Would you buy SACD or DVD-A releases?

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andywithaz

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This topic may have been covered before but...

If Richard/Universal remastered the Carpenters catalog again and released it on SACDs or DVD-As, would you buy them :?:

I think I would because I would want to hear the Carpenters in the most superior format avaliable.

Would love to hear your thoughts :!:
 
I'd probably go for SACD myself...DVD-Audio has a sonic disadvantage, and just the menu aspect of it turns me off. (I can play SACDs without having to turn on the TV; with DVD-A, I have to turn it on and make a few menu choices to get to the two-channel program.) If it's any indication, I own maybe half a dozen DVD-A titles, where I have over 30 SACD titles.

One attractive feature is it could have the high-res two channel version, as well as a 5.1 surround version. If it's tastefully done, it could sound great. A selling point of DVD-Audio is adding some lightweight video content...but to be honest, I have that on a couple of my discs and have only watched it once.

Universal, for some unknown reason, has released discs in both formats. Dumb move IMHO. They just choose to muddy the waters with two formats instead of sticking by one...? I don't get it. They've had a lot of nice sounding SACD titles already.
 
Alright gang,

A visit to Best Buy yesterday proved to be enlightening. The future of the SACD format appears to be imminent. There were more titles available than I could count. Feverishly I scanned the C's only to find Mariah someone or another. I then visited a "high-end" stereo store to find the latest and greatest equipment designed specifically for a premium listening experience. What I'm really wondering is in anticipation of CarpenterS catalog potentially being released, should the "die-hards" among us really spring for the coming wave?

Whad'ya think?

Jeff
 
Hmm...it would be a great idea to release the QUAD stuff on that format. Then I'd definatly buy it! (Even if it wouldn't be, I still would!)
 
djn said:
Alright gang,

A visit to Best Buy yesterday proved to be enlightening. The future of the SACD format appears to be imminent. There were more titles available than I could count.

Maybe your Best Buy is an exception, but the majority have very poor support for SACD. They may have a quantity of titles, but their inventory is stale, mostly older titles with not many new ones. I rarely ever saw something on release day there. And they also have employees that are so clueless, you often find the CD/SACD hybrids mixed in with the standard CD stock. (Which is where they'd stored Peter Gabriel's Up.) Also, there are "silent" hybrids, like the Rolling Stones Abkco remasters, that remain in the CD section. (They are not marked as being hybrids OR SACDs...they're a steal though, when they're on sale!)

Anyone I know who buys these usually gets them online. Circuit City's selection is nearly non-existent in stores, but their website has most in-print titles listed. (They just use an existing fulfillment service, as does Best Buy, for online purchases.) Stores like Barnes & Noble don't even know they exist, and Border's had them stuck on the end of an aisle, all of them overpriced as usual.

Anyone who's into SACD and DVD-A knows all the tricks to finding titles. And we all sort of look out for each other. :D
 
I can concur with Jeff, that my latest visit to Best Buy to pick up Olivia's New DVD (The Best of) I stumbled upon the SACD area too. There were more titles than I expected, I did the same thing as Jeff, looked for Carpenters but nothing. I did see Alison Krauss & Union Station Live in SACD, almost bought it but I already have the regular Cd version & didn't want to fork out the money for a different format CD that I don't think I have the player to play it on.


Can someone also tell me how this SACD differs from say DTS Audio CD, There is an Olivia CD called Back with a Heart that I saw at Best Buy, a DTS Audio CD, costs about $26.00 so it does cost more than the regular CD, again I almost bought it but didn't know if I could benefit from it. I have a Sony Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound stereo that is connected to my DVD player (which also has the 5.1 decorder built in) so wonder if I would hear much difference if I splurged for this DTS CD.
 
Depends--if your DVD player can decode DTS discs, it might work in there. But DTS is a different animal than DVD-Audio and SACD. DTS uses compression; SACD and DVD-Audio offer discreet uncompressed channels of music. For SACD, it uses a newer, better digital format called DSD (Direct Stream Digital, which uses a technique called "delta sigma modulation"), whereas DVD-Audio is PCM (pulse code modulated) like CDs but at a much better resolution.

