tanman_sg Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 Couple of months ago I discovered B&W's new initiative to get people listening to good music. All curated by Peter Gabriel. At the time members who paid the USD$60 (actually paying GBP33.95 is cheaper for us by about $NZD25), would be able to download a new album each month, but not the last month's album. They've changed this and you can now access the back catalogue as a subscriber (though not all, just some). I think this is a much better idea. The music I have been able to access as a trial member is pretty good. I'm thinking about paying to get the rest. Formats: 16-bit ALAC, 16-bit FLAC and, for full members 24-bit FLAC. Nice to have apple lossless in there, I like to drag stuff straight into iTunes for burning or podding. I don't know what the differences between those FLACs are. I think this is something worth recommending. So cheap too! http://www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/display.aspx?infid=777 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanman_sg Posted May 2, 2009 Author Share Posted May 2, 2009 I've just bought the sub from the UK site. About NZD$88. Even if I don't access the past albums and just download the new ones each month they're still $7.33 each! So I could be paying about $4.88 for each album through the subscription. What an incentive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopper1553552708 Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 I like the look of it and want to try, but rego for the free trial hasn't sent an email through. How long did it take for your rego? TIA (Besides that Xnet are getting on my nerves) - oh and as I type there it is in my inbox! Oooh I can't wait! My password reminder came through before my rego! Just call me impatient:p And by the way how were your download speeds, I have 25-30 KB/Sec (or less!) Thanks Andy:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanman_sg Posted May 2, 2009 Author Share Posted May 2, 2009 Was instantaneous (I think, I started the trial a while ago while bored at college). :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopper1553552708 Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 Sorry, many edits! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanman_sg Posted May 2, 2009 Author Share Posted May 2, 2009 My experience was 180~250KB/s Madam's album Gone Before Morning is in, sounds good. Sort of music I enjoy listening to. Next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaka Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 I've just brought some material down (Little Ax) but the 24 bit format is sampled at 48. Perhaps I should have guessed given that they only mentioned 24 bit and never 24/96. The member do like the 24 bit offering though http://blog.bowers-wilkins.com/musicclub/?p=126#comments Still Linn can manage it, so perhaps B&W will too one day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaka Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 tanman_sg;90578 wrote: My experience was 180~250KB/sNext! I've got Tom Kerstens coming down at 480kb/s (thats a single stream, I haven't bothered with any parallel downloading tech), so thats very acceptable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaka Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 Little Axe "Brought for a dollar, sold for a dime", 24 bit 48k sampling I've listened to a lot of blues material, but never any recorded in 24 bit format, so I was interested to see how this would play Track 1 "Take a Stroll" everthing is very, very clear (clinical/antiseptic really), the individual instruments sound good but the mixture sounds like someone has multitracked a clump of tracks together. The way things move around all over one another in the soundstage, sounds artificial on phones Track 3 "Hammerhead" The backing vocals don't melt into the other tracks, sounds like the multi-tracking thing again. I don't feel like I'm listening to a perfromance, but rather a studio concoction. Its not an organic whole. All the same I think this one could be good on speakers Track 5 "Come back Home" Great bass, harmonica, but once it gets going it still sounds like a clump of tracks wandering over and under each other. Its not ideal phones material, they are just too revealing of what the engineer has done Track 6 "Temptation" Very nice indeed, the backing keeps coming from the same place instead of crisscrosing the soundstage Track 7 "Can't Sleep at Night" This one all holds together too, very nice again Track 8 "2 late" The material is not my thing, harmonica is nice Track 9 "Another Friend" The material is not my thing, its a semi-funk version of a hymm The obvious thing to do was to try the conventional 44.1 16 bit files - and they sound quite different Track 1 Instantly the sound is just what you would expect, fine indeed. The backing was dropped away from the main threads and the criss-cross issues have gone away. What sounded clinical is now integrated and organic I wonder where the issue