Junodownload.com and wav quality issues?

[irrelevance]

Hi folks,

I'd like to know who amongst us here uses this site and who if any has experienced quality issues with downloaded tracks. This is my only recourse as Juno customer service seems to be almost non-existent as they only offer a web form contact and the order enquiries email I found in the T&C's bounces. (orderenquiry@junodownload.com)

I always purchase wav files and download as flac but I have noticed that some tunes have audible popping and clicking artifacts in places and in one instance throughout the entire track. Could it be wav to flac conversion error?

I purchase and mix mostly D&B and haven't found other sites such as beatport to be as browse friendly or D&B friendly for that matter. Not sure what to do know as if I can't get this rectified myself or if juno doesn't get in touch I can't see myself using them much longer.

[Thumper]

I've bought a metric tonne of Vinyl, downloads and gear from Juno over the years. I've had a couple of minor problems in all that time, and I've always found their customer support to be very good.

However, I wonder if this what has happened with you, the first time I ever needed to get in contact with customer service I went a couple of weeks without reply. It turned out I had sent the inquiry to the either the wrong Email address or used the wrong form (It was a while ago And I'm a bit hazy on it now.) Once I resent the inquiry to the proper address I got a reply within the hour. This was through the main site rather than Juno Download, but I assume its all out the same office in North London. I notice there is also a phone number ( +44 (0)20 7424 2800 ) for customer queries (again, taken from the main site.) So I guess you could try that as well.

As for download quality: Never had a problem with Juno. Ever. Not once in all the tunes I've downloaded from there. I've had a couple of crappy ones I've bought via them but this has been the fault of the record label selling on dubious transfers. I buy WAV and download them as FLACs too.

How old are the tunes? Are you doing anything else as you download them? Could AV be an issue? What about a download manager? Are you downloading them from the FTP site or what?

[irrelevance]

I've bought a metric tonne of Vinyl, downloads and gear from Juno over the years. I've had a couple of minor problems in all that time, and I've always found their customer support to be very good.

Thanks Thumper that's good to know. I'm using the download manager not ftp and the the tracks are all fairly new releases late 2013 at least. I don't run any further conversions, I playback in live or tracktor as flac and all other tracks from juno are fine but for these few. I have tried playing back over different systems/software/hardware but the artifacts are still there.

I'm from south london but living in melbourne right now so syncing with uk is a bit more effort but as i have no idea if the web form submission is even getting through I may well have to get on skype and call!

So is there another site for junodownload.com? I'm not aware of this.

[short fugue]

Download shops don't check whether the wavs they get from labels are genuine. A lot of files sold as wavs are transcoded mp3s, vinyl rips, or both. About a year ago I bought some wavs from Trackitdown and three of them turned out to be low bitrate mp3s saved as wavs. I sent them screenshots of the spectrograph in Informer and got this reply:

"Firstly your screen shots mean nothing to me or to the validity of these
files. These are the wav masters provided directly from the label and as
such are untouched by us. These are the only wav masters available for these
files and regardless of what any software might say, this is the file
intended for sale by the record label."

I didn't get a refund and I haven't bought anything from them since.

[irrelevance]

Hey thumper thanks for the reply. ( this is my second attempt at posting this reply first attempt two day ago has not appeared?) Juno has since been in touch and turns out that two of the tracks the labels in question were aware of issues but still released and the other label has said it will reissue so I may be able to get the tune again sans clicks/pops :-) Juno has also offered a refund on the other two.

[Thumper]

Excellent stuff. They're a good mob, Juno. I don't know how separate the two sites actually are. Probably two different desks in the same Camden office is all.

It's usually the labels. I once bought a digital copy of an Armando album from another site that actually had short segments missing in the middle of some of the tracks, like they had actually turned off 'record' whilst they were doing the transfer. I've also had digital tracks that have literally been vinyl rips - complete with terrible surface noise. I could have done that myself....

[irrelevance]

Yes Juno really is the only site I ever go to for digital downloads! There are a few things I'd like to see improve like better playlist /complete browse history, better overview of tracks in basket already in playlist. But overall me likey ;-)
Thanks for chippin in dude

[Thumper]

Pleasure. I like seeing people use something other than Beatport.

Boomkat is pretty good for a whole mess of stuff as well, and they do FLAC.

[xmark]

About a year ago I bought some wavs from Trackitdown and three of them turned out to be low bitrate mp3s saved as wavs. I sent them screenshots of the spectrograph in Informer and got this reply:

"Firstly your screen shots mean nothing to me or to the validity of these
files. These are the wav masters provided directly from the label and as
such are untouched by us. These are the only wav masters available for these
files and regardless of what any software might say, this is the file
intended for sale by the record label."

Whilst their reply is a bit, erm, blunt (maybe they need a lesson in customer service) the sentiment of what they are saying is likely to be correct; they are at the mercy of the audio provided by the label/distributor.

Music quality has been poor for a while, but did we actually notice? Try feeding some of your compilation CDs through the same spectrograph and seeing how many of those have been through a lossy compressor at some point. In my case a suprising number of retro dance compilations (not even mixes) look like high bitrate MP3.

Of course if you're paying extra for WAV then certainly the spirit of what you're expecting is a file which hasn't been through a lossy compressor at any point. But that's different to what's actually sold by words like "WAV format" or "WAV master", or some other careful wording. Frustrating, I know.

[BeeMirrors]

Originally Posted by Thumper
I've bought a metric tonne of Vinyl, downloads and gear from Juno over the years. I've had a couple of minor problems in all that time, and I've always found their customer support to be very good.

However, I wonder if this what has happened with you, the first time I ever needed to get in contact with customer service I went a couple of weeks without reply. It turned out I had sent the inquiry to the either the wrong Email address or used the wrong form (It was a while ago And I'm a bit hazy on it now.) Once I resent the inquiry to the proper address I got a reply within the hour. This was through the main site rather than Juno Download, but I assume achieve essays are all out the same office in North London. I notice there is also a phone number ( +44 (0)20 7424 2800 ) for customer queries (again, taken from the main site.) So I guess you could try that as well.

As for download quality: Never had a problem with Juno. Ever. Not once in all the tunes I've downloaded from there. I've had a couple of crappy ones I've bought via them but this has been the fault of the record label selling on dubious transfers. I buy WAV and download them as FLACs too.

Hello,

I had issues with an older release from Moony - I got the message: Due to copyright restrictions you cannot buy this product in your country. I'm from Rexburg, Idaho. I contacted Juno Download support and waiting for their reply. Should I use a VPN perhaps?