Most DVD-Audio discs also offer a Dolby Digital (AC3, another compressed format) so that it can be played in surround on standard DVD players.

Unless you have one of the universal players, you woulnd't be able to play an SACD or DVD-A disc. (Unless the SACD says it is a hybrid, meaning it also has a CD layer that plays in any CD player.) Fortunately the price of entry is cheap with Pioneer's DV-563A, which I think Best Buy usually sells for $169. Well worth the money, and it has a darn good video output as well.

Best Buy's prices on these discs (DTS, SACD, DVD-A) are really wonky--you can find better deals just about anywhere online.
 
Ahhh I just looked at my Sony DVD player, says DTS digital output logo on the front, so I guess I can? I would have to pull it out & see if I'm using the outputs that are there, right? I remember when I hooked it up quite a while ago that I used all the 5.1 connectors & ran them to my receiver so I know that I'm getting the 5.1 surround sound, cause my whole room shakes when I play the movie, Jurasic Park. :tongue:
 
raz42289 said:
Whoops! The local best buy employee told me a whole different story. And I thought I was smart. :D

Heh. BB employees are about as clueless as a garden slug. :D I once overheard a BB employee, several years ago, telling a prospective customer that DSS (DirecTV satellite) dishes rotate to pick up different satellites in the sky. :confused: Ummm...well, didn't HE just fall off the clue wagon! :D Standard DSS all comes from one satellite, always has. The half-truths I've heard in their computer aisle were a laugh also.

I try not to go there unless I absolutely need to--the prices aren't that great, the music selection is lacking, and I'm tired of being asked to buy a $20 warranty for a $40 item. :laugh: I also don't like buying on rebates--give me your best honest price right up front. Don't make me wait months for a rebate I MIGHT get. Like the $50 Philips monitor rebate that I mailed in and "mysteriously" disappeared into thin air. :rolleyes:
 
I have to shop at BB sometimes because Circuit City doesn't stock alot of CDs and BB is cheaper than CC.
 
Tell ya what, a lot of the local stores don't stock CDs very well around here. Unless it's a top seller, good luck finding it. My tastes are off the wall to begin with--that's why I usually end up buying online. Other than some DCC cut-outs I bought from Tom Port (of DCC Blowout), the last new CD I bought was from the Ernest Tubb Record Shop in Nashville, since it wasn't even available on Amazon. Tower Records just closed up shop here in Detroit also. Not a good time for brick and mortar retailers!
 
Chris-An Ordinary Fool said:
Ahhh I just looked at my Sony DVD player, says DTS digital output logo on the front, so I guess I can? I would have to pull it out & see if I'm using the outputs that are there, right? I remember when I hooked it up quite a while ago that I used all the 5.1 connectors & ran them to my receiver so I know that I'm getting the 5.1 surround sound, cause my whole room shakes when I play the movie, Jurasic Park. :tongue:

Check the owner's manual to find out about DTS output. I have a Pioneer Laserdisc/DVD combo player that will play a DTS audio disc, but won't play the DTS track of a DVD. It does Dolby Digital 5.1 just fine, but not DTS. I have to use another player if I want to hear the DTS tracks on DVDs.

You also might be required to use an optical digital cable to get DTS information to your receiver.

Harry
...wired, online...
 
I should check my Pioneer Elite 45A: it has "5.1" outputs (five channels plus subwoofer), so I know it does some types of decoding right inside of it. I don't have any DTS discs to try it with, and I'm not sure which of my video DVDs have DTS soundtracks.
 
Wow you Guys!

