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Diana Krall -Look of Love - SACD or DVD-A (1 Viewer)

Dave F

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Both the SACD and DVD-A release of Diana Krall's Look of Love are priced about the same. Is there any significant difference between the two? Any reason to choose one over the other?

-Dave
 

LanceJ

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Dave F: In my humble opinion, one format will probably have a crisp & clean sound quality that feels "alive" and the other format will sound quite nice with an inoffensive quality but is sort of just.........there.

PM me if you want to know which is which. :D

LJ
 

BrianMB

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I just got the SACD of it last week. Sounds perfect, crystal clear, and yes, very much alive. Especially the multichannel mix. Haven't heard the DVD-A so I can't comment on the differences.
 

John Kotches

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In my setup, which does favor DVD-A over SACD reproduction, the DVD-A of both The Look of Love and When I Look in Your Eyes is sonically superiour.

I'm currently using a Denon DV-5900 for SACD, and a Meridian 598DP for DVD-Audio, so I would expect these results.

On the Denon for both, the DVD-Audio is better, but the difference isn't as drastic as it is with the Meridian player for DVD-A.

In the end, either is quite good, and you'll have about a 50/50 split of favoritism, which will vary based on the leanings of the individual towards their format of choice.

I just wish she'd get out of this "Diana with Strings" funk and do some more trio or quartet work again.

Cheers,
 

Lee Scoggins

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John,

I would bet that the Meridian sounds great.

For what it's worth the SACD of this album is quite good.

If the original source was PCM, it may be worth going DVDA.

:)
 

Phil A

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I would concur with the above posts. When buying software, it is generally best to get it to play on the hardware in your system that will do the best job of reproduction. I my system, I have a Modwright fully modded XA-777ES SACD/CD player (for my main SACD playback) so I would naturally opt for the SACD version. That does not mean it would sound better in your system on SACD.
 

Justin Lane

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I own the SACD and have it is one great sounding disc. Another bonus is that it is a Hybrid disc, and has yet to show spindle cracking like a number of other Universal titles. I am fairly certain this original recoding was done in PCM, so if you have access to both Hi-res formats, the DVD-A will give you a presentation that is essentially the original master. That being said, I have no complaints with the SACD.

I may eventually pick up the DVD-A, but at this point the SACD suits me fine, as I am trying to avoid multiple hi-res purchases having invested in both DVD-A and SACD.

J
 

Rich Malloy

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I would concur with the above posts. When buying software, it is generally best to get it to play on the hardware in your system that will do the best job of reproduction.
And it may not simply be the playback hardware to consider, but rather your system as a whole.

I'm not nearly familiar enough with DVD-A discs and nor have I been able to readily compare the same titles in the different formats. But there have been many anecdotal reports describing differences in the character of the sound of the two formats. I've read many times where listeners find that DVD-A discs have more extended highs (not "tipped up" sounding, but airier) and SACDs have a warmer midrange and better controlled bass. These of course are rank generalizations and I'm certainly not able to confirm from my own experience. But if you have a bright-sounding system with a lean/hard midrange, you might find the SACD more listenable; if you'd like to hear a bit more upper-frequency energy and "air" from your system, then the DVD-A may well be better.

Anyway, thought I'd throw that out there for what it's worth (likely very little)... ;)
 

John Kotches

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Lee,

You'd be surprised how good SACDs analog output sounds sampled at 24/96K and treated to Meridian Room Correction.

BTW, whatever happened to your visit to Meridian? G kit is out -- what are you waiting for ;)

Chhers,
 

Dave F

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Thanks for the input guys. I have no real preference of one over the other, and I admit that my hearing skills aren't as trained as they should be, so I defer to those with better ears than I. :D It sounds like I should be fairly safe with both, and if they sound that similar, I might pick up both to try discern the differences between DVD-A and SACD in my setup.

But I'm still grumpy that her cover of "But Not For Me" didn't make it on to the album. :)

-Dave
 

Mike Broadman

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I chose the SACD for one reason- the DVD-A wasn't out yet. :)

Besides, it's a hybrid, so I probably would have chosen it anyway.
 

John Kotches

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Lee,

Ok. Now follow through this with me...

If the source is "so clear", and the 24/96K sampling is transparent to that source, why bother with DSD and lose things like room correction and other new technologies, which are tremendous advances in DSP techniques.

Cheers,
 

Rich Malloy

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For one, not all of us can afford Meridian gear (or Lexicon, etc.). I've DSP'd a DSD signal with my middle-of-the-road/but-better-than-average processing gear, and it sounds rather significantly worse than a straight analog signal from my SACD player.

But if I had the money to buy Meridian... I'd get dCS gear instead (with DSD-upsampling)! ;)
 

John Kotches

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Rich,

I wouldn't, but that's just me ;) I've heard the dCS gear, and while wonderful, it isn't quite my cup of tea.

The point is simply that if well done 24/96K is transparent to the source, there's little point to DSD.

Cheers,
 

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