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SACD... can you hear the difference?

I'm fairly new to SACD as it's only been a month since I purchased my first player that takes advantage of the format. Some say even on a good system which is set up properly that they can not notice a difference between SACD and standard CD.

For example my Wife is a huge James Taylor fan. A couple weeks ago I found 2 original master recording SACD disks from a company called Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs. Both James Taylor just as she has on CD. I dialed them in perfect and OH MAN! To me the difference was like night and day, but she couldn't tell the difference in sound quality.

So either I'm imagining things or I'm able to pick up on musical pitch and clarity much better than her. I'm sure of what I'm hearing with no doubt, but she thinks I'm crazy.

Can anyone here notice how much better SACD sounds on their system verses a standard CD.
pigchild
rcprince
3,073 posts
 
I do, but I find the differences to be subtle though musically significant. Some others here don't hear an improvement, if past threads are an indication. One thing, if your wife's CD isn't an MSFL disc, a large part of the difference you're hearing would be the difference in mastering by MSFL vs. the standard disc.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"Some say even on a good system which is set up properly that they can not notice a difference between SACD and standard CD."

That could mean just about anything. SACD's do sound different than CD's. The problem with most people is they don't do it right. Quite often someone will have a really good, high end CD player but go out and buy something cheap to try SACD. They figure the format will be so much better than CD they can get started with something very entry level. That's a lot to ask. Under those conditions, you may very well like the CD better. A much better way to compare is to get a player that supports both formats, and use that for testing. That way, you're more likely to hear differences in the format and not the players themselves.
mceljo
1,357 posts
 
At times I have thought that I heard a difference, but more recently I am less convinced of there being a difference. What I have noticed is that SACDs almost always have great recordings on both layers. If they make the effort to uses SACD they are going for a quality recording.
arh
366 posts
 
I prefer redbook to SACD. To me SACD lacks the impact and presence of redbook assuming identical masters. I also find that there is something wrong with high frequencies with SACD. Can't quite put my finger on it..I use a Sony 5400 for sacd or a Mytek dac for DSD files and an Audio Note dac for redbook. To me SACD is highly over rated
Alan
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