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Where are all the Super Audio Formats going?
This thread has 10 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Tuesday July 24, 2007 at 13:01
mrhookup
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I love & collect Super Audio Discs for years. SACD, DVD Audio, DTS, Dolby Digital Music Discs. I have noticed that these discs are now less available, and the average Joe doesn't know about them. Consequently, stores are carrying less and less of them, or they are intermixed with everything else. I don't think that you can say that one format is better then the other. I have discs from each format that range from OK to outstanding. A few examples: DTS: Alan Parson's On Air. Outstanding, Dolby 5.1: The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; DVD Audio: Tommy The Who, etc. Of course, the better your Surround System, the better your experience. Perhaps, Dual Disc is taking over. So far, I thing Dual Disc is a big disapointment. Most of the discs have been remastered to 5.1 sound. In a few rare cases, discs have been Recorded for the format. The best case example is The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. If the sound on this disc doesn't impress you, you are a lost cause! (or your system is not up to the standards). I would hate to see these formats go away. In which direction is the Super Audio formats going?
Jeffrey S. Albaugh
Post 2 made on Tuesday July 24, 2007 at 15:02
Mitch57
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There pretty much dead already. I've only seen a few new releases on DVD-A but some labels still produce SACD. Telarc/Heads Up seem to be the most prevalent. I too collect all of the formats you mentioned. I currently have about 300 albums in my collection and I rarely listen to anything else on my system.

Try ordering online through places such as www.elusivedisk.com, www.acousticsounds.com, www.amazon.com, etc. I can give you a list of several others if you want. The first two will yield better results then amazon.com

Happy hunting!
OP | Post 3 made on Tuesday July 24, 2007 at 22:55
mrhookup
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Thanks, Mitch. Yes, once you listen to these, its hard to go back to listening to just CD's. I have my favorites. I'd like to know yours, in case I am missing out on something else good. How do you feel about Dual Disc? I will also check out the sites that you mentioned. I can also recommend other great Surround Sound Discs. Some of the discs I get from the Orient ( a great eBay store. I just got 3 more great DTS Recordings from him: Dire Straits Brothers in Arms 20th Anniversary Edition Remixed in 5.1 Surround Sound, Roxy Music The Best of in Super Audio DSD, and Deep Purple Machine Head in Super Audio CD Hybrid Multi Channel DSD. This Deep Purple is extremely different because they Re-mixed the 1972 Quadraphonic Rercordings. Very interesting. I bet you haven't heard the word "Quadraphonic in at least 3 decades! I think its interesting that in those days, there were numerous Quad formats such as CD-4, RS, QS, etc. Now here it is 34 years later and we still have multi formats: SACD, DVD Audio, DTS, Dolby Digital. We can't seem to standardize and agree on anything. Kind of reminds me of the old battle of VHS vs. Beta. The worst format won! Now its Blue Ray vs. HD DVD. When are the manufacturers ever going to learn a lesson from this?
Jeffrey S. Albaugh
Post 4 made on Wednesday July 25, 2007 at 19:39
Anthony
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Well they were to busy competing amongst each other instead of educating people that they need something better and MP3 won.

Even though I am not overly optimistic, I am hoping BD-audio might bring renewed interest into high quality audio.
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OP | Post 5 made on Thursday July 26, 2007 at 00:32
mrhookup
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Anthony: I agree with you in the sense that they confused the customers into buying none of them. This is a major problem that dates back to the early days of Quadraphonic: too many different systems. The manufacturers' never learned this lesson. They went on to repeat the mistake with VHS vs. Beta, and now Blue Ray vs. HD DVD. However, MP-3 is not a viable answer. The sound quality is less, and their is no multi channel sound with that format. I am at a loss as to where we go from here.
Jeffrey S. Albaugh
Post 6 made on Sunday July 29, 2007 at 11:02
Anthony
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agree, did not men to imply that MP3 is the answer. What I meant was if there would not have been a war I think we might have ended up with better then CD audio instead of worst then CD. I guess I am a bit touchy, I am more of a movie buff then audio, and even though I think BD has a good chance, this looks way too familiar.

