Creating CD from Hi-Res files

[Amadave]

I was thinking of downloading the hi-res version of an album from Qobuz. I would also like to burn to a CD hard copy for use in vehicle. Is this doable? The file would be 48/24. What about other higher resolutions?

[Kal Rubinson]

You need to make a 44.1/16 copy to burn to the CD. There are many programs that will do this.

Why not just play the file(s)?

[Amadave]

Originally Posted by Kal Rubinson

You need to make a 44.1/16 copy to burn to the CD. There are many programs that will do this.

Why not just play the file(s)?

Okay, thanks.

I just wanted a hard copy to play in vehicle. The car is older and does not have Bluetooth to stream files.

[Mouse]

Amadave, I don't think this is a good idea.
CDs hold like 700 mb of data. I don't know what 24/48 file size is, but its going to take more than what a commercial 16/44 CD would need.
Your car may not like anything greater than CD quality. My 2018 Cadillac doesn't let me play digital files greater than CD from a flash drive. It won't even see them.
Bluetooth degrades the sound anyway. I hear the newest latest and greatest bluetooth doesn't degrade sound, but it's not mainstream in all cars anyway.

[Yamaki]

Depending on your head unit you might be limited to .mp3 files.

What's nice is you can usually get 90 - 100 256k .mp3 files on a single CD.

[Amadave]

When I created this thread, my thinking was to buy the Sublime package from Qobuz. With this package the Hi-Res files cost less to purchase than the standard CD version. I would purchase the Hi-Res version and burn a CD version from the Hi-Res version at standard CD specs as opposed to purchasing the CD. Many times the cost of the CD is more than the cost to download the Hi Res version. I didn’t know if there was some software that would downward convert the file to a CD.

[Yamaki]

I use AVS4YOU Audio Converter if I need to convert FLAC to MP3 for my truck system.

I've been using their products for years and they are easy to use.

[meltemi]

Making a CD out of high res files requires two steps in one:
Downsampling (from high sampling rates to 44.1kHz) and
correct wordlength reduction (from DSD or 32bit/24bit to 16 bit). Wordlength reduction requires dithering and/or noise shaping.
Truncation (just cutting off the 8 least significant bits of a 24bit signal) causes clearly audible distortion and is therefore a no go.

Unfortunately the resulting CD quality varies from program to program depending on the quality of the dither signal and the algorithms used.

Professional quality (getting as close as possible to the original hires file) can only be achieved with (costly) professional gear:
Hardware: (dCS 972 or 974 no longer available; Weiss SRC)
Software: Weiss Saracon (DSD capability optional).

Martin

[MilkMusic]

Most software for burning audio CDs already include a format conversion feature. Check the features and choose different CD burner software if necessary.

Originally Posted by meltemi

Unfortunately the resulting CD quality varies from program to program depending on the quality of the dither signal and the algorithms used.

Professional quality (getting as close as possible to the original hires file) can only be achieved with (costly) professional gear:
Hardware: (dCS 972 or 974 no longer available; Weiss SRC)
Software: Weiss Saracon (DSD capability optional).

The OP simply wanted to create a CD to play on a car stereo. Almost any conversion software will be adequate.

[meltemi]

Originally Posted by MilkMusic

Most software for burning audio CDs already include a format conversion feature. Check the features and choose different CD burner software if necessary.

Format conversion usually means converting from/to WAV, MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC etc.

But the task asked for is PCM (e.g. 24bit/48kHz) to PCM (16bit/44.1kHz) conversion. AFAIK many software for burning audio CDs does not support these features.
May be Audacity could do the job.

Does anyone know of other software for burning audio CDs, which supports dithering and noise shaping? Thanks.

Martin