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High Resolution Audio Comparison (1 Viewer)

Lee Scoggins

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I like the documents, Lee.
Thank you very much. Please remember all that Technical is a PERSONAL opinion as I have now stated three times.
John Kotches,
I used Sony's charts because they are very well done in terms of graphics and I do not have the art background to do the description justice. These charts are also in the Technical document and as such do not represent a fully balanced view by design.
By the way, a Sony rep was on hand to verify my description as accurate when I presented the pages to the Atlanta Audio Society.
 

Ted Lee

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the links worked okay for me...i didn't need to "save target...".
thanks for doing this lee. i didn't really understand the technical doc...but that's not surprising. ;)
{{{ john kotches }}} :D
 

Jagan Seshadri

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Jagan asked Lee:
You have minimal resolution at zero crossing, whereby with DSD you have maximum resolution and on and on.
I agree with that statement. However, Meitner goes on to say that dither ('dancing bits') provides the only PCM resolution around zero-level. I don't know why he says this, since DSD is basically dancing around the zero-level itself. In my view, PCM+dither gets around the problems that Meitner suggests.
Thanks for pointing me to the article!
-JNS
 

Lee Scoggins

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Jagan,
You are welcome. I think you took more engineering courses than I did in college. ;)
What I am hearing from my engineer buddies is that switching all 23 at once while not enough to damage the local power grid IS enough to create errors in the bitstream.
It is an interesting phenomena and requires more research on my part. I think on balance each format has its own technical weaknesses. Nothing is perfect in digital it seems.
I go more by what I hear and I do believe that ultrafast sampling rates get the tonality and texture and note transients right.
Decide for yourself, however. I would just like to see high rez audio get more mainstream. I think we can do better than redbook and a LOT better than MP3.
:)
 

Justin Lane

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Still, I find cymbals very hard to reproduce in DVDA convincingly.
There's the famous quote...I was waiting for this one Lee, as you tend to use it in every DVD-A vs. SACD post. Cymbals sound fine to me on DVD-A though.;)
Seriously, I found the comparison decent enough but a bit SACD biased. The major problem I see is naming the Stones disc as watershed SACD discs when no one in the buying public outside of forums like these know these discs are SACD. Title counts are off as has already been mentioned. Overall some interesting observations, but nothing I would consider new. The same points for and against each format still exist and are not going to go away anytime soon.
J
 

KeithH

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Lee said:

It created tons of excitement and grass roots appeal and sold well as a catalog remaster.
The Stones are immensely popular. How can you begin to associate positive sales figures so strongly with the SACD format? The hybrid SACDs replaced the original ABCKO CDs, are located in the CD department of all stores, and make no mention of SACD capability on the outer packaging. Had they been released as single-layer SACDs and sold as well, that would really be something. I would then say that SACD had arrived. However, there is no way that they would sell nearly as well as single-layer discs. For one thing, far fewer retailers would carry them. There is no way that Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and all the other stores that are not carrying SACDs would carry Stones single-layer discs. The Stones remasters are selling well primarily because they are hybrids and because they are being marketed as CDs. Now, I am not about to say that SACD capability has had no bearing on the sales of the remastered Stones discs, but I feel strongly that the overwhelming popularity of the Stones has contributed to the sales far more than the inclusion of SACD layers.

You commented on the excellent sales of the Stones discs as a "catalog remaster". How often do we see remasters of an artist with the notoriety and marketability of the Stones? Furthermore, look at what ABCKO did here. ABCKO released 22 titles simultaneously, including UK versions of classic albums that had never been released on CD in the US. Metamorphosis had never been released on CD. Also, ABCKO packaged the remasters in digipaks that are faithful to the original LP artwork, which is an excellent way to gain the interest of dyed-in-the-wool Stones fans. This was a huge effort on the part of ABCKO involving one of the most marketable, if not the most marketable, rock bands in history. These discs were destined to sell well, SACD or not. Look at the popularity and hype surrounding Forty Licks, which is not a hybrid SACD. The Stones are hugely popular. So is the CD format.

