|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
73.34.22.109
In Reply to: RE: Hirez Highway used to about SACD sounding great. Now posted by Fitzcaraldo215 on July 03, 2014 at 08:01:11
All I can say is, I own a number of SACDs and played around with the format for a while but never completely jumped in the deep end and never amassed a huge collection.
On well recorded and mastered material, I found that stereo SACDs didn't sound significantly better than the CD played on a high quality dedicated CD player.
And then high resolution computer audio and DACs came along (PCM and DSD) so physical CD and SACD media are just legacy formats taking up storage space in my basement.
As for Hirez Highway, I believe many inmates who have graduated to computer audio spend more time in the Computer Audio Asylum.
Follow Ups:
but in the long term, hi-rez (24/92 and above) are listenable for longer. the fact that sacd discs aren't usually found at budget pricing slows ME down a bit and likewise the HR downloads with their added cost factor.
it will take a while for that to normalize. meanwhile, i will listen to a fair number of CDs in that much of what i love is not available on sacd or vinyl. CDs do sound better on sacd players with their upsampling (some more so than others).
i bought into the sacd in the early days hoping they would be encouraged by sales of them which then sold for about the LIST price of CDs and were seen by me as more worth the outlay than paying list for a CD. i did not unload CDs just as i hadn't unloaded LPs when CD became the seeming law of the land.
which brings up the apparent sonic superiority of LP, even if only very slight, over sacd. it is close though.
...regards...tr
... is kinda amusing. At least to those of us who have heard it and found it wanting, just like those who have heard SACDs and found them wanting. I'd suggest that the computer audio fans might try graduating to vinyl or, better yet, reel-to-reel tape.
It helps, I know, to have a lot of space to house the "legacy" media :-)
"graduating" to computer audio was a poor choice of words.
I have my vinyl collection, CDs, and box of SACDs but since I'm getting outstanding performance from my computer setup, not to mention the convenience, the physical media is in storage.
I'll admit that vinyl is fun and I enjoy the outstanding audio quality it offers but I'm getting comparably great results from the computer, DAC, and hi-res music files.
Reel-to-Reel? I wouldn't know where to buy music on reel-to-reel, 8-track, cassette, wire, wax cylinder, or other ancient media. ;-)
Just to address your last paragraph, and not disagreeing with your main points: there are almost 11,000 postings right now on Ebay's reel-to-reel site, many of which offer multiple tapes. I currently buy a couple tapes there each week.
Wow, I had no idea. eBay to the rescue.
Yeah, when I started checking eBay for open reel tapes, not that long ago, there were only about 3,000 entries on any given day and the tapes were going for a, er, song. Now you're lucky to get a 4-track copy of Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" for under $200 (twice that, at least, for a 2-track version). Yet I just picked up a pristine "Pal Joey" by Andre Previn, Shelly Mann and Red Mitchell, recorded by the iconic Roy DuNann, for ten bucks. And its sonics just blow away those of my vinyl copy.
It helps if you're a lover of 70s-era pop (Jim Nabors, anyone? I thought not), And the sound quality does run the gamut from quite stunning to quite awful. But there are gems to be found if you're patient, and the currently buyer-friendly policies of eBay make it pretty easy to get your money back if you wind up with a loser. As, believe me, I have.
"I'd suggest that the computer audio fans might try graduating to vinyl or, better yet, reel-to-reel tape."
On the other hand having had many years of experience with vinyl and RR tape, some of the most enjoyable sound I've heard has come using computers as the source!
Good sound is where you find it and even the lamest of media, which upon mulling over is hard for me nail down, probably does some things especially well. And outside of wire recorders I think I've heard 'em all and have extensive experience with most.
Rick
I like to have Vinyl and HiRez available, but to limit it to Vinyl or Tape, which I don't have, is too limiting musically for me. Very little music available in all formats.
I grant your point. But, determined to avoid dealing with yet another new medium (downloads, etc.), I figured I'd go for a more happy (for me) medium -- superior CD replay plus SACD/Blu-ray/DVD Audio -- via an Oppo 105 with ModWright tubed output and tubed power supply. Makes CDs sound great and SACDs even better. Vinyl and open reel tape are icing on my particular cake. So I have more musical choices than I'll ever be able to hear in my lifetime. Not saying it's the best route, but it is for me.
Sad indeed Abe.
I would venture to report that all depends on the SACD player, as some, are better than others.
I agree, furthermore to hell with downloads, Mch SACD is the best for me, sounds the most realistic especially for classical music.
True, but TGT said it best in his post above......
"In my collection, the quality of the original recording and the mastering process explains more variation in sonic quality than CD verses SACD."
I would have to agree with him. And I would add that on high quality recordings, the difference between CD and SACD is not huge. I'm finding the same to be true with hi-res downloads. It has a lot more to do with the recording and mastering process vs the end format that we pop into our players or stream to our DACs. But I thought that was a universal truth.
I'm not saying that SACD doesn't sound better than CD but IMHO it wasn't a huge leap in performance.
What we experienced was remastered material that was made available on SACD also benefited the CD format. Given the same original source material I concluded that for myself, the new SACD format wasn't worth the small incremental improvement.
The other angle that most folks don't talk about are the SACD players that were optimized for SACD playback with the redbook section pretty much ignored. The manufacturers had nothing to gain by improving CD playback in a SACD player. So, it was often true that the SACD layer sounded significantly better than the CD layer played through the same SACD player .
But that's all water under the bridge for those of us who have moved on to computer audio and PCM/DSD DACs.
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: