Sony laptop reads and writes SACD

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ferret-e

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Sony releases new VAIO JS1 with full SACD/DSD support. SACD coming to PC???

Movie soundtracks are enhanced by Dolby Home Theatre® technology which creates an impressive virtual surround sound effect, and audiophiles can take advantage of the special features offered by Sony’s Sound Reality signal processor chip built into the system.

This can handle Super Audio CD (SA-CD), allowing the JS1 to record, edit and play music at SA-CD quality, and even upgrade older recordings to the new standard.

Sound Reality can up-convert conventional CD-quality music into uncompressed Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format. Using the pre-installed SonicStage Mastering Studio software, the DSD signal can be re-mastered into 5.1 Super Audio CD, revitalising the original.

Sony JS1 specifications can be found here.

1223024481_sony-vaio-js1.jpg
 
Very dubious of this report.
DSD is a different animal to SACD. We have had lots of DSD capable devices for a while now, the ASIO standard has been updated to include this too. It does *not* necessarily mean that there is an SACD Creation application there.
This is expensive (no surprise there) and I very much doubt the reviewer has got his facts straight.
To quote from http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/gb/en/exploration/software/sonicstagems.jsp
"SonicStage Mastering Studio is an application that lets you record songs from analog records or cassette tapes into your computer, and create an audio CD or DSD Disc, or output to audio files."
This means a DSD disc, not an SACD. FWIW, DSD was originally developed as an archival format - not a playable one.
I suspect that the beast will create a DSD disc that can then be shipped to replication for pressing to an SACD. You cannot write them.
 
This was official Sony's press-release;)

"DSD Disc"... What is it??? DVD with .dsf?
 
This is pretty interesting. According to the PDF at the bottom of the page on the PS3SACD.com link that Jens posted (which is a damn interesting link, by the way), Sony intends for DSD to replace CD-R... at least in the home recording market.

The whole thing is confusing to me, though. Not all SACD players can play these home brewed DSD discs (in fact only the PS3 (any PS3 w/ firmware 1.6 or later, not just the SACD capable models) and one other Sony ES line SACD player), but you can play back the discs on any windows PC with WMP and a special (free) plugin and burn the discs with any DVD writer. Why can't other SACD players do it? What's the point?

Does it provide the home user any advantage over say, DiscWelder Bronze (other than resolution)? Can a homebrew DSD disc handle 5.1 at full DSD 1-bit resolution?

Furthermore, what's the point of saying "oh yeah, you can do this at home guys" AFTER SACD's failure in the marketplace? Shouldn't they have launched about 5-8 years ago as part of an all out attack on the (in Sony's eyes) aging PCM paradigm?
 
Anytime sony uses the word "quality" after a claim, assume "inferior quality but might pass for".
 
Update: The press release turns out to have been confusing and confused. Confusing in the sense that this PC cannot handle SACD -- the processor could but the drive can't. The author must have been confused because although this PC comes with SonicStage Mastering Studio which can handle DSD, the DSD Disc format still only supports stereo -- not 5.1. The question about the DVD/BD writer remains unanswered.

That's a big surprise then - NOT.

Still don't get the SACD/DSD fuss - it ain't got the dynamic range of DTS, never mind full DVD-A.
Waste of time.
 
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