SACD vs. Vinyl

Kijanki,

what might change your mind about DSD-SACD-2X DSD would be a visit to a mastering studio where an analog source can be switched quickly to any digital format, including hirez PCM up to 352khz/32 bit. there is a mastering studio near where i live which happens to do the majority of HD transfers in North America for many different lables. he can take a source and run it thru any level of digital processing you might choose, and can switch seamlessly between them. he has many different DAC's and processors as you might imagine. in that 'no boloney' environment DSD smokes any PCM.

which is not to say that everyone subjectively likes anything and that everyone's been exposed to SACD done right.

i own 1000+ SACD's, 4000 CD's and have maybe 2500 hirez (88/24 or higher) PCM files on my music server. i own three tt's and three RTR decks. what i hear in that studio is what i hear in my system too.

you might convince yourself that SACD is flawed in theory, but so is any digital. DSD is harder to process than PCM and it's not music server friendly yet because of it's copy protection. but compare a recording mastered in DSD with one mastered in PCM; no contest. and 2XDSD rivals vinyl in fidelity, whereas any PCM is a mere shadow of analog. OTOH a 2XDSD file is huge, so it's not yet a consumer format.

Mikelavigne - I did not say that SACD is flawed. I think that it is vastly superior to redbook (as Beta was to VHS). In addition to better quality (20/96) DSD used in SACD is created without antialias filters that screw-up transient response in traditional A/D conversion. Transients are used by brain for spatial localization.

You mentioned easy format switching but it was from analog to digital and not digital to digital?

SACD is not good candidate for the server not only because of copy protection but because of its scheme (PWM).

As it is right now - SACD selection is very limited, I cannot use it on the server, cannot make backup, is still too expensive and format might become obsolete.

Stereophile mentioned that format might be dead since many Blu-Ray don't even have SACD decoder.
I know that you can still buy SACDs but the same is true for DVD-audio. Would you buy DVD-Audio now?

Kijanki,

sorry if i misinterpreted your post. i agree that DSD has it's challenges in terms of flexible EQ'ing. this mastering guy typically will use an analog EQ for his DSD files since a PCM EQ will do so much harm to the signal.

this mastering studio is able to easily switch from any PCM format, to any DSD format, or to analog; all applied to any source. he gets master tapes, or digital masters, and then does his magic to create the commercial end product. he has analog EQ and all sorts of digital EQ as well as reel to reel and even Lp. he also does recording on site and movie soundtrack mastering and mixing.

i can tell you that there are things in the works to be able to listen to DSD and 2X DSD files from a home music server. the big problem now is the bandwidth to transfer files for the current home DAC's and music servers....but that is getting solved.

file storage is getting to be less and less an issue.

if i had to predict the future of hirez music it would be away from PCM toward DSD as it is so much less harmful to the source.

Mikelavigne - I wish I could see operation of recording studio. I will look - they might have tours.

Kijanki,

the studio is run by Crna39, an Audiogon member. it's called Puget Sound Studios.

here is a Stereophile blog entry which talks about Crna39's work.