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Want to get excited about SACD again??

First the good news:

The new Verve re-release of Diana Krall's "When I Look In Your Eyes" finally gives us a real shot of the "analog like" potential of SACD. You may want to pick this disk up if you have a SACD player.

Now the bad (potentially good) news:

One of the reasons this disk sounds very good..and the other Verve/Krall SACD release doesn't (and I'm not talking sujective music content) is that this is a SACD only release, ie: no redbook layer.

Think about it, this only makes sense. Go to the Audio Research site and read their logic about their new CD player the CD3. ie: just do one thing well. And Ayre, Classe and other high-end audio companies are bringing out CD only players and addressing the multi-format compromises/concerns.

With all of the jitter and bits/reading concerns that any digital machine can have, it just makes sense that if we had SACD only machines (this way they could have better audio stages...etc. instead of time/money being spent on covering all bases) and SACD only disks (no problem with lasers picking up bits from too many layers)

I know, I know that Sony, and others, feel that these multi format machines and multi layer disks are the safe way to market these things. Well they are shooting themselves in the foot...or maybe the head...because if they don't release the machines and software that will show off what this format can do..well it will die. Because the very people that have tried to support the format are being given hardware and software that is not showing off the formats best.

So, give me a SCD-1 without the CD hardware, and instead put in better caps, resistors and a discrete jfet audio stage running in class A. Then give me SACD uncompromised software to play on it....even just two channel...no multi-channel. If multi-channel was important to audio..this could have been done on redbook cds for some time. This multi-channel is just Sony's knee-jerk reaction to DVD-A...and they are just missing the piont that it is a MOVIE thing not a MUSIC thing.

Sorry to ramble...but I feel SACD will fail...and it's not because it isn't better...this SACD only Krall disk shows this....it's because of this multi-multi direction that is, likely, doomed.
whatjd
ghostrider45
449 posts
 
On the front end, I have a Wadia 7/9 combo for red book, and an unmodified SCD-1 for SACD.

On redbook, I find that the Wadia combo has an edge over the SCD-1, but if I didn't have the Wadia for comparison I could be very satisfied with the SCD-1. To me it's truly a great player.

On a well recorded SACD, the SCD-1 is superior to the Wadia 7/9 on the equivalent red book layer.

PS - to Calanctus: On CD's there has never been a problem with perfect data recovery (otherwise CD-ROM technology wouldn't work)- the problem has been maintaining stable clocking information after the disc is read. This is a player engineering problem.
whatjd OP
1,139 posts
 
When testing between a SACD and CD of the same title, you really need to have the redbook CD to compare the SACD to. Not just between the CD layer and the SACD layer. On all hybrids that I have and have the redbook CD of, the standard CD is obviously better than the CD layer on the hybrid. This is part of the wonder of hybrids being part of the concern, and I don't trust what is said to be or tech data here..I trust how they sound. The second part is just the $ trade off that is being made in these machines in their audio/power/parts sections to hit price points and still play various formats/multi-channels.

At nowhere else in the average to better audio only system do we make these consessions. These compromises in these SACD source units is akin to having the Rotel receiver reviewed in the latest TAS and scraping the idea of integrateds or seperates...and putting it all in one chassis. Audio fans decided long ago that having a degree of seperation in pre, power, tuner(here even the best leave out the A.M. band) was the path to higher fidelity.

What has gotten most of audio to where it is has been refinement/focus in seperate areas. Usually by companies that even further refine and focus...ie: CJ and ARC..mainly tubes, Magnum Dynalab..mainly tuners, etc.

Think what you want, but to me these combo SACD/SACD-multi/CD players are a compromise. A compromise not unlike receivers, combo DVD/VHS players, tuners with both A.M. and F.M., clock radios(Henry Kloss has made several famous radios...can't remember any famous clock radios)..

Just depends on what you want. SACD was/is touted as a superior format...and compromise is not the way to prove and establish it as that...these combos are a way to leave it in Beta, DAT..etc limbo for a few years.
914nut
100 posts
 
It would be hard for me to get excited again, since I never got excited about SACD in the first place! There's certainly not enough software available, at least what appeals to me, to get too excited at this point.
whatjd OP
1,139 posts
 
Wait a min....anyone that's nuts about the 914 should be find SACD to be a natural fit!? Ever drive the 914-6?
914nut
100 posts
 
As a matter of fact, Whatjd, I have a '73 914 with a 911 3.0L engine (more than twice the HP of an original 914-6, better shift linkage), steel-flared fenders, Fuchs alloys, Brembo brakes, Konis, etc.

Still can't get excited about SACD, however. Maybe when more software is available? With prices for players dropping like flies, it won't hurt to wait.
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