[Welly Wu]

How come when I go to buy a DVD-Audio disc, it usually tells me the different ways in which that format can be played and the number of bits of resolution + sampling frequency available while SACD simply states two-channel or surround sound but no bit-rate or sampling frequency? Does that mean all SACDs play at 24bit/192kHz or higher? And how come SACD sounds much better than DVD-Audio? What's up with this?

 

[Jasper994]

Whether one or the other sounds better could be argued by the two camps until the cows come home, hell freezes over, and the moon turns blue, green orange, yellow, turquoise and cinnamon red... To answer your other question, it is because SACD uses DSD instead of LPCM (although many SACDs are mastered in LPCM and then converted to DSD). If you do a search for DSD you'll find a wealth of information out there, but basically it uses 1 bit at a very high sampling rate (over 2M samples per second) to try to simulate a sine wave rather than DVD-A's 24bit/44.1-192khz LPCM (which by the way is generally compressed with Meridian Lossless Packaging).

 

[Musicfan123]

Just my guess, if you haven't configured your DVD audio player correctly, your player is probably only playing the Dolby Digital 5.1 or the DTS track, hence the lower quality.

 

[gpalmer]

Because there are more formats supported by DVD-Audio then there are by SACD which only supports two and the discs manufacturer is free to mix and match them any way they want. If SACD sounds much better than DVD-Audio then you probably need a new player!

 

[Welly Wu]

No, I got my player configured correctly. It's just I was musing aloud.

 

[Welly Wu]

Nah. I'm just trying to be a little instigator here.

Both DVD-Audio and SACD sound wonderful in their own right. That is what I hear anyway.

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally posted by Musicfan123 Just my guess, if you haven't configured your DVD audio player correctly, your player is probably only playing the Dolby Digital 5.1 or the DTS track, hence the lower quality.

I suppose there is also the possibility that your player doesn't even access the advanced resolution tracks on the disc (DVD-Video only, not DVD-Audio/Video).

-EDIT-
Oops didn't see your source... yup definately DVD-A compatable... Do we really need another DVD-A vs. SACD 5 million page war?

 

[Welly Wu]

Hey, why not start a war?

 

[Musicfan123]

I can see the two camps grinding their teeth right now for the showdown...

 

[Welly Wu]

SACD does sound much more like music than DVD-Audio though...

 

[Jasper994]

curiosity, what DVD-A's do you have?

 

[Welly Wu]

The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds
Fleewood Mac, Say You Will

Now that I'm done listening to my Top Gun SACD, I've just popped in the Fleetwood Mac DVD-Audio.

DVD-Audio sounds 10,000 TIMES better than SACD!

 

[Musicfan123]

No way! SACD sounds a million times better than DVD-Audio!

 

[Welly Wu]

Uh huh! Hell no!

DVD-AUDIO IS 1,000,001 TIMES BETTER THAN SACD!

 

[Musicfan123]

SACD IS better than DVD-Audio! My mommy said so!