Hi-Res Downloads

DSD64; 88.2kHz/24-bit FLAC, Stockfisch Records SFR 357.4088.2 (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)

Despite the name, Carrie Newcomer is far from, well, a newcomer. With more than 15 albums behind her, and a career stretching back 25 years, she’s both a performer and writer – of both songs and books – and even a US cultural ambassador, and has toured with the likes of Alison Krauss and Mary Chapin Carpenter. So as you might expect, this set (her debut for Germany’s Stockfisch label) is a mature, soulful album, beautifully recorded along with a large supporting group of musicians that cleverly showcase Newcomer’s rich, warm voice amidst what the label calls ‘a warm, autumnal glow’. It’s just the sort of ‘audiophile’ singer-songwriter album you might imagine, and I can see it cropping up in more than a few demonstrations. However, lovely though both the voice and the recording may be, there’s more than a hint of ‘haven’t we been here before?’. AE

Sound quality: 80%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

Also released as a hybrid multichannel/stereo SACD and, via highresaudio.com, as an 88.2kHz LPCM FLAC file, this DSD64 download is – unlike other DSD files I’ve tested – a genuine, native 1-bit offering. Recording levels are low, however. PM