MULTI-CH SACD'S on 2CH SOUND STRANGE?


I HAVE A 2CH SACD PLAYER. SOMETIMES SACD's sound pretty good, but in several cases, usually with orchestral pieces, for some reason the melody carried by the string section gets drowned out by the horns/brass instruments. the effect is unnerving, like i am hearing the background or supportive musical lines as the dominant voice and the theme as the supportive or background voice. i have tried switching the phase, and even going to the redbook layer (if there is one). Naturally these are Hybrid Multichannel Discs that can be played on a conventional, 2CH SACD, and 6CH SACD. I have even updated the firmware on my SACD player (EMM Labs) but to no avail. Am i the only one who has this problem? Funny thing is, the redbook cd's i have always thought sounded great still sound that way, and small ensembles/chamber music on SACD sound amazing. but it would seem i am getting some of the other channels mixed up with the main-front-L&R channels.
WHAT is wrong with this picture? Thanks for your feedback.
french_fries

Showing 3 responses by goofyfoot

I remember saying to a record store guy that I've known for years just how wonderful SACD's sound coming from my computer' hard drive. He totally agreed but then stated that SACD's sound great unless they're played from an SACD player. He went on to explain that every customer that he knows of who owns a SACD player has told him that SACD sounds bad in a SACD player but great in a standard CD player. It doesn't surprise me so much seeing that SACD playback is still relatively new and may require some intense research.
My error, I did mean 'hybrid' SACD and yes, my PentaTone SACD's in a simple 2 channel CD format sounds better to me than most standard Redbook CD's. The other comments of course were just related to me and they may or may not have any real validity. Nevertheless thanks for letting me share.
I have an Ayre QB9 DAC and I use High Diamond 'Black Diamond' Interconnects. Anyway, if this Ayre Universal Disc player is of the same sonic quality as my DAC, then there is no reason to not buy the Ayre. However as stated previously but in not so many words, a bad recording is just a bad recording. If you get to test out the Ayre, will you tell us what your impressions are?