Arnaldo
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2009
- Posts
- 232
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SACD is doing quite well with 50+ new releases every month and a back catalog of 7,400+ titles. Check http://sa-cd.net/titles/0/0/date/100/1 for a complete list. New recordings are usually DSD or high-resolution PCM, from 88.2kHz/24 PCM all the way to 352.8kHz/24 PCM, the latter known as DXD. Major SACD companies no longer record in 44.1kHz/24 PCM - the last holdout was the independent classical label BIS, but even they went to 88.2 and 96 kHz last year - so it's an utterly irrelevant issue as of now.
There has been also an increasingly healthy flow of reissues of older analog recordings, easily identifiable to anyone with a minimum of musical knowledge - newly announced reissues of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here (http://sa-cd.net/showtitle/7523) or Cat Stevens' Tea for the Tillerman (http://sa-cd.net/showtitle/7532) are obviously not original DSD recordings.
But regardless of the recording method, SACD players can read them all. And most newer Blu-ray universal players from the likes of Sony, Denon, Marantz, OPPO, and so forth, will play SACD even if not advertised as such. A complete list of compatible universal players is available at http://www.ps3sacd.com/sacd_bd_players.html, excluding SACD dedicated players from Marantz, Esoteric, Luxman, Denon, EMM Labs, Cary and other high-end manufacturers.
Personally, I find that anything recorded in high-rez PCM to DSD is vastly superior to the RBCD specs of 44.1kHz/16 bit PCM. The difference in quality is even more startling via a high quality headphone setup, specially in the areas of top-end extension, soundstage and background detail. Obviously, as a headphone listener I cannot comment on SACD's 5.1 multi-channel layer, but that seems to be a strong selling point as well.
The good news for those interested in high quality music reproduction via physical media, is that SACD is likely to outlive RBCD in the long run, even if as a niche market. And as a reminder to those following marketing trends, because hybrid SACD discs contain a RBCD layer, sales of all hybrid SACDs are currently accounted for as regular RBCDs.
There has been also an increasingly healthy flow of reissues of older analog recordings, easily identifiable to anyone with a minimum of musical knowledge - newly announced reissues of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here (http://sa-cd.net/showtitle/7523) or Cat Stevens' Tea for the Tillerman (http://sa-cd.net/showtitle/7532) are obviously not original DSD recordings.
But regardless of the recording method, SACD players can read them all. And most newer Blu-ray universal players from the likes of Sony, Denon, Marantz, OPPO, and so forth, will play SACD even if not advertised as such. A complete list of compatible universal players is available at http://www.ps3sacd.com/sacd_bd_players.html, excluding SACD dedicated players from Marantz, Esoteric, Luxman, Denon, EMM Labs, Cary and other high-end manufacturers.
Personally, I find that anything recorded in high-rez PCM to DSD is vastly superior to the RBCD specs of 44.1kHz/16 bit PCM. The difference in quality is even more startling via a high quality headphone setup, specially in the areas of top-end extension, soundstage and background detail. Obviously, as a headphone listener I cannot comment on SACD's 5.1 multi-channel layer, but that seems to be a strong selling point as well.
The good news for those interested in high quality music reproduction via physical media, is that SACD is likely to outlive RBCD in the long run, even if as a niche market. And as a reminder to those following marketing trends, because hybrid SACD discs contain a RBCD layer, sales of all hybrid SACDs are currently accounted for as regular RBCDs.
