SACD - Sacre Bleu !

[RobinKidderminster]

My first - Dark Side & War of the Worlds.

Absolutely amazing sound. Clear & detailed. Solid base. Superb surround.

I won't be buying any more CDs. If you have never tried a SACD and u have the equipment then get yourself a Xmas present.

Brilliant.

PS - Sorry about the french !

 

[ID.]

RobinKidderminster:
I won't be buying any more CDs.

That's a shame, because the selection on SACD is pretty limited unless you mainly listen to classical.

 

[Petruchio]

I have a few SACDs and they sound great. However, why isn't there a bluray audio format? If there is, why isn't it more prominent?Would BD-Audio in theory be better than SACD (more storage space, DolbyTrue-HD and DTS-HD sound etc etc)?

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Errrrrrm

Dunno ??

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Guess someone could tell us the bandwidth, frequency response, sample bit rate etc of comparable formats. I just recon that the SACD is the best sound thats ever crawled through my system. Ever !

Sounds good too

 

[Anonymous]

Petruchio:
However, why isn't there a bluray audio format? If there is, why isn't it more prominent?

There are BD-Audio discs, I have two myself. I have not heard better music coming out of my system. Still a very niche product but they are out there.

Rich

 

[michael hoy]

R_Burdett:Petruchio:
However, why isn't there a bluray audio format? If there is, why isn't it more prominent?

There are BD-Audio discs, I have two myself. I have not heard better music coming out of my system. Still a very niche product but they are out there.

Rich

One site here if your interested.

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the club a bit late but as you would say :" Mieux vaut tard que jamais"

SACD has been my format of choice since 2002; at first I was amazed by the multichannel effects but with time high quality and details became my priority.

Currently I enjoy SACD on my Arcam CD37, it's true to enjoy SACD you will need a system that can dig out the details and speakers that can coop with dynamics.

If we put multichannel on the side I believe SACD shines more with classical, jazz, vocals , Blues more than with Techno and Rock music, reason is in loud and highly compressed music a lot is happening and don't believe anyone would be sitting on a lazy boy chair listening to Hard rock music focusing on every note played by a guitar or the shimmering of cymbals.

No doubt MP3 and other digital music format helped kill the SACD, and no doubt Sony being a huge multinational lost interest in the format, but as you know " le malheur des uns fait le bonheur des autres" so some medium sized and small companies found an opportunity in this niche market referred to as "Audiophile". new SACDs are released on weekly basis.

To find out what is availabe in the market and the latest releases check sa-cd.net .

Price issue: For some reason the last 4 months witnessed a high jump in SACDs prices, no doubt someone is trying to maximize his profit by taking advantage of the Audiophiles who would pay a premium to secure a copy of what is believed to be a dying format.

Below some SACDs I own that really show the superiority of the format in 2 Channel configuration-

-Time Out (The Dave Brubeck Quartet)

-Shangri-la Mark Knofler

-Somethin' ELSE (Cannonball Adderley) : I have the remastered CD version of this Album, and the difference between SACD and CD version is like the difference between Day and Night.

-Come away with me (Norah Jones)

-Live on the BBC (Deep Purple)

-Jazz in the key of Blue (Jimmy Cobb)

-Secret Love (Claire Martin)

- Beethoven Symphoines N1-9 (LSO)

-Mozart Requiem (Deutshe Grammophon)

One final note: some but very few Labels have very high standard recordings and anyone who is into jazz should check records from Naim, Chesky records and ECM.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Late adopter ? Moi ?

Wanna buy a Betamax video? 8 track tape deck? HD-DVD?

Thankx for the reply Le

 

[Anonymous]

I've only got a few of these, but probably most played is the Moody Blues - Every Good Boy Deserves Favour - which is I think fantastic.

 

[Petruchio]

I still don't understand why we still need SACD if bluray-audio can offer superior sound... Or can it?

 

[john1000000boy]

You would have thought with the growth in 5.1 systems on the market that sacd/5.1 audio would have slowly crept back onto the market??

 

[Naxos]

Petruchio:I still don't understand why we still need SACD if bluray-audio can offer superior sound... Or can it?

