[geepondy]

I don't remember the particular specifics but it was/is supposed to be what 24 bit? instead of the standard 16 bit audio cd. Has any music been released in this format? Was it supposed to be able to play in a DVD player or require a special player? It sounded promising and I would think you could be able to pick up the advantages with a good pair of headphones.

 

[soupy]

err..can a mod move this thread please? It's called DVD-Audio, been out for a while and many albums have been released on this format, tho it's a limited amount.

 

[geepondy]

I apologize for not posting this in the right forum but which forums should I have posted it in? It was kind of a newbie information gathering post.

 

[Jasper994]

DVD-Audio is capable of up to 24bit/96khz in 5.1 or up to 24bit/192khz in 2 channel...

You'll need a special player for it though... DVD player must say DVD Audio/Video or DVD-Audio (but Audio only is kinda rare). Just having 24/96 DAC won't do it because the player must be able to decode MLP (Meridian Lossless Packaging).

To use the 5.1 you'll also need to get an receiver w/ 6 channel inputs (analog) or you can try and find one with firewire (digital) but those are rare because the DVD Forum only recently approved the use of firewire (since copy protection can be used with this method).

The Creative Audigy 2 also supports DVD-Audio but I cannot vouch for the sound quality comming from a creative product.

You might also check out SACD as it is supposed to produce compareable sound using DSD (Direct Stream Digital) it's a 1 bit process that works at a very high sampling rate and is supposed to more accurately reproduce analog.

Unfortunately, both are fairly rare, and there isn't a lot of music available in either unless you get a universal player that plays both SACD and DVD-A and you have broad tastes in music...

Anyway, hope this helps, good luck!

 

[geepondy]

Thanks Jasper for the informative post. I know the original cd specs were based on the Nyquist Theorem which has since been open to debate. I wonder if the sound differences as far as the two channel mode is easily apparent between the two modes.

 

[Jasper994]

Sorry to say I haven't had the chance to hear 24bit/192khz yet... really though, most of the stuff that's out currently was never intended for the resolution of even 24bit/96khz so it's kind of a mute point for now...

And as far as SACD goes, they're currently using LPCM to do the mixing and then resampling to DSD so even that isn't showing it's true colors...

 

[aos]

Even regular DVD players are capable of playing high resolution audio. DVD standard allows for high resolution music and every player is able to play it back (I think it is not required from the player to have 24/96 DAC but it probably still must be able to play high resolution tracks). There is music out there that was released on 24/96 (I've also seen 24/48) standard DVDs. I have a few of these discs myself. The most popular I believe was called DAD (Digital Audio Disc) - as I said this is still just a normal DVD disk, has still image for each track and contains 24/96 stereo music. DVD-Audio allows for 24/192 (which isn't much of the advantage over 24/96) and for multichannel (which can be advantage) and is playable in only a small percentage of players. But of course it's encrypted, which is probably the reason that those DADs and similar releases never took off, as no major record label released anything on that format (at least that I know of).