So I bought a SACD

[dafduc]

Alison Krauss and Union Station Live - deep discount at Border's.

A couple questions:

1) What's the SACD spec, exactly - 5.1 surround? 24/96? buttah? I'm guessing - the tiny SACD info sheet was real vague.

2) Is there a value in recording to the SACD spec? Will future sales hinge on this, or is SACD going the way of quadrophonic LPs?

3) Will my PC's DVD player give me SACD quality when I listen, or does it depend on the player? My Delta 66 does 24/96, but not 5.1. In the absence of an SACD "player", will I be able to copy the wavs or something so I can hear the full quality?

note that this CD sounds great on a CD player, and if I never hear it in its superness, I'm sure I'll get over it. But I'm real curious...

Daf

 

[masteringhouse]

I don't claim to be an expert in this area but a couple of short notes:

1) What's the SACD spec, exactly - 5.1 surround? 24/96? buttah? I'm guessing - the tiny SACD info sheet was real vague.

SACD does not use PCM (uses Direct Stream Digital or DSD) so the comparison isn't really an apples to apples. See:

http://interprod5.imgusa.com/son-637/technology.asp

2) Is there a value in recording to the SACD spec? Will future sales hinge on this, or is SACD going the way of quadrophonic LPs?

This is still a very active debate. I think it's similar to the Beta vs VHS debates. It's not necessarily which is the better technology, it's what the public buys that matters. At the moment there aren't very many digital processors for DSD and as a result mixing material requires an engineer to convert back to analog or PCM. So the true value in recording DSD hasn't been realized.

3) Will my PC's DVD player give me SACD quality when I listen, or does it depend on the player? My Delta 66 does 24/96, but not 5.1. In the absence of an SACD "player", will I be able to copy the wavs or something so I can hear the full quality?

SACD requires an SACD player. There are hybrid formats that allow a CD player, and I'm guessing a DVD player (though it probably depends on your particular model) to play an SACD in a regular redbook CD format, see:

http://interprod5.imgusa.com/son-637/format.asp

Copy protection and anti-piracy are a big part of the SACD spec, so I seriously doubt that there is a way to "rip" the audio portion, and if you did it wouldn't be PCM.

Here is Sony's FAQ on SACD for more info:

http://www.sonymusic.com/sacd/

Daf [/B][/QUOTE]

 

[dafduc]

Thank you.

Are any HomeRec-oriented recording packages moving toward SACD? Or is it all proprietary? I'm guessing Sony's purchase of Sonic Foundry might enter into this...

 

[masteringhouse]

Thank you.

Are any HomeRec-oriented recording packages moving toward SACD? Or is it all proprietary? I'm guessing Sony's purchase of Sonic Foundry might enter into this...

It's not quite that simple. Before there are home-rec recording software packages come out that support SACD, there has to be a low-cost DSD analog to digital converter. As of yet I haven't seen any.