Like I said for better audio I think the only chance is BD-A or something else that would be new, unfortunately with tech there is no going back and DVD-A and SACD are dead. I am hoping that once BD has a strong foothold that the BDA will start pushing BD-A, there must be a reason they created the BD-A player profile.
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Post 7 made on Wednesday August 1, 2007 at 10:05
Stealth X
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jeez i hope sacd and dvd-a arent COMPLETELY dead, i just started collecting! i got a high end DVD player that is also a sacd/dvd-a player so decided to hook up the multi channel and try out an SACD. i got pink floyd DARKSIDE OF THE MOON, and dire straits BROTHERS IN ARMS. the sound quality is AMAZING. my ipod suddenly doesnt sound so hot via my home system (still not as bad as others say they sound IMO). i just had 2 telarc sacd's delivered yesterday, a jazz sampler and a classical music sampler, checked out the jazz and its pretty good.

anyway my ears are now spoiled, and really hope high fidelity audio gets some traction!!
Post 8 made on Wednesday August 1, 2007 at 23:27
Mitch57
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On August 1, 2007 at 10:05, Stealth X said...
jeez i hope sacd and dvd-a arent COMPLETELY dead, i just
started collecting!

Yeah! Me Too! I have 292 DVD-a/SACDs and I keep buying them. They sound sooo good compared to anything else out there. I'm starting to get concerned that I'm going to have all these albums and eventually won't be able to purchase a player that will play them when my current Integra bites the dust.


anyway my ears are now spoiled, and really hope high fidelity
audio gets some traction!!

I second that! SACDs are still being produced fairly frequently and from what I hear are quite popular in Europe. I think DVD-A is pretty much dead with the exception of one or two titles that appear every now and then on Dual Disk. Dual Disk thus far has been the most misleading format to date. They claim a CD on one side and a DVD on the other. Initially they claimed all audio on the DVD side would be in lossless DVD-Audio format. You'll be lucky to find a couple of hand fulls of titles that have a true 5.1 DVD-Audio track on the DVD side. 99% of them say "Enhanced Stereo" on the DVD side (whatever that means?).
Post 9 made on Monday August 6, 2007 at 14:37
Stealth X
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what a NOOB i am!!! i was sitting there the night i wrote my last post here, enjoying one of my SACD's. and it occured to me, as sharp and perfectly crystal clear as this sounds, i'm not getting an encompassing surround sound feel! i originally assumed the surround is just very subtle, but then thought maybe i shoud get off my duff and make sure. well sure enough no sound from any channel but the front 2!

so this bewildered me for an hour or so till i figured out i had to turn the sound OFF for hdmi on my sacd player, this then allowed me to access the anolog options and change it from 2ch to 5.1ch!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! this one classical tune i have is a guitar quartet, with the 4 fronts and backs dedicated each to its own guitar, just awesome. and Pink Floyd Dark Side is as encompassing as a good movie!!

so it now seems i have ALOT of howework to do, as now that my ears are "trained" to know what audio is supposed to sound like, i'll have to expand more into jazz/blues and classical as that seems to be what dominates the HiFi world.

any suggestions i could check out via itunes (or something of the like) before i buy are greatly appreciated!
Post 10 made on Wednesday August 8, 2007 at 15:44
2nd rick
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On July 29, 2007 at 11:02, Anthony said...
I am hoping that once BD has a strong foothold that
the BDA will start pushing BD-A, there must be a reason
they created the BD-A player profile.

I am not going to debate whether or not BD will gain "a strong foothold" (especially not with you :) )

But the reason that BD-A exists is pretty easy to determine...

Sony has a knack for self-developing new formats, and then re-selling their sizable catalog back to the stupid consumers who keep falling for their marketing...

Anyone remember MiniDisc?? ATRAC downloads??
Those media purchases are basically worthless as the formats die off...

I remember in Stereophile, a music reviewer noted that he has purchased Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" in no fewer than 6 formats.

Thanks Sony!!
Rick Murphy
Troy, MI
Post 11 made on Wednesday August 8, 2007 at 19:46
Anthony
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Well it is not a Sony format, it is in thge BDAs specs , and some of us actualy like quality and wish we could have it. If you don't care why are you in this thread discussing about higher quality audio?
...


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