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SACD vs. Redbook and other formats

There have been several discussions about the quality of SACD vs. Redbook and other formats. I had the thought that it would be interesting to start a list of specific SACDs that are being used as the basis for comments.

One question that I have is if people are comparing the Redbook and SACD layers on a hybrid disk. It seems that this would be a more fair comparision than using different disks that were produced at different times.

I have CDs that sound as good as my SACDs, but I have yet to find a hybrid disk where the Redbook is superior to the SACD layer.

If you're talking about different recordings with different producers it's an apples and oranges discussion to some extent. I've found the SACD recording quality to be of more consistent quality, but some of my best are Redbook CDs.

A few weeks ago I burned some songs to a disk for my father-in-law that came from my Apple Lossless files. The songs that came from a Redbook sounded excellent, but the ones that were burned from the Redbook layer of a hybrid SACD sounded terrible. I finally put the SACD on to verify the comparison and it wasn't close. The SACD was Hello Mr. Paganini by Feng Ning. Based on this unintended comparison, the Redbook layer is no match on that recording.

SACDs that are reproductions of previous Redbook CDs have mixed results depending on where in the process the SACDs come from.

Give us your comparison/opinion along with the specific recordings that support it.
mceljo

Showing 1 response by mrtennis

mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
while this comment is tangential to the original topic, it should be considered.

while the sacd layer may emit better sound quality than the hybrid layer when played on an sacd player, i think having a dual format digital source is a disadvantage.

i have heard better sound from a cd-only source in many cases than listening to an sacd layer played on an sacd player.

thus , one may be able to find , say a dac and transport providing superior sound to an sacd player playing the dscd layer.

having a tube in the digital front end is often an advantage.

there are very few sacd players that have a tube gain stage or buffer stage.

thus, the hardware may be more important than the software in many instances.

naturally, a fine digital front end cannot compensate for poor recordings.
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