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CD Redbook versus DVD Audio

Being an 'insider' in the industry keeps one busy enough not to read some of the(even though basic) information, which one should read.
Recently a friend brought over the Chris Botti album, recorded on both sides--one CD the other DVD Audio.
Well, after extolling the virtues of CD Redbook, in recent years, with the newer players, I would have to admit freely that (even though I own the Exemplar DVD which plays, I think, all platforms available including DVD Audio) I had never 'gone over to the dark side.'
Good Lord, this is better in virtually every way possible.
What struck me (about this limited experience)was the way that the staging improved,with blackness within the soundstage, taking it to an almost holgraphic experience--- with BASS just rolling, very naturally, out of the speakers like never before!!
This bordered, to me, on the same level of experience that I had when I first discovered Tubes,(not the Bass, but Staging part) at the dawn of civilization. Really, it was that kind of 'new found experince' and yes,was that good.
The bass took on an almost surreal quality, with tonality I had not experienced, except with the great tonearms, and Koetsu cartridgess, from waaaay back in the days of those round black things....the one's that have ticks and pops but sound great if done correctly.
This is as close as I have been to that kind of, and level of, both musical experience and what I perceive to be, accuracy of sound.
Anybody else out there with similar kind of experience with DVD Audio? I know, given the breadth of 'terrible recordings' that some must sound horrible, as usual, but when done close to right, wow.
If more are good than bad, and assuming that when done correctly that it excels, which it may not, given this caveat--why is this platform not more popular?. I know the arguments about too many choices, and too few audiophiles, but this is 'remarkably better' in my limited, and more important, IMHO.
Larry
lrsky
unsound
7,329 posts
 
I'm a believer.
dq10tom
17 posts
 
Chris Botti has a DVD video called "Night Sessions" which is also a very good recording for sound and picture. It was recorded in a small club setting. It's a reference disc for me.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
It really shouldn't surprise anyone that DVDA, with 24 bit 96KHz sampling, outperforms the marginal 16 bit 41KHz CD, although DVDA, like any media, is at the mercy of the recording engineers. I have found DVDA and SACD to be equally capable of sonic excellence, but the DVDA protocol is far more flexible than SACD and offers many "extra" features that SACD can't match. As I have mentioned before, try a DVDA from the AIX label to see what can be done.

It's a shame that audiophiles were taken in by Sony hype about DSD, and felt obligated to criticise DVDA without really listening. SACD is OK, but DVDA offers so much more.
agaffer
256 posts
 
It probably is superior to Redbook CDs in every way except the most important. There is almost no music to play on the machine.

There eventually will be a digital format that will replace Redbook CDs. But, when it happens it will be for the same reasons that CDs replaced vinyl. That means superior sound barely matters, if at all. It has to be more convenient than CDs (like cds are for vinyl), it has to be cheaper than CDs (like cds are for vinyl), it has to be more portable than CDs (like cds are to vinyl), it has to have a large and varied library of music to draw from (like cds did quickly after their introduction), it can't be tailored for the audiophile (just like cds weren't) because we are just a small niche market in the music world. And, it has to do something that CDs don't do, like cd players are able to skip tracks which turntables can't. That probably will mean video.

Hmmm, sounds like i-pod or some variation like it. I would be willing to bet any amount of money that whatever replaces cds will not be a silver disc. Your grandchildren will make as much fun of cds as mine do records. I know that audiophiles love to fight over which format and piece of equipment has the better more natural sound but, for 99.999999% of the music buying public it is all about convienence, portability, and expense.
lrsky OP
1,118 posts
 
It's funny, but when we 'progressed' from vinyl to cd's what we didn't discuss was the fact that we were essentially moving one step away--which is to say that we eliminated the stylus, replaced by the laser. To many people that was not significant enough, since we introduced many errors, not the least of which was clock speed, as well as the potetial for vibration and on and on.
It seems to me that a better move would have been to eliminate the mechanical altogether, in favor of a time domain release of digital information, which does not rely on a variable speed mechanical device.
The information, if sent as a digital stream, with clocking as part of that data, could potentially eliminate one 'damaging' aspect of the medium. Until then we will have known limitations.
As to the Botti Album TVAD, Sting is Featured, as well as Michael Buble, Patricia Barber (I think). I am not near the disc at this moment, or I would give the title.
As to Agaffer's response, I agree, that this 'next step away won't be a silver disc, but I think, is something as described above- non mechanical. He's right, that the only way we have success is with more software than is available than on any other medium, but it's chicken and egg. It seems obvious that it costs more to make double sided DVDA since they are in such short supply and many labels have and will continue to reject this medium and that can kill the platform quickly. This disc was on the discount shelf already! Many consumers are looking for music with little concern for the excellence that this medium brings.
It will be a shame if we don't see more though-it is marvelous.
Larry
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