As there is a lot of misunderstanding of multichannel and why it sounds one way or another I feel ,after the past month of participating in some amazing demonstrations ,I must offer some of my opinions.As it is well known I have a strong affilation with Sanibel Sound and am very proud of the products we offer and the new technology we are bringing to the U.S.If this post is biased I hope you understand I have 25+years as a retailer and over 30 as a hobbiest and also am a performing musician with over 40+years of experience.
I find it very interesting that people will make comments about the "new" technologies when they really don't understand the real differences that exist from one to another.I personally have been a 2 channel advocate for most of my career and have not been eaisly swayed by the hype of new formats without being personally convinced they are improvements over other existing technology.As my retail customers will tell everyone we have never recommended SACD or DVD audio prior to this posting.I still don't feel SACD's all it's drummed up to be and the reasons were made clear to me over the last month with the help of Dr. Mark Waltrip Ph.D President and CEO of AIX media group.
I know this responce is long but it does get to my impressions about the sound at the Prime Media homeentertainment-expo and is about DVD-A recording and playback as I currently see it and not as nearly focused on equipment.I should mention the Dr.Waltrip is a professor at UCLA teaching digital media and recording and is ,as far as I'm concerned ,the top or around the most informed expert in this field.
We have provided, thru our retail store, some of the most sought after and highly reguarded equipment offered to the audiophile.I feel it's important to mention this as qualification for some of the statements I'm about to make.We have been in the past and always intent to be the first to push the envelope with new and important technology.Our list has included brands such DCS,Accuphase,Tenor,Kharma,Lamm,Dodson,Halcro,Audio Note Japan,Quad,Verity and numerous others and we are somewhat responsible for their visibility today.As you can see by visiting our website there are new names emerging as some of the most intriging and revolutionary now available.This is my exact point pertaining to DVD-A.
We participated in a seminar in Greensboro ,NC the week prior to the N.Y. show and used a similar system to N.Y. but with a few very important differences.Our front end was a more mid line product and the preamp was also a processor with analog pass- thru for multichannel playback.I was truly intrigued with the sound and immediatly saw the potential.This was a $10,000 processor and a $3500 player so they were not slouches.The amps were basically the same and the cables ,line treatment ,and power cords were also the same.As good as this was little did I relize that upon placing the Meridian 800,861 combo ,and replacing one amp so we had matched Aloias on all channels ,what I would hear would forever change a die hard two channel afficionado into also a die hard advocate for DVD-A playback. It must be noted that the recordings we used were native resolution discs recorded and produced by Mark and his partners and are not representive of commercial recordings and are truly labors of love.This is dramatically different as opposed to remastered discs placed into a format offering no more resolution or dynamic range than the originals.As a matter of record I must say I hear the new distortion introduced along with the old and this is one of the reasons I have balked at both new formats.Not the case on AIX and Hi-RES.These things are amazig.Never have I heard better or more interaction between players in any musical style.Whether it's vocal,classical,jazz,folk or any other type music this has to be heard to be believed.Adding much greater dynamic range,lower noise,and greater availability of spaciousness only stands to reason it will destroy lesser mediums.It does.The point I want to make here is this demo was produced as a somewhat all out attempt at "hi-end DVD-A" playback and may not be applicable to most comsumers but neither is the highest end 2 channel.I urge anyone to encourage your retailer to set-up and demonstrate this at the top level and I would be interested to see the reports.Unfortunatly we could only give a concise presentation to 20 people at a time limiting us to about 7% if the traffic was at 15,000 people as originally projected but the ones who did hear this were generally in agreement,It was awesome.
I expect to hear a lot of naysayers about this post either placing it as a market tool or a huge hornblow but this is how I now feel.In the last 2 yesrs I listened to about 100 live performances including thse National Symphony of the Netherlands doing Mahler, Keb Mo 3 times, Jackson Brown solo ,a dozen times for great Braizilan and other latin at Zink bar on Houston in N.Y.,Bela Fleck and the Flecktones,David Sanborn with full symphony etc.I do know what live music sounds like from an audience perspective and also from a performers perspective and I must agree with Mark this is the closest ever.
I have encouraged Mark to do a writing to explain in detail the differences in DSD and DVD-A and will have it available asap.Please contact us or watch for a post so you may aquire it when available.You will be suprised,as I was, at the differences and why.
