Audiophile Quality 2 Channel DVD Audio?

DVD-Audio, like SACD, is pretty much a niche product and, in my opinion, will be nothing more. The war is over and both lost. The Denon 3910 is an excellent universal player. 2 Channel DVD-A can sound quite good. There is just not alot of it available.

Both SACD and DVDA provide theoretical and actual audio quality improvement over CD. But not enough better than a well made CD to make it worthwhile for 2-channel. The major benefit of these new media is multichannel, and if you can't or won't try MC don't bother with SACD or DVDA.

Of the two I think that DVDA is best. There are some technical questions about SACD HF performance, although I don't hear a problem. The DVDA protocol is much more flexible as to what the producer wants to use the bandwidth for. For example some discs let you choose your acoustic location in the hall..."Stage" or "Audience". The video on many DVDA is quite interesting...interviews with the performers, historical notes, and such. SACD lacks these extra features.

Here's another recommendation for the Denon 3910. A superb player for very little money. Gently used ones are selling for $450+ on Audiogon - this is a smokin' deal.

-RW-

Thanks for your insights and recomendation of the denon 3910. It's disappointing that there is not a lot of DVDA programing out there, but my interest in historical performaces leads me to think that collecting a library that documents 20th century conductors and performers is worth the effort . Also it seems to me that there should be a small but steady stream of Tape transferred to Digital format as the archivists seek to preserve those documents in a more permanent form. Again, thanks.

Onkyo has what has to be the best value in high definition digital equipment. The A-9555 digital integrated amp and the DV-SP504 are a killer combo.

http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?class=Amplifier&m=A-9555&p=i

http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?class=DVD&m=DV-SP504&p=i

The DX-7555 CD player is the match for the A-9555 if you only listen to cd's.

http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?class=Compact%20Disc&m=DX-7555&p=i

But if you want to get into DVD-A the DV-SP504 would be a good match for the A-9555.

I highly recommend DVD-A. Stereo sound quality is as good as it can get. 24bit/192KHz in stereo is plain and simple the highest detail most dynamic sound available right now. Thats 144db of dynamic range! That is leaps and bounds over what red-book CD can offer, no matter how you D/A convert it.

If you match the above system up with a pair of QUALITY monitors and matching subwoofer. I don't think sound can get much better then that for the average guy (budget).

The Onkyo A-9555 and DV-SP504 with Focal Chorus 800V bookshelf's and 800V subwoofer. Well Thats all I would need!

DVD-A can sound much better than SACD or CD, problem is the source material is mastered poorly, and no attention to detail is really made on the commercial side. The exception being the sound mirror Living Stereo releases on SACD which sound really good.

I do live to 2 track recording and burn my own DVD-A discs.
Comparing those to the same material on 16 CD really shows the difference the higher sampling rate and longer word lentgh makes.

I agree with Johnss - both SACD and DVD-A offer a dramatic improvement over Redbook CD. I think it depends a lot on your system though. For me, since installing Theta Enterprises, the difference is just huge. And FWIW, I find Multi-channel not worth much of my time. I do almost all of my listening in 2-channel in spite of being close to ideally set up for multi-channel.

Regarding a player, it is very much dependant on your budget. Right now I am using an Upgrade Company modded Denon 5910. It was an improvement over my Upgrade Company Esoteric DV-50 that was noticeably better than the venerable EMM Labs CDSA-SE. I would wholeheartedly recommend the very same player since it is so good on all formats.

And as far as being a niche product...so is vinyl. Once you begin to find companies such as High-Res and outlets that specialize in DVD-A and SACD (Elusive Disc, Acoustic Sounds, AIX, CD Universe, Music Direct…), the number of titles does increase somewhat. Still, don't expect to find much locally. All of my SACD/DVD-A discs are bought via internet/mail-order...the same way most people get their vinyl.

I am finally getting around to taking some of the vinyl recordings off

My Polaroid DVD DVR hard drive and DVD recorder.
The DVR hard drive records the vinyl as LPCM or MPEG2.
This is Hi Res sound!! When I play vinyl and file from hard drive of DVR
on my high end system the two sources are indistinguishable from each other

I have program that rips the DVD AUDIO mpeg 2 out of the DVD I make
I can rip it out in original format .mpa or the other formats lossless mp3
etc
I am outputting to both formats mpa and mp3

I have a fairy high end turntable and am using XLO interconnects
I record with subwoofer off as to minimize vibrations also

there is strange sound at 15 to 16 minutes don't know what causes it
I will play the vinyl again to see if it is on the record

the vinyl has not been processed in any way and is not broken into
tracks. I need a vpi record cleaner but have not afforded one yet.

the first disc i am making available for download is
Urania Stars Singing Opera Arias 1950s
unfortunately after making this transfer a week or two ago
I seem to have misfiled the vinyl itself and this prevents
me from giving you more info about the record itself.
I must have misfiled it!! I will look some more to tell you who
the artists are!!!

urania_stars_1950s_vinyl.mp3

http://www.mediafire.com/?1sfsx9jx6zf