SACD, MSB/Upsampling, LPs Compared

Thanks Tom for the reference. Isn't it fun to pass on something you read and have guys shoot at you as if it's your fault. Doubt-it and Drubin, what's your problems, A guy posts a piece of information and you two, Good greaf.

In rereading the article, some LPs were viewed as superior to the SACD.

As for the CD layer on SACD discs, here's a quote from Sony's literature:

Better sound on conventional CD players.
The Super Audio CD is mastered with Direct Stream Digital (DSD) technology. A separate layer, compatible with the Compact Disc “Red Book” standard, is transferred from DSD using Super Bit Mapping Direct ™ downconversion. The
result is a disc that sounds noticeably better than conventional CDs when played in a conventional CD player. The new disc makes better use of the full 16 bits of resolution that the CD format can deliver.

My earlier comment was in no way an attack on tommart, which I am sure he understood. I was questioning the comment in the review, and now he has shed some light on it. Chill out,jadem.

I think the source for digital transfer and remaster process play a big role on how the music sound. Like some CDs I have, the earlier version does not sound good at all so with the same song LP sounds much better. However, the later 20 bit remaster version sounds almost like the LP. Any how, there is no need to argue about what format beats the others since there are other factors we don't know about should be considered.

Thanks for pointing out the article and the link to it. I have had an SACD player for a few months now, and I would agree that the sound is extremely nice on good recordings. As with every medium, there is bad software out there as well, so SACD is not the silver bullet.

My fear with both SACD and MD is that both will go the way of the Betamax. Althougg Beta was better quality than VHS, it still lost the format wars. Same for MD, it seems to be loosing the format wat to MP3 players, despite the fact that the audio quality is better. Reason it is loosing? Cost and marketing, IMO.

Niels.