That's alot of info. Thank you. Funny thing is that the "high-end" stereo store that I mentioned earlier was recently bought by BEST BUY. Whady'a think of that? Do your posts and average common sense dictate a different arena for purchase? At this retailer...Mr. Man hovered over me. Swirling around like a whirling dervish trying to push this-n-that. At one point he felt it necessary to show me The $4,000 apiece speakers. I found that Karen sounded much more clear and radiant emanating from the $750.00 ea. speakers. Mr. Man continued to show and blare and thump speakers trying to show me bass response. "Gotta have a subwoofer". I told him repeatedly that the booming of "bass" was not what I was looking for. "Well most people want that". I said no-sirree, I require a speaker that has the best sound reproduction of layered harmonies, distinctive vocals. "Well, what kind of music you intend to play thru these"? CarpenterS I chirp. "Huh"? You know...Karen Carpenter? blank and unresponsive was he, much like his pair of $8,000 speakers. I then knew that I was dealing with an other-worldly alien of some sort. Thank you says I. "Oh here's my card". I was amused and at the same time astonished at his ignorance. This particular store is "one" of several in Portland that perports to have the ultimate listening experience available in the City.

God help me,

Jeff
 
I'd probably skip the new format.
I've spent enough money buying and rebuying Carpenters stuff- unless of course, there was bonus previously unreleased tracks added!

Mark
 
Jeff, your last post gave me a laugh.... :laugh:

"I told him repeatedly that the booming of "bass" was not what I was looking for."

:laugh: :laugh:


...whose also not into booming, online...
 
djn said:
That's a lot of info. Thank you. Funny thing is that the "high-end" stereo store that I mentioned earlier was recently bought by BEST BUY. Whady'a think of that? Do your posts and average common sense dictate a different arena for purchase? At this retailer...Mr. Man hovered over me.

Wow, that sounds so typical of the Best Buy sales practice (obviously the buyout was a good fit :rolleyes: ): dispensing misinformation to make the sale. One fatal flaw that bozo made was to imply that subwoofers were for "thumping" and that everybody wants that. Well, in a properly setup system, subwoofers do not thump or boom. They fill out the missing bottom octaves that the main speakers cannot reach. Especially on large-scale works like classical music, jazz, and even some rock/pop recordings where there are bass notes that the speaker can't even reproduce. Yep, cheap subwoofers will thump, boom and sound horrible (browse the Best Buy speaker aisles for plenty of examples), but then again, most places haven't heard of companies like Hsu Research that are known for making good, musical subs. (A couple of Dr. Hsu's models can actually hit 16Hz, which is the lowest pedal tone on a full-sized pipe organ...you don't hear it so much as feel it.) You don't know what you're missing, musically, until you hear a good subwoofer in action.

mstaft said:
I'd probably skip the new format.
I've spent enough money buying and rebuying Carpenters stuff- unless of course, there was bonus previously unreleased tracks added!

It's not going to happen in the near future, but CDs are definitely going away. Give it a few more years, and the record industry is going to push even harder toward a new format. Why? They are more easily copy protected. SACDs cannot be ripped onto a computer (even hybrids often can't, as the computer's drive will sometimes recognize it as a DVD, which its not, and not even "see" the disc), SACDs cannot be digitally duplicated, etc. DVD-Audio is even hard to extract the music tracks from. I just don't recommend anyone buy a CD-only player anymore for the home system anymore. (That's about like buying a Victrola in the mid 50's.) CDs will still be around awhile, but I wonder, if either SACD or DVD-A get a big boost in popularity in the coming years, if they will continue to cripple CDs with more lame copy protection schemes.

These new formats have not been growing at a good pace, thanks to places like Circuit City and Best Buy (who are too clueless to market it properly, and their sales droids have no idea what they are and how to sell them). One side of it is that listeners like me who hear CDs shorcomings can hear a difference, but the other side is that the record labels have more control over the distribution (read: copying) of the newer formats. On the downloading side, the industry can use DRM (Digital Rights Management) or something else to limit how a music file is distributed ("shared"). The labels just want their control back, and if either new disc format gains enough momentum, they'll be all over it like ugly on an ape.
 
Rudy said:
It's not going to happen in the near future, but CDs are definitely going away. Give it a few more years, and the record industry is going to push even harder toward a new format.

