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Sacd/dvd-a, The Hype Is Dead, For Me At Least...

SACD, DVD-A....

I purchased a 2000.00 Universal and about 10 titles mostly SACD

SACD- Nice on surround, actual 5.1 disks, Stereo SACD well if you can get a Re-mastered CD or a Hybrid then its just as good on an awesome Redbook player as thru an SACD decoder... It is interesting.

DVD-A- Most of them ended up very UNDERWHELMING.... as stated earlier, and just a PAIN IN THE A$$...

Vinyl- I am only mentioning this as it seems viable for the discussion, as much garbage as it takes to turn on a DVD-A disc half the time I can put a LP on my VPI record cleaner, and Que it up just as well and it BLOWS away the DVD-A, and Most SACD's... I am not an Analog protector, as a matter of fact I bought My Analog RIG after ATTEMPTING SACD/DVD-A universal world.

CD- Bottom line Re-mastered Cd's and SACD Hybrids sound superior on a good old 16x BIT WADIA 4000.00 player than the SACD on the top of the line Marantz SACD player(this was borrowed)... This will catch much Heat I am sure, but drop the drama, invest Redbook, You can't buy anything on SACD or DVD-a in comparison to well recorded Redbook on a Very good redbook machine unless you are looking for the true benefit of surround SACD's. 2 channel I do not see the point.

Now let me back up, I am irritated only because, I am young, never had vinyl, and I started my High-end(audiophile) Life right in the Middle of SACD/DVD-A War about 2 years ago, so of course I had to have it... I will never go back to the headach of it now that someone was kind enough to show me the true sound of a Wadia player and a Vinyl rig in comparison to it.

I sold all Hi-Def Audio Software and Hardware and took all that money to the used market and Purchased the Wadia and Vinyl rig with YES an old fashoned Record cleaner to get the most out of it, and could not be Happier! Plus 90% of everything you could want is on Vinyl and CD, including New bands, many re-issues, etc...

Don't get me wrong, If you are into the titles that are in abundance on the SACD format GO FOR IT! It sounds VERY VERY good, but if you like maybe 10 CD's that exist on it, take the extra Money and purchase at least a Theta, Wadia, Maybe even Krell Machine(but I do not like the sound as much)... Okay don't take this as bashing, this is Truly my opinion on what I have heard and spent much time testing, And these were all done in home comparisons with Equal cost equipment for the most part for many months. And done in a very good room, good cables, speaker placement, power supply, and acoustic treated room that sounds excellent and does not lie....

I have nothing against the Hi-res music, hell I wanted it, I tried it as a newbee, and there is some definate impressive stuff, the MAIN thing I love about using Hi-res is When you can get your favorite guys in concert with DTS up on the HDTV in front of you, that so far is the only worthy format I have found worth the money and the cause, So I have a Seperate MOVIE / Slash / Concert DVD system that is a lot of fun and phoenominal results... But 2 Channel, get the best CD's or Hybrids, because the Hybrids do for some reason sound better than the originals probably due to they are Re-mastered very well, and a rewarding CD player will show this as much as the SACD counterpart if in a correctly setup system. And Vinyl, Ha well lets just say coming out of college recently my friends laugh until they here it cranked and can't believe it, especially if you have some good stuff to back it, but there is "DOG" recordings on ALL formats so don't think any sytem will Turn coal into a diamond in front of you.

But this all costs money No doubt, I only threw this little thread in here to maybe help some people save some cash... We can't have it all, but you can have it better if you know the direction to go in, I did not, but I found it, and it was full circle all the way back to the begining.. Don't let Hype rule your ears.
matrix

