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SACD vs. Redbook and other formats

There have been several discussions about the quality of SACD vs. Redbook and other formats. I had the thought that it would be interesting to start a list of specific SACDs that are being used as the basis for comments.

One question that I have is if people are comparing the Redbook and SACD layers on a hybrid disk. It seems that this would be a more fair comparision than using different disks that were produced at different times.

I have CDs that sound as good as my SACDs, but I have yet to find a hybrid disk where the Redbook is superior to the SACD layer.

If you're talking about different recordings with different producers it's an apples and oranges discussion to some extent. I've found the SACD recording quality to be of more consistent quality, but some of my best are Redbook CDs.

A few weeks ago I burned some songs to a disk for my father-in-law that came from my Apple Lossless files. The songs that came from a Redbook sounded excellent, but the ones that were burned from the Redbook layer of a hybrid SACD sounded terrible. I finally put the SACD on to verify the comparison and it wasn't close. The SACD was Hello Mr. Paganini by Feng Ning. Based on this unintended comparison, the Redbook layer is no match on that recording.

SACDs that are reproductions of previous Redbook CDs have mixed results depending on where in the process the SACDs come from.

Give us your comparison/opinion along with the specific recordings that support it.
mceljo
tmsorosk
1,013 posts
 
Most of the comparisons I spoke of were from different disc's , I haven't tried A/B testing both layers on an SACD , that will be tonight's project .
mceljo OP
1,351 posts
 
Tmsorosk - Any results?
tmsorosk
1,013 posts
 
Results ,, ya but nothing conclusive On some disc's I felt there was no difference between the two layers on the same disc , other times the SACD layer was clearly better . On the weekend a couple of audio buddies and I used some different duel layer dics's in there machine's and systems, and again the results were inconclusive . Which leads us to believe that the end results are very system and disc dependent .
One thing that we all agreed on in all systems , was that Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon , was better on the red book layer .
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
Orig early released CD's, Orig Imports (Japan, W. Germany, etc) Remasters. Then there is: 24K GOLD, HDCD, XRCD, MFSL, SHM, BLU-SPEC, Japan Mini Disc, LPCD (to most replicate sound vinyl) ?? I doubt that one! Many choices for Redbook players. Assuming the original mix/recording were the same, does the performance of some/any of these "superior" formats warrant their extra pricing? Any thoughts?
montejay
285 posts
 
Hi Isochronism,

LPCD-I have two copies of Harry Belefonte at Carnegie Hall.
An original red cd pressing and an LPCD. Both are outstanding but I hear and feel a little more with the LPCD which imo sounds superb. They are purple on the information side of cd. I own a few of them with no duds.
I cannot confirm the sound like an lp but all do sound good. Impressed.
Most of my XRCD`s (approx. 50 or so) are excellent.
BLU-SPEC-Bought a two disc sampler from cdjapan. It was not very good and actually hurt to list to some of the tracks. Not impressed. SHM cd seems the same to me.
24K gold-I have some outstanding ones (DCC, MOFI and some others). Some can be both very expensive and impressive.

Mastering makes the difference,not what the cd is made out of IMHO but of course YMMV.

Regards,
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