You'll have to bear with me... I have a lot of trouble with descriptive audiophile terminology. I usually have to get help to translate it into something I understand. I know how to achieve various effects in the studio, so that's how I tend to describe these sorts of things.
I hate to break your post down, and please don't think I'm tearing what you say apart... If any of my translations are wrong, feel free to correct me.
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Originally Posted by Welly Wu
I think that the Hybrid SA-CD 2 channel stereo layer is concocted in such a way as to play to the "stereotypical" strengths of the SA-CD format: warmth, liquidity, smoothness, and a quasi-analog + tubes body of sound circa the 1970s vintage gear that audiophiles will kill for.
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"Warmth, liquidity and smoothness" all seems to indicate a very even frequency response through the low mids. Digital reverberation will also tend to smooth sound out, especially when it replaces old fashioned wire reverbs like they did with the Rolling Stones remasters. In fact, a very slight digital reverb across the whole track will smooth it considerably without even being apparent as a reverb if a low level noise gate is applied to damp the ring out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Welly Wu
The midrange is highly colored with closer than zoom lenses miking
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OK... obviously when they're remastering, they can't change the placement of the mikes, so it isn't a matter of mike placement. However, applying compression to bring up low level sound, rather than peak limiting on the vocals will pop the mids like that, and a slight boost to the upper mids/low highs will add sparkle to the jangle of acoustic guitars and the clarity of consonants in vocals and the sharpness of attack in instruments, making it appear to be closer to the mike.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Welly Wu
However, the Red Book CD version sounds much more evenly balanced with no bottom or top roll off. It just sounds right to me and I play it more than the SA-CD version.
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OK... there may be a couple of things at play here... For one thing, I'm sure that they use some sort of digital dynamic noise suppressor to push the tape hiss or room tone down in the quiet passages. All of the legacy titles I auditioned had little or no sustained tape hiss through quiet passages. There's a psycho-acoustic principle that states that a barely perceptable bed of hiss will make the sound appear to be brighter and less filtered on top, and stone dead silences tend to make music sound a bit blunt in the gaps between notes. That would address the midrange punch and brighter highs.
I really don't think they would apply a low end roll off. The bandwidth of both 16/44.1 and SACD are able to contain all the bass they need. The only time low end bass would be rolled off is for radio broadcast or cutting to LP.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Welly Wu
The funny thing is that I have Rachel Podger's Antonio Vivaldi: La Stravaganza 12 Violin Concertos on both Red Book CD and Hybrid SA-CD. The Red Book CD version sounds less, well, SAUCY in the midrange. The SA-CD distortions don't show up and I trust it as being more natural and closer to the source recording, mixing, and mastering.
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OK, here is a theory on that one... That particular recording was made in an old Polish church. A review I found of the CD version online mentioned that the details tended to get a little lost into the bloom of the bass reverberating in the church. Could they have read the reviews and pulled back a little bit on the mikes covering the room reverberation in their remaster for SACD? If it was done subtly, you wouldn't notice it that much, but it would sharpen up the midrange, expecially violin sheen, which is the first thing to get swallowed up by reverberation.
I haven't heard the particular recordings you're referring to, so my comments are just speculation. Do you think that any of this could be possible?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Welly Wu
SA-CD makes people think it sounds better because it sounds different from the Red Book CD version.
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I think you're right, and I think the difference has more to do with subtle mastering tweaks, than it does differences in format.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Welly Wu
Now, let's talk about DVD-AUDIO. It has the potential to deliver the goods that take it one notch above Red Book CD. No PCM -> DSD conversion. Proven track record to record faithfully and equitably at all frequency spectra. Digital and multi-channel ready along with video to boot. It could have, should have, and would have been the perfect replacement for Red Book CDs. Alas...
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It seems to me that the consumer and media companies seem to be in agreement that new formats should contain more information of the same old resolution, rather than the same amount of information in higher resolution. That whole scam with chopping HiDef TV broadcast frequencies into 4 separate standard broadcast channels is typical.
I have a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display in my office, and I have to admit that standard DVDs look absolutely fantastic on it. HiDef looks better, but not to a degree that it would matter to most people. Assuming that there is a perceptable difference between SACD and CD, (which I'm not convinced of yet...) I suspect the public is greeting the improvement with a yawn.
See ya
Steve