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Fly in the SACD Ointment?

Yesterday, I almost got tears in my eyes going through the new audiophile format bin at Tower Records in New York. Spotting some old favourites in the SACD section, I was blissfully imagining throwing my CD player out my 17th story window and sitting down at a new system enjoying the best of analog AND digital. Then, it hit me -- even in the good old days, when I when I wouldn't dream of listening until I had Nitty Grittied my records, carefully cleaned the stylus, adjusted VTA, switched off the phone and dimmed the lights -- A LOT OF RECORDS STILL SOUNDED PRETTY BAD. Not nearly as bad (or as often) as a bad CD, but still pretty bad and ultimately unsatisfying which is what lead to my neurosis with this hobby and a never ending quest for great recordings in addition to great gear. So I am wondering -- maybe a $5000 SACD player and a new collection of software at $25 each is just going to take me back to bad analogue?!?!? Or is Sheffield Labs going to painstakingly remaster every title in the SACD catalogue? Has anyone thought about this or is there some magic to SACD that makes it all worthwhile, nonetheless. Maybe bad "analogue" without background noise and with greater dynamic range is still pretty special, but I really don't want to listen to Mannheim Steamroller in any format. Thanks for your thoughts.
cwlondon
boato2
19 posts
 
All very interesting comments and makes me enjoy my vinyl that much more.
koestner
626 posts
 
Remember when CDs first came out? They were only analog recordings "AAD". Then a while later the big hype was All digital "DDD". Well the same has to happen to SACD and it might even take less time than before.
rcprince
3,061 posts
 
Jkoestner, I think you're right, although I'm certainly hoping that DSD doesn't sound as bad as those early DDD recordings did! Actually, there are a lot of great analog recordings out there which could sound equally great on SACD, there just aren't that many of them, at least for classical, in the Sony/Columbia/CBS catalog. Mes, excellent post; actually, there is at least one pcm based (I think) SACD that sounds stunning, the Delos recording of the Mahler 2, which seems from the literature to be a 20-bit recording but is clearly better than the good sounding CD version, and the Sony Goldberg Variations (the Perihia version) is a 24-bit pcm master that sounds very good on SACD as well. Seems to me the higher bit pcm recordings can translate well to SACD, although the all-DSD recordings I've heard from Telarc and Lyrinx make me hope that more DSD machines will become available and utilized.
brauser
520 posts
 
I've been an audiophile for about 30 years and have tried
basically all the major specialty record labels. I've come
to the conclusion that most of the music I really don't care
for too much and the recordings are unnatural at best. Along the way I've also collected a lot of Christian Contempory music much of which is incredibly well recorded. In fact, over the last 18 months I've hosted a number of club type events and no one can believe it. I've never seen any of my CD(s) ever reviewed in Absolute Sound or Stereophile and yet in direct comparisons the Christian CD(s) consistently blows the Popular CD(s) away. Better yet, if you have kids, positive material is flowing into their minds instead of this steady stream of remorse and regret. Check it out in all the major music clubs.
steady stream of
cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
i've already replicated in redbook cd format most of my favorite lp's. for the nonce, i've no plans to do the same with sacd, should the choice ever become real.

i waited almost 3 years after the introduction of the cd format to buy my first player (a mission dad-?). the novelty of a more-or-less silent background enticed me just enough to purchase a handful of cd's at the "salons" that first had them available. none of those discs, none, sounded as good as its vinyl counterpart. i abandoned the cd format altogether for roughly seven years, clinging to the magic of analogue as more and more "record shops" emptied their display cases of 12 inch platters and replaced em' with those silly long boxes that would fit the abandoned bins.

in 1995, i grew tired of chasing down the elusive new releases on vinyl and bought my first true highend cd player, an accuphase dp-65. while that player was several orders of magnitude better than anything else i'd heard before, it still couldn't beat the sound from my turntable. but, now i could actually buy every new release available, just like in the days when lp's were the medium of choice. i've gone through another 3 cd setups since owning the dp-65 and now possess what i feel is one of the best combo's available. my cd collection has grown like jack's beanstalk. and i'm content....... well, perhaps not entirely.

i've been listening to the 2 box accuphase sacd combo (dp-100/dc-101) for nearly 2 years now in my good friend's sound room and elsewhere. i like it, but i've not been swept off my feet. certainly not to the extent of $28k. lately, tho, i've heard some of the handful of dsd recordings available. now i begin to understand how reviewers of the system, as in the latest tas, pronounce it BETTER than the best vinyl.

still, after reading all the posts to my thread on "the age of uncertainty" and continuing the contemplation of my navel, i'm not ready to hop on the sacd bandwagon. i will when i can no longer get the new releases on redbook or when the prices of the cd/sacd formats reach congruence. the only thing that might push me to move more quickly to the side of sacd would be american gramophone's realease of a dsd box set by the label's most famous "artistes." 'course, this is just my opinion, FWIW. -kelly
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