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In Reply to: excitement is gone posted by Berlin on October 17, 2006 at 10:13:04:
This may sound absurd, but I have SACD (and to a much lesser extent, DVD-A) to thank for the following:1. Getting me into new music.
2. Getting to hear more weaknesses in my gear.Both items have ended up costing me money, and both have had their depressing points, but overall, I have gained much more than I have lost.
Because the predominant number of SACDs are classical, I have been curious to find out what is available out there. So, being a clasical newbie, I've taken some risks. Discovering Vaughn Williams has been an incredible journey. Sitting through Bernestein's Mass has been a drag. I've come to find out what eras I'm into and have been trying to do my homework in terms of understanding the hows and whys of what these composers were doing. As the dust has begun to settle, I find myself a classical music fan, and I have SACD to thank. A lot of my tips (and good scores) were in no small part due to this part of the Asylum. I thank you all, even though I dont post too often.
As far as the gear goes, I've been through (count 'em) 4 SACD players in the past year or so. Maybe some of it was system synergy, and maybe some of it was being unimpressed with a certain aspect of the player (whether it was mechanical issues, Redbook sound issues, or SACD sound issues), but now that I've found the right one, I'm really psyched up on SACD more than I ever was before.
For a classical music lover that does not want to do analog, SACD is where its at.
Follow Ups:
If you haven't already, check out "LSO Live" -- the online outlet of the London Symphony Orchestra. They have been releasing live recordings of the orchestra in RBCD and now in SACD, many of which are engineered by Tony Faulkner, who is one of the best.Not long ago, I bought their recording of Verdi's opera "Falstaff." While I'm not enough of an opera aficionado to judge the performance, I will tell that the recording is terrific. Really stunning dynamic range, very precise location of the singers in 3-dimensional space, incrdibly deep, but well-damped bass . . . all without the "steeliness" or nasty highs that so often afflicts RBCD recordings.
I think this really does give you a better sense of what the SACD medium is capable of. I have some of the "Living Stereo" re-releases and, to my ears, all that SACD does is allows you to hear the limitations of 40-year old analog tape technology. Yes, it is free of the nasties that often comes with digital; but its far from perfect, IMHO.
For one thing, it would be rare to find a mainstream vinyl record with this kind of dynamic range recorded on it. The medium could probably deliver it, but it would tax the limits of all but the best arm/cartridge setups.
SACD has been a boon to anyone recently into Classical music. And what's exciting to me is the constant stream of great reissues and new titles arriving on the format. I recently picked up the stupendous Haitink Beethoven symphony cycle. My previous reference was the Karajan cycle. Not anymore! (Will write more on this in a separate post.)I first bought the Sony 333ES and then upgraded to the XA777ES. But the huge leap in player performance and musical enjoyment came when I purchased my APL SACD1000. That's right, and it's been operating flawlessly for the 2.5 years I've owned it. Leaps and bounds better sounding than my XA777ES, with none of the dreaded drop-outs the XA777ES is famous for. I upgraded my amps and switched from a preamp to passive attenuators. I couldn't be happier with the sound I have now.
Though public libraries are my chief resource to explore classical music. Lots of CD recordings there to sample.Multichannel listening has been a great experience. With the likes of recordings from MTT/SFSO, BIS, Pentatone, RCS LS (where applicable), and so on, SACD continues to excite with regard to something more than just traditional two channel music.
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