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I auditioned SACD today

After reading all the positive reviews and posts on SACD I decided to take a serious look at this format. I have 22 dual layer SACD in my collection so I took 4 SACDs of music I know the best. To my surprise one of the local dealers still had a demo Sony SCD 1. The sales person led me to the room and said take as long as I would like and left. Since I read all the reviews on the SCD 1 I was able to operate it without difficulty.

There was no question that the SACD layer had a bigger soundstage and better detail than the Redbook layer but the difference were not as great as I expected. I wondered how the Sony compared next to my Audiomeca Mephisto 11.X CDP. Then a strange thing happen, I noticed a Linn LP 12 turntable to the side of the equipment rack. I cued up one of the lps and played it. As a former owner of 2 LP 12 over the years I had a good idea what to expect, the sound was full , warm , detailed and most of all musical. I should add that I have over 7000 lps and 5000 cds and listen to both, prefer the sound of vinyl but love the convenience and catalog selection of cds.

To make a long story short I decided to forgo the purchase of a SACD player and continue to ad to my vinyl and cd collection and just enjoy the music. I may look at SACD again in the future as the hardware improves and the software growa in numbers.
rec

Showing 4 responses by eldartford

eldartford
4,262 posts
 
No SACD that I posess is as good, sonicly, to several of my DVD-A.
Why do American audiophiles put down DVD-A vs SACD?
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
For both SACD and DVD-A (and CD) the limiting factor for sonic quality is probably the analog output circuitry, which, in a universal player, is shared for all media. The Denon 2900 as modified by Underwood HIFI (and perhaps by others) addresses the issue of this circuitry, and replaces it with what is pretty much as good as it gets. Such a player would give a fair comparison of the two media.

I have an unmodified (so far) Denon 2900. Using it, I have several DVD-A that will make your jaw drop, but no such SACD. I really think it is mostly in the mastering of the disc itself, and in Europe there are "audiophile labels" who are making good use of DVD-A. I don't see similar work in the SACD field.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Sogood51...Try ANY of the Tacet Chamber music DVD-A's available from elusivedisc.com.

It's hard to choose among them, but the Mozart Flute Quartets DVD D107 is I think the best example of multichannel recording. This one shows you why you need good speakers in the rear.

The Schubert "Trout" Quintet DVD 106 is a good performance of a favorite work.

For a change of pace, try The BlueGrass Sessions, Tales From the Acoustic Planet Volume 2...Bela Fleck..Warner Bros.
This is a jam session in your living room.

For an orchestral work, try Mozart Piano Concerto, MDG 940 0967-5 (again from elusivedisc). This one is mastered in 2+2+2 speaker configuration which is way better for audio than the 5.1 configuration designed for movies. It sounds good in 5.1 playback mode, but you might want to rig up the 2+2+2 arangement as an experiment. By the way, this 2+2+2 setup and others which incorporate a "height" speaker demonstrate the flexibility of the DVD-A protocol (in comparison with SACD). The video display of the program, and ability to select tracks from the on-screen display is neat too.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Sogood51...You have some nice equipment, so I understand why you couldn't afford sheet rock. At least you have priorities right.

Yes I have three Maggies in the front, and no, I did not properly set up the 2+2+2 configuration. It is difficult to do with the Maggies, and the switching needed to go back and forth between 5.1 and 2+2+2 is complex. I have small B&W and small Dynaudio speakers to play with, but I don't like the idea of introducing boxes into the system. I have listened to the height signals, and they sound like the main front signals recorded at a greater distance from the source. Perhaps there is delay also. What I may do is to put the "Height" channels at the top of a stairway leading to the living room. Nevertheless, I can believe that in a room with a high ceiling and with good speakers all around the 2+2+2 setup would be great.

If I were in charge of things the speaker configuration for music would be 3+2+1. LF, CTR, RF, RR, LR, Height/LFE. Only the Height/LFE channel would require switching between movies and music. Music people who need a subwoofer would have to derive their own signals by biamping the front channels (which is the best way to do it anyway).

Hope you enjuy the music. Good discs do exist out there but it isn't always easy to find them.
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