2. digital
  3. 174510-143982

Oh Ye of Little Format

Tonight our group of 13 people held a blind A/B/C  test comparing

Formats of CD, SACD and Apple Sound.

We listened to one minute three formats of five different cuts

ranging from Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Santana

Celine Dion, & one other.

 

The cuts were removed from the same CD using different layers.

 

Bottom line- Nobody zeroed in on anything! The Apple Sound actually

was slightly the favorite. Try it yourself.

 

Sound leveling software was employed and were the services 

of sound engineer. 

 

I always thought SACDs were nothing special. 

Now if an XRCD had been included I think it would have been preferred

but you can perform the same test using XRCD due to the way

it is recorded.

 

The fun never stops here...

 

 

 

 

chorus
socalml528's avatar
socalml528
121 posts
 

I play my SACDs on a McIntosh MCD85 SACD/CD player connected by balanced cables to a McIntosh MA352 IA and I notice a definite difference between most SACDs over Amazon Music  Super HD and Apple high resolution broadcast formats.  The thing is like vinyl not all SACDs will present the just like vinyl sound.

SACD examples:

  • Dire Straights, Brothers In Arms 20th Anniversary - Like vinyl
  • Chicago II Original Master - Not much better than standard CD
  • Elton John, Elton Jon - Like vinyl
  • Diana Krall Love Scenes - Better than vinyl!
  • Concord Jass Vol 2 - Like vinyl
  • The Jim Hendrix Experience - Like a standard CD
  • Eric Clapton Slowhand - Like vinyl
chorus OP
976 posts
 

 

 

We used  Brothers in Arms. That was the only one of the five I guessed

correctly.

socalml528's avatar
socalml528
121 posts
 

Sorry for confusing comparison explanation.  My comparison is based on Vinyl > SACD>High Resolution Bluetooth>Standard CDs.

My point is even some vinyl is flat and lacking of detail; assuming a good source some of my SACDs can match my good vinyl. I'm finding on my equipment some high resolution source is also really good; but not as detailed and realistic as really good vinyl and really good SACDs.

 

socalml528's avatar
socalml528
121 posts
 

Brothers in Arms compared is SACD, 20th Anniversary Cat#9871498 vs vinyl and standard CD

re-lar-kvothe's avatar
re-lar-kvothe
159 posts
 

I can only speak from a very limited experience on this as I only did anything like this once and it was last week. I do not use apple play so I cannot speak for that. However, I can speak for standard CD, MOFI-CD, Hi-Res (24-192) digital download, and Amazon HD music (so they claim). On my desk top I have a TMS T300MKll mini tube amp and a pair of Klipsch RP-600Ms. I used two "albums"for the comparison, Allman Brothers first album and Crosby Stills and Nash CSN as I have both of these in the formats listed above. From ABB I played It's Not My Cross To Bear, from CSN I played Run From Tears. Hands down the Hi-Res download versions were the clear winners in overall sound quality, to my years. Especially disappointing was the CSN-Mofi recording. When I get some time I will do the same comparison on my listening room set up. Rogue M-180s, Rogue RP-7, Panasonic DP-UB-9000, NAD C658 DAC, and Focal Kanta No.2s.

More to discover