Showing 14 responses by guidocorona

guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Huh? Did I just hear a distant disembodied and discordant voice emanating from the old cryo-treated Krypt in St. Aloysius Cathedral?
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Goatwus: Oh shucks, does that mean you are not organizing the funerary sendoff I was hoping for? No party yet for imminently dying SACD?
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Hey TBG, does that mean that now not only we have to worry about old Audiophilia Nervosa, but we are in danger of developing Audio Necrophilia Nervosa as well? I feel so honored to be counted among the new audio necrophile breed!
Was it perhaps a little wiff of decay that I smelled last time I sniffed the iridescing surface of an SACD platter? Oh well, I guess we will be discussing the impending doom of SACD for the next 20 years, and at that point we will call it NOS and spend hundreds of $$$$ per disk and feel so lucky for the privilege!
This afternoon I am visiting with a friend to listen to his new X-01 SACD player. I'll remember to wear black and listen mournfully to the gorgeous sound coming from its system. And I will shed a wistful tear or two when he plays his favorite SACD cuts for me! So gorgeous and already an audio fossil?! Ah what cruel destiny! But. . . Audio Necrophilia Nervosa. . . here I come!
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Hey TBG, I was intentionally mis-directing my post to you as a fellow traveller and a seeker of fun and humor.
Ben, ever thought about relaxing? you should try it. . . it's rather contageous!
Finally, I have justt come back from my buddy's place enjoying 5 hours of audio necrophilia, listening to both redbooks and SACD on a Teac X-01 with approx 100 hours of break-in on it. Awesome is the word. I will go back for more once the device is totally broken in.
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Ben, fighting my own corner passionately? Naaaah, too much work!
Like you, I am far too relaxed for that. You looking for a rule book? Why. . . you lost your copy? Well. . . so did I!
Matrix, seems to me the 'invert' switch on your Wadia is a phase inversion switch. Not a very new idea. My 1993-vintage EAD 7000 Mk.3 has it and it was not the first by a very long shot. Yet it's true. . . in some cases it does help.
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
henryhk, it does not ultimately matter what technology is employed by a device, provided it delivers the sound. For example, the Teac Esoteric X-01 as well as its various siblings do DSD2PCM conversion. Yet to my ears. . . the X-01 does sound superb and preferable to DCS.! Trust your ears and do not worry about the underlying alphabet soup! If you preferred better a player that used a pure DSD stream, go for it. Otherwise. . . worry not a yot. In the end we will be listening to music, not deciphering achronyms.
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Brian, I trust everyone was over 21 at that quip party thing. . . they sure do not sell no Phase to no minors here in Texas. But in Vegas. . . well. . . anything can happen there!
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Henryhk, that's really difficult to say. But you may very well be right. I know mgottlieb uses the X-01 as a transport to his DCS system for SACD. In his judgment X-01 has a better transport, while DCS has a better DAC section. . . and unless I am wrong DCS does do pure DSD. But is the sound of the DCS better because of being purely DSD or is it because they have a better design, or simply because the sound is more to Mgottlieb's liking? Who knows!
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Apparently I was in error and have received a correction via eMail. Mgottlieb uses X-01 directly into a pre for SACD, but feeds its redbook digital output into the DCS stack. This may very well indicate that the presence or not of complete DSD processing is not a prerequisite for highest quality SACD playback. MGottlieb may want to address this issue directly.
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Goatwuss: ummmpossible! We have Audio Necrophilia nervosa, (ANN) and we just covet all formats and technologies that are being numbered among the dead and dying.
Call us Ghoulish, but 20 years from now we will be discussing the same formats for identical reasons.
I remember when in 1993 I purchased my EAD D7000 with HDCD support.
The format had just been born and was already being given a place within audio obituaries. Pressings were in the hundreds only and it was said that wise audiorats were already abandoning the foundering HDCD ship in countless droves. Now, 12 years later HDCD, while not ubiquitous is a fact of everyday consumer life, and is found in a plethora of devices and pressings from all walks of musical life. No funeral for HDCD seems to have taken place yet, or at least, if a funeral ever took place, no HDCD was in attendance.
Yet, if you Are planning to organize an SACD funeral any time soon, Let me know. . . I always love a good cry. I'll even bring corn chips and we will fill the empty coffin with pink bubbly, and we will all drink to the imminent ill health of the long living undeparted!

guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Oh Wow. . that was real profound, almost like. . . wow!

Once upon a time, many many ears ago, there were three Audiophile monks who lived in a strict monastery of the Holy Audiophilic Order of Saint Aloysius of Appenzell (CH), on top of Bald Mountain where they were seeking Final Audio Nirvana. For many years our little monks had respected the sacred vow of silence. They would listen in rapturous awe to their little high end audio system built into each cell, but would not utter even the tiniest sound of their own.
They communicated amongst themselves only to share their individual state of audio ecstasy, only through their Internet chat scribblings, and occasional mildly suggestive hand/finger gestures.
One day, after lengthy Internet consults, our three heros decided to visit father Abbott and request a special year end dispensation. The good Abbott agreed. They had been in fact good audiophilic monks for so many decades, that a little voice chat would not hurt the Monastery's reputation.
On the next new year's day, the first little monk would be allowed to utter a single sentence of momentus importance. The second monk would follow suit on the 1st anniversary with an appropriate repost, followed eventually by the third little monk with a final summation on the second anniversary.
On New Year's day the three little monks assembled in front of the grand audio system in the Monastery's cathedral. The first little monk gathered his courage and proclaimed ecstatically: "SACDs are dead!"
The second little monk looked as if he had just swallowed a cryo-treated blown 1959 pinched waist White labled RCA tube of ill repute, but kept his silence with wounded dignity.
On the first anniversary, once again they gathered in front of the great altar to the Goddess of Audiophilia nervosa, and the second little monk, who had held it all in for a full year, spat in a virulent outburst of most unbrotherly wrath: : "Never. . . SACDs are alive. . . and well to boot!"
The third little monk looked morose, but remembered his place. Not a peep was heard from him 'til the following New Year's day, when bowing once more together in full humility in front of the mega-galactic system created and worshipped as a supreme Goddess of Audio Nirvana by all the little audiophilic monks of the monastery of Sain Aloysius, he shouted indignantly: "I do hate so these ungodly arguments about SACDs!"
And out they filed, the little monks, each of them having uttered his piece. . . .
And they have never been heard since. . . or even seen,. . . . or at least so the story goes.
Amen!

PS. Yet there have been persistent rumours . . . after so many years. . . that in the dead of new Year's Eve. . . muffled and discordant shouting can still be heard, emanating from under the darkened krypts of the cathedral of Bald Mountain. . .
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Honest Ben, my post was dead serious. You could visit the Monastery of St. Aloysius of Appenzell (CH) and see by yourself where the whole sordid drama unfolded. Thousand of audiophiles from the world over visit in pilgrimage to pay homage to the Saint and listen in awe to the old story retold by the current father Abbott. The three little monks are buried together in an hospital-grade cryo-treated krypt beneath the Eastside Chapel.
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Hey Goatwuss, you need a ticket to go to the SACD funeral. Ben's selling them!
Ben, reading disorder? How come you confusing adjectives with adverbs. . . are you developing a writing disorder? Could be real serious. . . and contagerous!
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
You are so right Ben, neither my obvious irreverence nor your profound earnestness will influence the survival or demise of SACD nor of any other format. I do respect your decision to drop out of this discussion, and look forward to reading from you on some other debate of momentus importance.
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