customers like the warm sound … ( and) are begging for DSD ( Direct Stream Digital) downloads.”

Slightly more than a decade ago, SACD and DVD- Audio were two competing disc formats that aimed to match the richness of music on vinyl by capturing more digital data from the original master recording. The process used in making SACDs — and the new downloads now available from Acoustic Sounds — offers 64 times the resolution of audio CDs and an improvement over lower- resolution formats such as MP3.

The first DSD downloadable albums on SuperHiRez. com will include A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, August and Everything After by Counting Crows, Come Away with Me by Norah Jones, Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens and Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits. ( Prices are about $ 25 per album.)

Acoustic Sounds expects to have 30 to 40 titles in multiple formats at launch, with more to come.

The company hopes that higher- fidelity downloads can capture a portion of the growing digital music market, which accounts for more than half of music spending, estimated to surpass $ 8 billion in 2017, ac- cording to Strategy Analytics.

“To date we’ve resisted downloads because there was too much quality sacrificed,” says company COO Marc Sheforgen. “But now, finally, the technology is available where the customer can enjoy an alternative to iTunes and finally enjoy the convenience of downloads without sacrificing any of the quality. In fact, they can enjoy the highest quality.”

It’s not quite as easy to play the new high- res downloads as it is iTunes tracks. Downloads can be played on Windows and Macintosh computers using compatible playback software. Using a digital- to- analog converter, the output can be connected to a home stereo, too.

With access to the site before its official opening, I downloaded a copy of Norah Jones’ album Little Broken Hearts. Then, I unzipped the file and moved the album to a 16- gigayte USB memory stick. I plugged that into an Oppo universal disc player and was able to access the songs. Compared with the standard CD, the DSD download had richer sound — and much more warmth than the portable version on my iPod.

High- res DSD downloads are “a big breakthrough for people that are interested in still having the flexibility that downloads provide, but want to stay married to the highest- end listening experience,” Kassem says. “Their goal is to have Cat Stevens playing in their living room.”

ACOUSTIC SOUNDS COO Marc Sheforgen, left, with CEO Chad Kassem, who says, “We want to be on top of the oldest technology and the newest and have it all at the highest quality possible.”