CD Redbook versus DVD Audio


Being an 'insider' in the industry keeps one busy enough not to read some of the(even though basic) information, which one should read.
Recently a friend brought over the Chris Botti album, recorded on both sides--one CD the other DVD Audio.
Well, after extolling the virtues of CD Redbook, in recent years, with the newer players, I would have to admit freely that (even though I own the Exemplar DVD which plays, I think, all platforms available including DVD Audio) I had never 'gone over to the dark side.'
Good Lord, this is better in virtually every way possible.
What struck me (about this limited experience)was the way that the staging improved,with blackness within the soundstage, taking it to an almost holgraphic experience--- with BASS just rolling, very naturally, out of the speakers like never before!!
This bordered, to me, on the same level of experience that I had when I first discovered Tubes,(not the Bass, but Staging part) at the dawn of civilization. Really, it was that kind of 'new found experince' and yes,was that good.
The bass took on an almost surreal quality, with tonality I had not experienced, except with the great tonearms, and Koetsu cartridgess, from waaaay back in the days of those round black things....the one's that have ticks and pops but sound great if done correctly.
This is as close as I have been to that kind of, and level of, both musical experience and what I perceive to be, accuracy of sound.
Anybody else out there with similar kind of experience with DVD Audio? I know, given the breadth of 'terrible recordings' that some must sound horrible, as usual, but when done close to right, wow.
If more are good than bad, and assuming that when done correctly that it excels, which it may not, given this caveat--why is this platform not more popular?. I know the arguments about too many choices, and too few audiophiles, but this is 'remarkably better' in my limited, and more important, IMHO.
Larry
lrsky

Showing 1 response by john_z

I had a similar experience when comparing the redbook cd version of Alan Parson's "I Robot" to the 24/96 DVD version issued by the Classic Records label a few years back.

This disc is not a true DVD-A, but the "tweener" 24/96 stereo format that will play on any standard DVD video player. I vote it as the most "underappreciated digital format/most short-lived" award. It was just getting off the ground when the big buzz surrounding the DVD-A multichannel disc format was heating up in 2000 and killed it off.

The Classic Records disc has a much more pleasant overall sound compared to the CD. The opening track is holographic sounding and you can easily hear the individual voices which make up the choir section as they harmonize. There are also some synthesizer and triangle or bell strikes that just hang in the air like they are real. It sounds awesome.

The kicker is that my cd player is no slouch. I have an Arcam FMJ cd-23 with the Ring-Dac, but my old Sony DVD carousel player from 1998 can handle 24/96 stereo without downconverting and output it via it's analog outputs. And I'll be damned but that 24/96 disc sounds better on the Sony vs. the redbook cd played on my Arcam!

I never understood why that format all but disappeared. In stereo, at least, I think you'd be hard pressed to really hear a huge improvement in sound going upmarket to SACD or DVD-A...and you don't even have to buy a new DVD player! JZ