SACD/DVD-A and 2-channel recordings

I'm glad you asked this question...I was just about to post the same thing.

Given the ubiquity of the Walkman and the boombox, I'd say it's highly unlikely that we'll ever stop getting disks that are playable in a two-channel system.

You may have misunderstood your dealer friend, however. The second layer on a hybrid SACD is CD, not 2-channel SACD. As for DVD-A, there was something recently about hybrids that would play on CD machines, but I'm not sure there are any on the market yet.

The more challenging question is whether record companies will take as much care mastering a 2-channel version anymore. It's also possible that the two-channel option of the future won't be a separately mastered layer at all, but an on-the-fly mixdown of the multichannel version.

As far as I know, all multichannel SACDs today include 2-channel tracks in a separate area of the SACD layer, not in a separate layer.

I know of no companies doing SACD multichannel without including a 2 channel SACD mix, but Tacet's DVD-A recordings are generally multichannel without the corresponding 2-ch high rez mix. It's certainly not an industry trend at this point.

The CD mix, if it becomes a reality with DVD-A, will be on the flip side of the disk. The hybrid idea didn't work out well technically, and was dropped by the dvd forum earlier this year.

Bomarc: What I think I correctly understood from my friend, is that Sony mandated that every SACD recording or remaster have a dedicated 2-channel SACD version, not just a regular redbook version.

If I understood that correctly, and if that is true, I feel hopeful because that would mean that the 2-channel verson of recordings will not be mere downmixing from a multi-channel recording, but will be a dedicated 2-channel mixing effort.

Other perspectives?

Pard, you're right. When you said "layer," I thought of hybrids, but yes, a multichannel SACD includes a 2-channel version on the SACD layer, whether or not it's a hybrid disk.

It's on the DVD-A side that you get a mixdown if you've only got a two-channel set-up.

There's still the question of the quality of the mastering on the 2-channel version. See the recent storm over Dark Side of the Moon.

Bomarc, I thought the DSOTM storm was about dynamic compression on the CD layer, not about the 2 channel SACD layer...?

Quite true, Cal, in this particular case, but I think it's symptomatic of a larger danger. When the primary product is a multichannel recording (as the DSOTM SACD release certainly was), any included 2-channel version may be just an afterthought. And when there are SACD boomboxes and SACD Walkmen, will 2-channel SACD mixes be as awful as most pop mixes are nowadays?

I am fairly sure it is in the specs, (what are they calling it, scarletbook?) that all SACDs are required to have a 2 channel mix. The multichannel and hybrid are optional.

I don't know of any DVD-A that include 2 channel mixes, but then again, I dont own any.

I might have been a little sloppy in my language use when I used the term "layer" instead of "mix". It appears that atleast for SACD's, there will always be a newly mixed 2 channel SACD version even when there is also a multichannel version.

Thanks all,

It's been my experience that ALL SACD discs have a dedicated 2-channel SACD layer (not mix but layer). This is true even where an SACD may have an additional multi-channel SACD layer and/or CD (redbook) layer.