It seems relevant that the patent royalties that Sony and Philips were reaping from Compact Discs was expiring around the same time that DSD was being heavily pushed to the market. 

sonitus mirus said:

  It seems relevant that the patent royalties that Sony and Philips were reaping from Compact Discs was expiring around the same time that DSD was being heavily pushed to the market. 

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Sure... conspiracy theories aside, the real benefit of SACD is it's support for multi-channel audio.
 
Of course, multi-channel is also available on other formats, as well (DVD, DVD-A, BD), but the Hybrid SACD can handle all use cases with a single disc and plays everywhere - which is why it has (kinda/sorta) survived in the classical music market.

krutsch said:

  Sure... conspiracy theories aside, the real benefit of SACD is it's support for multi-channel audio.

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-AOL. (Or, as they say today: +1.)

Although it seems that DVD-A and BD-A are replacing it in that.
 
It appears that multichannel audio is primarily a thing for home theater folks today. Audiophiles are slow to adopt it. But as TV, internet and stereos all merge into one single thing instead of three different things, more and more people will be able to play 5.1 music.

krutsch said:

   
Sure... conspiracy theories aside, the real benefit of SACD is it's support for multi-channel audio.
 
Of course, multi-channel is also available on other formats, as well (DVD, DVD-A, BD), but the Hybrid SACD can handle all use cases with a single disc and plays everywhere - which is why it has (kinda/sorta) survived in the classical music market.

Click to expand...

 
Though there are finally some signs of BD gaining ground in the classical world, which means being able to make easy backups and avoiding SACD rigmarole.

bigshot said:

  Although it seems that DVD-A and BD-A are replacing it in that.
 
It appears that multichannel audio is primarily a thing for home theater folks today. Audiophiles are slow to adopt it. But as TV, internet and stereos all merge into one single thing instead of three different things, more and more people will be able to play 5.1 music.

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Yes... I am surprised to see a resurgence of DVD-Audio, which I thought was even more dead than SACD. My last two 5.1 discs, remastered classic rock titles and released in 2014 were both shipped as DVD-A.

krutsch said:

   
Yes... I am surprised to see a resurgence of DVD-Audio, which I thought was even more dead than SACD. My last two 5.1 discs, remastered classic rock titles and released in 2014 were both shipped as DVD-A.

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True and I found out (the hard way) that my SACD player can not play DVD-A disks so I am either going to have to make sure I don't buy any or get a better SACD player that will also play DVD-A and while I am at it, Blu-ray Audio as well. Very few companies make such a player, Oppo and Marantz do and I think Cambridge Audio makes one but they are kind of hard to find.

What's wrong with multichannel FLAC?  Why do we need anything else?

hpiper said:

 
True and I found out (the hard way) that my SACD player can not play DVD-A disks so I am either going to have to make sure I don't buy any or get a better SACD player that will also play DVD-A and while I am at it, Blu-ray Audio as well. Very few companies make such a player, Oppo and Marantz do and I think Cambridge Audio makes one but they are kind of hard to find.

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Oh, that's OK... DVD-Audio is easy to rip to multi-channel FLAC (see next comment); Google: DVD Audio Extractor.

greenears said:

  What's wrong with multichannel FLAC?  Why do we need anything else?

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Nothing, and I've ripped all of my personal DVD-A, BD and DVD Video discs to multi-channel FLAC as soon as they arrive from Amazon, et al. I connect my MacBook via HDMI to my AVR, fire-up Audirvana+ and play away.  But, sometimes the discs come with pretty cool art work that plays on the screen during playback and it's nice to just to pop in a disc, versus hauling my MacBook out.
 
To be honest, I've been spinning more discs lately because of that last reason.
 
This is why the whole 16 vs. 24 bit thing is annoying for me, because it's a distraction from things that add real value to the playback experience, like well-mastered multi-channel audio. When its done well, it's incredible.

krutsch said:

   
Oh, that's OK... DVD-Audio is easy to rip to multi-channel FLAC (see next comment); Google: DVD Audio Extractor.
 
Nothing, and I've ripped all of my personal DVD-A, BD and DVD Video discs to multi-channel FLAC as soon as they arrive from Amazon, et al. I connect my MacBook via HDMI to my AVR, fire-up Audirvana+ and play away.  But, sometimes the discs come with pretty cool art work that plays on the screen during playback and it's nice to just to pop in a disc, versus hauling my MacBook out.
 
To be honest, I've been spinning more discs lately because of that last reason.
 
This is why the whole 16 vs. 24 bit thing is annoying for me, because it's a distraction from things that add real value to the playback experience, like well-mastered multi-channel audio. When its done well, it's incredible.

Click to expand...

 
What are you using to rip DVD-A (hardware-wise)?

rrod said:

   
What are you using to rip DVD-A (hardware-wise)?

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LG Super Multi Blue - it's very fast and rips are robust.

So I found out dbpoweramp needs to be purchased to convert flac to mp3 after trial expires so I needed more time to get the CDs out of storage and ripped to mp3 via EAC.

Then this came in today, Steven Wilson's latest album HAND. CANNOT. ERASE. which includes a download in 16/44 both FLAC and MP3!


And so after I get a pattern down for a proper abx technique i was able to get an accurate hearing of wether a/b=x or if a/b=y. I will admit it wasn't easy and took several loops of the same 5-15sec segments but here's my result with my secondary chain of: Foobar ABX <cheap usb cable> Vlink 24/96 <spdif rca cable> Audio-gd NFB11 >> Fidue A83 triple hybrid iem. My He560 at home is a better rig and I'd expect the same results.

A bit blurry so 9/10 with 1.1% chance of guessing. ABX is not half as fun as actually listening to albums. Totally a snooze fest that requires concentration but yes I'll take my FLAC lossless anytime over lossy, even on my less than great Samsung Galaxy S3. YMMV



Tags: @kraken2109 @bigshot @sonitus mirus  @Music Alchemist @RRod @Stillhart  @AxelCloris @Ivabign

Yeah, but how is the album?  You mention "snoozefest" as if Wilson's solo stuff isn't already a snoozefest...
 
(Only somewhat in jest... Porcupine Tree is one of my favorite bands, but I can't get into Wilson's solo stuff.)

are you sure the files are all from the same master and at the same loudness?
I know it sounds dumb, but they can put totally different masters for each file format. dunno if it's for rights troubles or just to fool people but they sometimes do it.

Haven't gotten into it, really looking forward to the 5.1 aspect of the album. Wilson is known to be one of the few that gets it "right"? Saw that it came with the digital download and the BD was only 4 bucks more so why not. My first surround album.

What's more important I think is that Wilson's albums gets a nod from the audiophiles. This album is no different in that aspect. As to wether I like the album or not, I'd be lying if I just didn't get into his stuff. Wouldn't call it boring, I was calling the act of abx-ing clips boring.

Reply to your post below Stillhart
Well color me boring, I like his solo albums. I did get into his solo stuff at the same time of Porcupine Tree though. Plus I only have Deadwing from PT..

My cheap Sony 5.1 bluray player at home isn't the most ideal but at least I'll be able to get a feel of a BD-A multi channel sound. Interesting you mention emulator, wonder how it sounds through that gaming headphone surround doohickey