I just can't imagine John Q. Public, who thinks CDs are the best thing since sliced bread, and has a CD player in every room, PC, and vehicle, jumping at the chance to buy a new disc that can't be played everywhere. If it were his only choice, and he HAD to have a song, then maybe.

As usual it will be driven by the younger among us, those least resistant to change. Some of us can think back to our parents, who may have NEVER owned a CD, and were perfectly happy with their old LPs.

Many of us may fall into that category, perfectly content with our CD collections, and not needing to ever hear the latest from some latter-day Britney Spears-type on an SACD or DVD-A.

Harry
...currently resistant to change, online...
 
Just for the record I am a young person and...

I like change but I hate Britney Spears and Justin-I can't sing-Timeberlake! :D
 
Yes Andrew, we know that you're one of our youngest members, probably THE youngest. If I recall you're about 14, which, to put in perspective would mean that you were not yet born when A&M was sold by Alpert & Moss to PolyGram. At your birth, the CD was becoming the dominant force in recorded music, LPs were being discontinued, and cassettes were in their heyday.

LOVELINES was probably already in the bins, and the FROM THE TOP box set was still a year or so away.

My point is that you, as a young person, can probably easily adopt a newer format than many of us. We who are more advanced in age than you could quite likely have a lot of time and money invested in CDs and LPs. The thought of yet another new format is not as appealing to some of us. (Note I said SOME - there are SOME who will readily embrace the latest technogeek improvement in sound!)

I'm perfectly happy with CDs and don't relish the thought of even considering buying some of this stuff all over again. I've already done it twice in the home video realm, going from VHS to LaserDisc to DVD.

My limited experience in the higher level realms of audio rest on two discs - a DTS version of Herb Alpert's PASSION DANCE, and a DVD-Audio version of The Corrs' IN BLUE. Since both artists are passions of mine, I was eager to own those two and try them out. While they are a different kind of experience, they're not something that I gravitate towards. Both being in 5.1 sound formats, they almost demand that I sit still in the center of my home theatre are to full appreciate. It's fun, but gimmicky. If I really want to hear either of them, it's usually in the car and the regular CD format does just fine.

Harry
 
I pretty much agree with Harry post, that for this new format to really take off they need to grab the younger audience who buys most of todays CD's.

Fo me personally, I guess I am re-gressing :shock: I been buying more LP's this past year than I have CD's by a long shot. For me I get more enjoyment out of finding a mint Lp & burning that format to CD. In most cases, the sound is fuller, richer & my ears never tire of listening. It's weird cause some factory Cd's make me restless & almost tired of hearing it, where-as my LP's burned to CD, I can really just listen to them & I get "more" out of the play. I can also hear things little things that pop out more for me from the LP format, maybe it's just the way CD's today are being processed but I think that they are making sooo many CD's today that, are they really putting the "best" into them? Or are they trying to manufature soo many that there not giving it all they can. Hope that makes some kind of sense, hard to put into words.
 
Harry said:
I just can't imagine John Q. Public, who thinks CDs are the best thing since sliced bread, and has a CD player in every room, PC, and vehicle, jumping at the chance to buy a new disc that can't be played everywhere. If it were his only choice, and he HAD to have a song, then maybe.

The main point: it may not even be our choice. Our choices may be limited in the future to buying crippled CDs that won't play in every player (heavily copy protected) vs. a newer, better format that the industry has control over. The industry probably wishes CD was gone...yesterday.

The industry is also betting on the multi-channel features to be attractive, and that new buyers will flock to it. I'm not interested in the multi-channel so much now, but I do like sound that's better than what CDs provide. Remember, 8-tracks held on for awhile too! :laugh:

I just think downloading is going to end up eclipsing it all. As more people get broadband at home, more people will download their music through iTunes or other online services and burn their own discs, or load them into their iPods or other portable players. That's the entire opposite end of the spectrum: low-fidelity downloaded tunes of mostly mass-market music. If it works for the masses, fine...but the product we bring home in the future will likely be a higher-resolution version of digital audio than the CDs we're buying today.
 
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