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Coping in an Age of Uncertainty

there have been numerous threads here, i know, about sacd v. dvd-a, upsampling, oversampling, etc. a number of these threads have included discussions of which, if any, new digital format will replace what we now call “redbook” cd’s. i don’t wish to rehash these discussions. rather, i’d like to hear from others how they are coping with the “age of uncertainty” in the realm of digital audio. is it better to “roll the dice” and invest in sacd or dvd a? ignore the contenders for the new and get the best possible out of redbook cd’s? buy with upgradeability firmly in mind? follow another path? i don’t post this query out of mere curiosity. i really haven’t figured out what course i should follow. i’d appreciate your giving me a hand. -kelly
cornfedboy
914nut
100 posts
 
There's now just me and my Cornish Rex, Leeza, and she appears to be even less concerned about picture quality than I am!
Jim
garfish
1,840 posts
 
I'm in the camp with Trelja, Sedond, Samir, Snook2 and others who say "it's the software"-- right on! I've yet to see an SACD disc that I actually wanted to perchase. I have a great CD playback system already and 1,000 CDs that I really like. If SACD does take off, I would have no problem with setting a nice SACD player right next to my nice CD player. I don't see this position as "sitting on the fence"-- there's no software to buy! There seem to be some that still do not understand that up-sampling and over sampling, which has been used for years, are essentially the same thing. Look up the thread "Up & Over Sampling" from last summer. Cheers. Craig.
garfish
1,840 posts
 
.......yes, purchase is spelled purchase, not perchase-- sorry.
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
I've said this any number of times: get yourself an HDCD compatible player Today! It's the only backward compatible format which makes all of your 16 bit CD's sound much better. There's much more 20 bit software available even Today than the competing "upgrade" formats.
prfont
89 posts
 
Craig, i've read the "up& oversampling" thread, articles posted by Muse, Madrigal, etc.... and probably a dozen articles on upsampling dacs. No suprise that different sides come down with different opinions on whether this is a semantic difference or not. I'll admit my bias by saying that I intend on buying one of these units and letting my ears decide if I like it better than my certainly outdated 5 y/o player. One real difference, though is that on some of these units, the upsampling can be switched out(as its on a seperate chip), and you can decide for yourself whether it's for real or BS. Otherwise I'm in complete agreement, I already enjoy my 1000 or so CD's and would rather spend further $$$'s on expanding this collection (dramatically). I believe the many above posters on the wonders of SACD, but 2 years into its release it doesn't appear very promising on the software side of things.
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