Chronicle - High Definition
 

Well, I came across a High Definition Audio version of CCR's Chronicle. What's HDA? It's music file starting at 24bits 48K and above. These are music files you want to listen to on home entertainment systems and not your portable music player. Here's an article about it:

[url]http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/01/09/beyond-mp3-new-push-for-high-resolution-music/?intcmp=features[/url]

Anyway. I went to HD Tracks and found Chronicle. Not surprising since HD Tracks is affiliated with Verve and Fantasy. This was the only CCR offering. They have other HD Audio from the Rolling Stones, Paul Mccartney, lots of Jazz artists.

I downloaded the Chronicle tracks. Cost $20. I chose FLAC 96/24 format. The whole album is 1.42GB - way bigger than a normal CD version of Chronicle. Downloading was easy and relatively fast.

Once the files were downloaded I opened them up, put on my headphones and listened. I didn't want to write about what I heard until I could listen on my sound system. My system is 30 years old. A Kenwood Basic M2 amplifier with a Kenwood control pre-amp feeding 220 watts per channel into some rebuilt 40 year old Technics 10 inch three-ways. Yes, it's an old man's sound system.

Today I listened to Chronicle on that system and once again I was impressed. The Flac 96/24 tracks sound so crisp and clear. No hiss, no background noise. The low end resonates. John's voice is clear like you're in the studio with him. Tom's rhythm guitar stands out on several tracks - it sounds so good.

Listening to this HD Chronicle is like listening to Chronicle for the first time - maybe even listening to CCR for the first time. Outstanding sounding music.

It would have been nice if the engineers could have remastered some of the songs and provided Proud Mary in wider stereo or boosting the low end on some tracks so the drums and bass are more prominent. Steve Hoffman did a outstanding job remastering the CCR catalog for the SACD's that were released several years ago.

I plan on getting some more HD albums. I hope they make the rest of the CCR catalog available for HD download.

Arisinwind