lies - the 24 bit mastering/remastering, Slimserver, Altmann dac (its switchable to 44.1, 48 and multiples) or the squeezebox feed to the dac. Hmm There was a note in the download that said tracks 4,6,7 and 9 had been software upsampled, so its the ones presumably resampled from the masters that I didn't like. B&W originally released this in 16 bit format, so the 24 bit verison may have been an after thought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanman_sg Posted May 3, 2009 Author Share Posted May 3, 2009 I've been listening to Mondo Caine/Grindhouse this morning and it's quite good. I'm not quite qualified to comment about the sound quality, just listening to my iPod at the moment with some cheap earphones, but I have been a little surprised how loud everything seems when they've been talking about how bad compression is on the Society of Sound blogs. All of the music seems to be at the same sort of volume without any sort of quiet or loud bits, but I guess that's relatively suited to this genre of music. Unfortunately in the back catlogue collection there are tracks missing from some albums, I understand there were licensing issues surrounding this but still, I feel a wee bit short changed in that area. I look forward to the next 12 albums though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaka Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Well, well these comments are all rescinded. I have just replaced the Squeezebox 3 with an Offramp and now the 24/48 files play just fine, with some dynamics and resolution over and above 16/44.1. Something was not kosher in SB land. kaka;90665 wrote: Little Axe "Brought for a dollar, sold for a dime", 24 bit 48k sampling I've listened to a lot of blues material, but never any recorded in 24 bit format, so I was interested to see how this would play Track 1 "Take a Stroll" everthing is very, very clear (clinical/antiseptic really), the individual instruments sound good but the mixture sounds like someone has multitracked a clump of tracks together. The way things move around all over one another in the soundstage, sounds artificial on phones Track 3 "Hammerhead" The backing vocals don't melt into the other tracks, sounds like the multi-tracking thing again. I don't feel like I'm listening to a perfromance, but rather a studio concoction. Its not an organic whole. All the same I think this one could be good on speakers Track 5 "Come back Home" Great bass, harmonica, but once it gets going it still sounds like a clump of tracks wandering over and under each other. Its not ideal phones material, they are just too revealing of what the engineer has done Track 6 "Temptation" Very nice indeed, the backing keeps coming from the same place instead of crisscrosing the soundstage Track 7 "Can't Sleep at Night" This one all holds together too, very nice again Track 8 "2 late" The material is not my thing, harmonica is nice Track 9 "Another Friend" The material is not my thing, its a semi-funk version of a hymm The obvious thing to do was to try the conventional 44.1 16 bit files - and they sound quite different Track 1 Instantly the sound is just what you would expect, fine indeed. The backing was dropped away from the main threads and the criss-cross issues have gone away. What sounded clinical is now integrated and organic I wonder where the issue lies - the 24 bit mastering/remastering, Slimserver, Altmann dac (its switchable to 44.1, 48 and multiples) or the squeezebox feed to the dac. Hmm There was a note in the download that said tracks 4,6,7 and 9 had been software upsampled, so its the ones presumably resampled from the masters that I didn't like. B&W originally released this in 16 bit format, so the 24 bit version may have been an after thought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dts6.1 Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 just downloaded speed caravan "the kiss of electric sand" wow!! the bass and timing on this is incredible... stand out tracks for me are galvanize and kalashnik love... well worth a listen!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanman_sg Posted August 5, 2009 Author Share Posted August 5, 2009 Indeed, quite interesting, lightened the morning of a day spent in bed recovering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanman_sg Posted May 22, 2014 Author Share Posted May 22, 2014 Digging up an old thread. Do any forum members happen to have the Society of Sound music? I have managed to lose the flac files. What a dork! If anyone is able to provide copies, I would be grateful, I may even send flowers or beer money. Not certain on the legality of this but I am happy to supply proof of subscription (via credit card records). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanman_sg Posted May 26, 2014 Author Share Posted May 26, 2014 Crisis averted, I found out where I can buy the albums! Will get CD copies this time. https://realworldrecords.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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