CD = SACD = DVD-A

January 18, 2008 by Lukas Gilkey



Peter Aczel has written an article on The Audio Critic website that references a very interesting study done by two veteran audio journalists. The article discusses the study's findings which basically boil down to there being no audible difference between plain old CD's and the newer high resolution disc formats (SACD/DVD-A) in a stereo setup.

It's a pretty interesting article, and definitely worth a read. If you aren't familiar with The Audio Critic e-zine, they offer a no bullshit attitude towards audio and have a wonderful way of making things understandable. It is one of my favorite audio websites and they always have some very interesting topics.

Click the link below for the article.

Source: The Audio Critic
Comments (3)
heavystarch 10 months and 1 week ago

I've always felt that the original recording quality, production, mastering, mics etc have ALWAYS had the greatest influence on the sound. I have tons of CD's from smaller, more sound conscious record labels and those are some of the sweetest sounding CD's.
Dave Kay 10 months and 1 week ago

The conclusion of the article at least the way it is presented is arguable. The article seems to assume that all DVD-A/SACDs are basically the same quality, which just isn't true. There are SACDs that were remixed from 48kHz PCM which definitely do NOT sound as good as DSD recordings. Just as converting DSD to PCM for the purposes of bass management basically ruins all of the benefit, using material that wasn't originally produced specifically for SACD has the same effect.

DVD-As require source material from original high-res masters to sound their best. Upmixing standard masters for DVD-A is no different than upconverting a standard def DVD to 1080p, it looks nice but its not high def. I definitely do not think that 16/44.1 is "as good as it gets".
heavystarch 10 months and 1 week ago

Dave you make a great point.
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