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SACD & other Formats

I'm a vinyl guy and have invested lots of money in my TT rig and listen primarily to vinyl because it can sound so much better than digital.

I want to buy a CDP that will satisfy and understand a well mastered CD can sound good as well. I abandoned red book play back 10 yrs back because it was very frustrating finding satisfaction. Too many poorly mastered CDs that could not communicate the music. Have things improved? I know you can get better digital sound for less $$, but has the quality of mastering improved?

Looking through stores online I see SACDs are getting a lot of new mastering attention, gold CDs are available, XRCDs, etc. Is SACD the direction to look? are the current SACD issues of titles living up to the marketing hype/price? sonically? the key is in the software, availability and mastering.
musichead

Showing 3 responses by tomcy6

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tomcy6
2,624 posts
 
There are a great many classical SACDs available, if you enjoy that genre. I haven't sampled them myself but since they have to be a labor of love (there isn't a lot of money in classical these days), I have to think that many have been produced with better sound quality as a goal.

As far as pop and jazz cds from the last decade go, they are all over the place. Some are very good sounding others are terrible. You really can't generalize.

At this point you might want to wait and see how high-res downloads work out. Reviews so far are mixed. There are not a lot of titles available and sound quality is not always what you would expect for their price. I hope that better players and mastering will make these the best option, but I don't think we're there yet.
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,624 posts
 
Does anyone know why digital downloads cost $18 to $30 for a single album with no bonus tracks or contemporaneous concerts, no deluxe booklet with new interviews and essays?

I think the cost to get a download to the consumer is minimal and I know that the price will not come down as volume grows. Most people are used to getting their music for free these days and one of the reasons SACD failed was that people thought they cost too much. So what are the record people thinking?
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,624 posts
 
ZD542, the $18 to $30 is on the hi-res download sites HDTracks and Acoustic Sounds Super HiRez. There were some titles at HDTracks on sale for $15.

Colekat, SACDs outside of classical are being released at the rate of one or two a month except for Japanese SHM SACDs which cost $40 to $90 apiece. The most desirable out of print SACDS go for very high prices. Only the ones no one wants are cheap. So I would say that SACD is not a vibrant, growing format. I enjoy SACDs and wish there were a lot of them that I wanted at good prices, but there just are not very many.

Musichead, I would recommend looking at Marantz or Esoteric for SACD players. I would also recommend looking at Amazon, Ebay, Acoustic Sounds and Music Direct to see if there are enough SACDs that you want available before buying an SACD player.

Many people feel that their cds sound better when ripped to a music server. So if you want to get something soon, find out if you're one of those people. If you are, get a music server and rip away and buy the high-res downloads you're willing to pay the price for.

If you get a server, I would make sure it handles both DSD and at least 24/192 PCM. Many servers don't do DSD, which is how SACDs are recorded. High-res downloads are available in DSD, 24/96 and 24/192. Those bit rates will probably go higher in the future, but I can't say exactly when. It's something you want to consider when buying a server or DAC though.
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