NP: The Doors Other Voices (minidisc dubbed from the CD)
 

John Kotches

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Lee said this in one post:

I strongly feel that even in DVDA, cymbals sound too harsh and metallic and with not enough shimmer. And I hear this in the studio and on $100K stereo systems.
This is positively comical.

The initial capture is the biggest limiting factor in the whole chain, if that isn't done right . Having heard some very expensive systems myself, I don't find DVD-A to be lacking in any aspect of musical reproduction.

If you want to puff your chest up about those $100K stereo systems that's fine. Ever listened to the Meridian 800 DVD into an 861 processor driven DSP8000 loudspeakers? It's only about $80K worth of gear, so you'll have $20K left over to spend on treating the room for optimum sonics.

It sounds as good as the > $100K setups I've heard.

Regards,
 

John Kotches

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Lee said this in another post:
I used Sony's charts because they are very well done in terms of graphics and I do not have the art background to do the description justice. These charts are also in the Technical document and as such do not represent a fully balanced view by design.
The Sony diagram for DSD is about as accurate as this traceroute diagram for the path I take to get to the Home Theater Forum Web Server:

The only time the Sony diagram is valid is when the recording goes from Mic input to DSD to the disc. How many recordings have zero mixing and mastering steps?
I'm curious, in this truly balanced presentation you gave did you extend an invitation to Meridian? Their US offices are in Atlanta, so it's not like attendance would have been a tremendous expense for them.
Regards,
 

John Kotches

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Mike,

I find your post to be insulting and offensive on a personal level.

Posting an "in kind" reply would be in strict violation of the rules of this forum.
 

Dan Stone

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I really wish sometimes that people could simply agree to disagree on a topic rather than continuing to exchange barbs with one another nitpicking over trivial technicalities ad nauseum.

Perhaps then we can get back to discussing the music, which is what I hope matters most to everybody, despite one's listening medium of choice.
 

Jack Briggs

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Well, this one seems to have gone downhill for long enough. This thread is closed for the moment. I apologize for the inconvenience.
 

Parker Clack

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John:

I don't think that Mike was being personally insulting to you at all. He was curious to how you were reading them when he couldn't.

The error with not being able to download the files was on our end. It is now taken care of.

Parker
 

Micahel C

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OK, I give up. I've had no problem downloading this, but when I try to open with Word Pad, it locks up the program. Any ideas?
 

Lee Scoggins

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If you want to puff your chest up about those $100K stereo systems that's fine.
This is also unfair as I am not bragging about listening to $100K systems. That is fairly routine in the circles I travel in given my work with Chesky and the large number of audiophiles I know around the country.

I was simply saying that my opinion is that 24/96 does not adequately reproduce the cymbals properly on even very high resolution systems.

If I feel there is one benefit that working on some many music projects has afforded me is the right to express my opinion on sound quality.

John,

I was hoping that I could present my findings on the two new audio formats and we could then use this discussion to go into more detail on each point and debate in a logical fashion. These personal attacks do not add any value to the HTF.

Let's put aside our personal differences and focus on the facts and clearly marked opinions as I tried to present them in the documents.
 

John Kotches

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Lee,

The Sony diagram grossly understates the DSD side of the equation. If you go by the Sony diagram, there's that cute little disc in there that hides a lot of detail.

My diagram grossly understates the path between my computer and the HT Forum site. It's illustration by example.

Sony has better graphics artists than me.

Maybe the question we should ask is why Widescreen Review has not done a detailed comparison? That would be valuable for your readers. As I have offered before, I would be happy to help out there and could bring in some good references.
You are still confusing me with the senior editorial staff at WSR. Gary and Perry make the decisions about what type of content is included within the publication.

I don't know how valuable it would be for our readership. I have suggested in the past that you contact Gary and Perry directly about this, which could be done in our forum here, or via e-mail through the website.

Let's look at the evidence....

You mention $100K systems. You mention that $100K systems are common "in the circles you travel in".

You posted the information for commentary, and when people call you on your obvious DSD bias you don't like it.

So did you invite anyone to speak for DVD-Audio? I mentioned Meridian since they are local to you.

Regards,
 

Tim Hoover

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Micahel, I'm having the same problem. Download is fine, but I get an illegal operation message whenever I try to open either document.
 

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