To close this long post I enjoyed hearing that one of the conductors on Marks recordings for the first time was able to listen from his perspective and was really excited.I will also mention these recordings have 2 channel,Audience perspective and ,stage perspective ,and some interesting video if your so inclined.Good luck hearing this format it is truly an eye opener.If you would like a complete list of equipment and recordings please feel free to contact us by phone or web.
Steve Davis
I find it very interesting that people will make comments about the "new" technologies when they really don't understand the real differences that exist from one to another.I personally have been a 2 channel advocate for most of my career and have not been eaisly swayed by the hype of new formats without being personally convinced they are improvements over other existing technology.As my retail customers will tell everyone we have never recommended SACD or DVD audio prior to this posting.I still don't feel SACD's all it's drummed up to be and the reasons were made clear to me over the last month with the help of Dr. Mark Waltrip Ph.D President and CEO of AIX media group.
I know this responce is long but it does get to my impressions about the sound at the Prime Media homeentertainment-expo and is about DVD-A recording and playback as I currently see it and not as nearly focused on equipment.I should mention the Dr.Waltrip is a professor at UCLA teaching digital media and recording and is ,as far as I'm concerned ,the top or around the most informed expert in this field.
We have provided, thru our retail store, some of the most sought after and highly reguarded equipment offered to the audiophile.I feel it's important to mention this as qualification for some of the statements I'm about to make.We have been in the past and always intent to be the first to push the envelope with new and important technology.Our list has included brands such DCS,Accuphase,Tenor,Kharma,Lamm,Dodson,Halcro,Audio Note Japan,Quad,Verity and numerous others and we are somewhat responsible for their visibility today.As you can see by visiting our website there are new names emerging as some of the most intriging and revolutionary now available.This is my exact point pertaining to DVD-A.
We participated in a seminar in Greensboro ,NC the week prior to the N.Y. show and used a similar system to N.Y. but with a few very important differences.Our front end was a more mid line product and the preamp was also a processor with analog pass- thru for multichannel playback.I was truly intrigued with the sound and immediatly saw the potential.This was a $10,000 processor and a $3500 player so they were not slouches.The amps were basically the same and the cables ,line treatment ,and power cords were also the same.As good as this was little did I relize that upon placing the Meridian 800,861 combo ,and replacing one amp so we had matched Aloias on all channels ,what I would hear would forever change a die hard two channel afficionado into also a die hard advocate for DVD-A playback. It must be noted that the recordings we used were native resolution discs recorded and produced by Mark and his partners and are not representive of commercial recordings and are truly labors of love.This is dramatically different as opposed to remastered discs placed into a format offering no more resolution or dynamic range than the originals.As a matter of record I must say I hear the new distortion introduced along with the old and this is one of the reasons I have balked at both new formats.Not the case on AIX and Hi-RES.These things are amazig.Never have I heard better or more interaction between players in any musical style.Whether it's vocal,classical,jazz,folk or any other type music this has to be heard to be believed.Adding much greater dynamic range,lower noise,and greater availability of spaciousness only stands to reason it will destroy lesser mediums.It does.The point I want to make here is this demo was produced as a somewhat all out attempt at "hi-end DVD-A" playback and may not be applicable to most comsumers but neither is the highest end 2 channel.I urge anyone to encourage your retailer to set-up and demonstrate this at the top level and I would be interested to see the reports.Unfortunatly we could only give a concise presentation to 20 people at a time limiting us to about 7% if the traffic was at 15,000 people as originally projected but the ones who did hear this were generally in agreement,It was awesome.
I expect to hear a lot of naysayers about this post either placing it as a market tool or a huge hornblow but this is how I now feel.In the last 2 yesrs I listened to about 100 live performances including thse National Symphony of the Netherlands doing Mahler, Keb Mo 3 times, Jackson Brown solo ,a dozen times for great Braizilan and other latin at Zink bar on Houston in N.Y.,Bela Fleck and the Flecktones,David Sanborn with full symphony etc.I do know what live music sounds like from an audience perspective and also from a performers perspective and I must agree with Mark this is the closest ever.
I have encouraged Mark to do a writing to explain in detail the differences in DSD and DVD-A and will have it available asap.Please contact us or watch for a post so you may aquire it when available.You will be suprised,as I was, at the differences and why.
To close this long post I enjoyed hearing that one of the conductors on Marks recordings for the first time was able to listen from his perspective and was really excited.I will also mention these recordings have 2 channel,Audience perspective and ,stage perspective ,and some interesting video if your so inclined.Good luck hearing this format it is truly an eye opener.If you would like a complete list of equipment and recordings please feel free to contact us by phone or web.
Steve Davis