If you listen to classical, then you might be interested in this -

http://www.naxos.com/news/default.asp?op=786&displaymenu=Naxos_News&type=2

- I think we're releasing these in January/February next year.

Apologies to mods if I've trangressed with the link!

 

[SteveR750]

slightly OT I know, but....how does SACD compare to 24/96 lossless files from a streamer / PC ?

 

[manicm]

Petruchio:

I have a few SACDs and they sound great. However, why isn't there a bluray audio format? If there is, why isn't it more prominent?Would BD-Audio in theory be better than SACD (more storage space, DolbyTrue-HD and DTS-HD sound etc etc)?

Neil Young has just released a box-set with Blu-ray audio 24/192 in stereo. Should thus in my mind need no AV receiver to play as most Blu-ray players' internal DACs should handle it. My Sony BDP-S370 should anyway if the specs are to be believed. Or am I wrong WHF? Will such Blu-ray audio discs require full-blown AV amps to get the most out of them?

 

[Trefor Patten]

I was waiting to say that all these plastic formats will become redundant as hi-bitrate downloads become the norm when we all have fibre-optic broadband. For a comparison between formats that a look at HDtracks.com. For example 24bit 96 is a little better than SACD at 24bit 88.2

 

[The_Lhc]

Trefor Patten:I was waiting to say that all these plastic formats will become redundant as hi-bitrate downloads become the norm when we all have fibre-optic broadband. For a comparison between formats that a look at HDtracks.com. For example 24bit 96 is a little better than SACD at 24bit 88.2

SACD isn't 24-bit though. Or 88.2khz.

 

[Petherick]

Trefor Patten:all these plastic formats will become redundant as hi-bitrate downloads become the norm when we all have fibre-optic broadband

So those of us in the sticks don't need to throw away our CD/DVD/BD players for a while yet then.

 

[6th.replicant]

the_lhc:Trefor Patten:I was waiting to say that all these plastic formats will become redundant as hi-bitrate downloads become the norm when we all have fibre-optic broadband. For a comparison between formats that a look at HDtracks.com. For example 24bit 96 is a little better than SACD at 24bit 88.2

SACD isn't 24-bit though. Or 88.2khz.
Please elaborate. How does SACD's 'bandwidth' compare with 24/96 and how's it measured?

Ta

 

[Trefor Patten]

No? Well that is the comparison given by Chesky Audio on HDtracks.com

 

[The_Lhc]

It's deja vu all over again... SACD is 1-bit and 2.8224 MHz (that's Mega, not Kilo) DSD.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Audio_CD but they reckon it roughly equates to 20-bit 96KHz PCM, although it uses slightly more bandwidth.

 

[hammill]

Trefor Patten:No? Well that is the comparison given by Chesky Audio on HDtracks.comWell don't trust them then.

 

[AL13N]

the_lhc:See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Audio_CD
Thanks for the link. Interesting reading.

 

[the record spot]

Just a quick addendum to Le Robert's post above - ECM don't issue their recordings on SACD. Redbook CD only.

 

[Anonymous]

They convert DSD/SACD tracks to 88.2kHz 24-bit (or sometimes 176.4kHz 24-bit) because it's easier that way (DSD64's frequency is a multiple of 88.2kHz and 176.4kHz). This is also Linn's practice. They have to convert the material from DSD to PCM because most personal computers and music streamers could not handle DSD (few select ones like those from dCS can handle DSD).

Aside from DSD64 (used in SACDs), there are higher quality pro formats from the same family (DSD128 and DXD). 2L distributes some music in these higher formats (many recording companies use these formats for their digital masters). Whether recording instruments or hifi can take advantage of these formats is another matter (they do offer plenty of resolution to minimize losses from data manipulation).

The same is true for even higher resolution PCM formats (32/768 and 64/768 PCM exists).

DSD vs. high bitrate PCM (24/96 or higher) is a long debate. DSD supposedly has better impulse response, while high bitrate PCM supposedly has better resolution (especially for higher freqs).

Either way, they are both truly superior to redbook CDs.