DVD-A or SACD Player (1 Viewer)

[Scott Merryfield]

For my tastes in music I MUCH prefer the DVD-A which also does DTS 5.1.

Mark, any CD or DVD player with a digital output can play DTS 5.1 CD's. You do not need a DVD-Audio player for this. Of course, many DVD-Audio titles also have DTS 5.1 soundtracks, but if you already have a DVD-Audio player, why would you play the inferior DTS track?

 

[Brian Burgoyne]

I have a Toshiba 4700 so I am enjoying dvd-a now. BUT! SACD has a lot of recordings that I would like to hear. Like Stevie Ray Vaughn....

I am waiting to hear a little more info on the Yamaha 2300 universal player. The Pioneer Elite 45/47ai are tempting, but good bass management appears to be challenging, which has been much discussed on this forum.

Rob Gallo, there aren't any univeral multi-disc players out yet. They still haven't come close to a completely competent single disc universal player yet. Other posts have mentioned that Denon may have something this spring at CES, but I'm getting tired of waiting.

 

[Ben Jordan]

I challenge my 45A's bass management on a daily basis, and it really delivers. Sounds *excellent* ! Stereo or 5.1, the bass always comes out just right.

In fact, I was listening to one of the new SACDs I got for Christmas last night... Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue, and it blew me away! I had images of instruments coming from 10' high areas in my room that are nowhere near any speakers. It totally kicked and is the best SACD I've heard so far!

 

[Jose T]

I would go with SACD as a format. Better sound and more titles to be had. It will also depend on your type of music. More titles in classical, jazz and some rock. As mentioned in other threads Sony 775 is in your price range and fine component. The 555ES is better but it more $$$ and not in your range. If you can swing it go for the 555 otherwise the 775 is not an bad option either.

 

[Chris_Eff]

The Sony 775 or is the nearest you can get to a universal player under 300. It will play sacd great and you can listen to the DTS or DD tracks of the DVD-a discs since it is a dvd video player as well. Not as high quality as the lossless dvd-a, but great sounding none the less. If you bought a dvd-a player you can not listen to sacd. Then you can upgrade when the war (if it) ends.
Plus if you can find a hybrid sacd disc of an album you like you can play it in your car or other normal cd player.

 

[Mark_E_Smith]

any CD or DVD player with a digital output can play DTS 5.1 CD's

I dont think my Sony SACD will play a DTS DVD

 

[KeithH]

Mark, your Sony SACD will play a DTS CD via a digital output.

 

[Craig_Kg]

The Marantz DV8300 is also a universal player worth considering - it's based on the Pioneer 45 but has uprated power supply and analog output stages. Video is identical.

 

[Dave Moritz]

That is true Mark I own a Sony DVP-S9000 ES DVD and have no problem playing DTS via the digital output. I have to agree with mark.

 

[Ted F]

Why do you believe SACD to be the better format, aside from the larger library?
Has it been considered that there are very few DSD editing tools, and in most cases if you want to edit a DSD track you have to convert to PCM and back again, which eliminates the DSD advantage?
Is it of any concern that at 2.8Mhz sampling DSD only has a 1 bit amplitude resolution?

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Is it of any concern that at 2.8Mhz sampling DSD only has a 1 bit amplitude resolution?

Wrong forum, but the bottom line is that Delta Sigma modulation is looking at changes to generate the curve so one bit amplitude is more than adequate.

Now a question for you:

Does it bother you that the slow sampling rate of hi-rez PCM cannot capture musical transients like DSD can?

 

[Ted F]

I'm not really bothered by anything at all.
To answer your question, no. I have a hard time hearing much of a difference within a time period of 5.2 microseconds.
Point well taken with the increase of editing solutions, but that still relies on the assumption that everybody will use these solutions. The same goes with my point which relies on the assumption that PCM is being sampled at 192kHz, so both arguments are inherently flawed.
I would agree with you that at the top of its game SACD is better numerically. Easily. I don't find DVD-A that far behind, and in a double-blind with the same recordings on different formats, one at 192kHz and the other at 2.8Mhz, I'd be hard pressed to tell which one was SACD.
To be honest, I was just testing the water to see who knows what.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

To be honest, I was just testing the water to see who knows what.

No problem. As a recording engineer, I have worked on live events where we had a microphone attached to AD converters for both 192 PCM and DSD. Compared to the live event, the DSD was much more natural and realistic to the actual sound.
As for how many will use the new solutions, I would argue strongly that there are just a few solutions, the vast majority of which involve a pure DSD chain, so the chances are very high the new equipment will be used. In the past editing has been very difficult and had to involve PCM as this part of the chain was being developed (its still a new format after all...) but now the "one box" editing stations are easy and convenient.
Abbey Road Studios, EMI's flagship, just took delivery of a full DSD set.
By the way, in my world, 5.2 microseconds (how did you get this?) is a long time. I just completed an orchestra project where we lowered jitter on an Alessis by 100 picoseconds and the audible difference was significant.

 

[Ahmose]

Where is a good place to find dvd-a or sacd titles online for a decent price ?
Amazon.com doesn't seem to have many titles. Also is there any sites that reviews dvd-a & sacd releases ?
thanks...

 

[Philip Hamm]

Where is a good place to find dvd-a or sacd titles online for a decent price ?

www.digitaleyes.net is my personal favorite connection.

 

[Liam Shan]

I'm also interested in an SACD & DVD-A player, and can't find any records of a Pioneer DV-45A in Australia. Does anyone know if this is equivalent to the Pioneer DV-S655A?

Thanks.

Liam.

 

[Tony Genovese]

No problem. As a recording engineer, I have worked on live events where we had a microphone attached to AD converters for both 192 PCM and DSD. Compared to the live event, the DSD was much more natural and realistic to the actual sound

I used to hear this argument made all the time for 16 bit linear PCM. Do you think further improvements are possible, or have we reached the end of the line?

 

[Yee-Ming]

Liam:

I'm not fully up to speed on the worldwide differences, but I'd guess that the 45 is NOT equivalent to the 655; I suspect that the 655 is equivalent to the 656 that is available in the UK, although if memory serves the 656 does not have progressive scan whilst the 655 claims to.

but if you can get the 655, why worry about the 45? unless you're looking for better performance -- the salesman at the shop I go to swears that the video on newer Pioneer players is getting worse compared to their older models, and he doesn't think much of the 655.

oh well, all academic to me right now, there are no hi-rez discs that will entice me to try it, and I don't have a progressive display either.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Do you think further improvements are possible, or have we reached the end of the line?

Not even close to the end of the line...with DSD we just got started. Things will get better. I can't wait to hear Ed Meitner's Gen. 4 DACs.

 

[KeithH]

Liam, the DV-45A is part of Pioneer's Elite line, which is only sold in North America. Pioneer does sell equivalent products overseas that carry different model numbers and do not bear the Elite name. For example, the European (and possibly Australian) equivalent of the Elite DV-47Ai is the DV-747Ai (with no Elite badge).

Did you mean DV-S655A or DV-656A? Pioneer is selling the '656A in Europe as the equivalent to the Elite '45A. To add to the confusion, the '656A in Europe is a £400 interlaced universal player (DVD-Audio and SACD), while in the US, the '656A is a $200 USD progressive-scan DVD-Audio player (no SACD).