SoonerCaniac
300 Club - QQ All-Star
Hi everyone,
With some isolated comments from QQers about Tacet DVD-A and SACD classical music, I started exploring the label (www.tacet.de) and have since fallen in love with this company. They truly "get" applying discrete surround sound to classical music and explore the potential of surround sound in a genre that has generally only received the ambience or "documentation of a live recording" treatment. I have only recently started collecting titles from the Tacet label and I hope to own them all or at least most soon. Listening to all of them will be time consuming, but I've been blown away by what I've heard so far. In any case, I wanted to see if there was enough support from QQers for a Tacet thread where we discuss all things Tacet. I was inspired by some recent press releases from the Tacet website that I will use to start discussion (hopefully!)...
Let's start with two news items that implies Tacet are no where near done with their surround sound catalog (from: http://www.tacet.de/main/seite1.php?language=en&filename=news.php&layout=news):
1) From the news headlines: "Good news for surround sound fans: this year at least 10 new DVD-Audios in TACET Real Surround Sound will be released." (20090320)
2) New web article from Andreas Spreer (entire article posted at end of post):
"The current situation with SACD, DVD-Audio and Blu-ray Disc regarding Surround Sound" (20090506) http://www.tacet.de/download/SituationSACD_DVDA_Bluray0905_e.pdf
While I support surround sound more than I support a specific format, I like what Tacet are saying in this article. They are not going to jump into Blu-Ray and risk alienating their customers' investments in SACD and DVD-A. They also prefer the DVD-A format over SACD, and they make some potentially controversial statements about SACD that are sure to ruffle feathers over at SA-CD.net (of course, they may also be making some controversial statements about Blu-Ray too). While I love SACD surround, I tend to agree with them about DVD-Audio and am glad to see that they will continue their support of the format.
TEN new DVD-As THIS YEAR! Wow! What a year for discrete classical 2009 will be!
Josh :banana:
-------------------------------
Places to buy Tacet online (some titles are very hard to come by!)
Tacet.de
*Crotchet.co.uk (Good selection and generally the best prices; multibuy campaign sale going on NOW...Save 12% discount when you buy any 2 titles or more titles. Valid until 13-Jul-2009.)
*AdagioPlus.com (Canadian official reseller; good prices especially for USA buyers given exchange rate)
ElusiveDisc.com (expensive but an official reseller)
SpinningDogRecords.com (expensive but an official reseller)
Amazon.co.uk (very limited availability)
*=my favorites
-------------------------------
"The current situation with SACD, DVD-Audio and Blu-ray Disc regarding Surround Sound"
"Dear Music Lover:
At TACET, when it comes to new technology and formats we place high importance on good surround sound (TACET Real Surround Sound and Moving Real Surround Sound). TACET has a solid base of satisfied customers who listen to surround sound. Which of the three formats promises to be the most interesting for our customers in the future?
SACD (Super Audio CD): Recently, more SACD players have come onto the market playing back only stereo recordings and not multi-channel (surround sound) ones. It would seem that many manufacturers do not believe that the surround sound SACD has a future. There is good reason to doubt that the SACD will become the market leader for surround sound, in view of the high manufacturing costs (two layers to ensure compatibility with the CD) and a low level of SACD player owners amongst surround sound listeners.
Blu-ray Disc: It is not compatible with SACD or DVD-Audio. It sounds good, but not any better than the other two. Customers interested in surround sound are (almost) sure to own a DVD player and often an SACD player too. If they wanted to use a new format they would have to invest in both a new player and a new disc collection. In the longer term, in the best case there will be three formats rather than two, all of which must be playable. That is, if the Blu-ray Disc is to be an alternative to pure audio formats at all, in addition to its function as a movie medium.
DVD-Audio: In its original format the sound quality and capacity are ideal. With a minimal reduction in quality it is compatible with DVD-Video and will thus in the foreseeable future be playable on any surround equipment in the world.
Conclusion: TACET will continue to offer DVD-Audio and SACD. For the reasons we have stated, we will wait to see what happens with Blu-ray Disc. If Blu-ray should turn out to gain acceptance in the audio sector worldwide, TACET can still bring out Blu-ray discs at short notice. At the moment, however, this would probably be counter-productive and unsettle our satisfied customers. TACET is making a clear statement: starting from now we are releasing ten new DVD-Audios in tried and tested TACET Real Surround Sound (one per month).
Yours sincerely,
Andreas Spreer
TACET GmbH"
With some isolated comments from QQers about Tacet DVD-A and SACD classical music, I started exploring the label (www.tacet.de) and have since fallen in love with this company. They truly "get" applying discrete surround sound to classical music and explore the potential of surround sound in a genre that has generally only received the ambience or "documentation of a live recording" treatment. I have only recently started collecting titles from the Tacet label and I hope to own them all or at least most soon. Listening to all of them will be time consuming, but I've been blown away by what I've heard so far. In any case, I wanted to see if there was enough support from QQers for a Tacet thread where we discuss all things Tacet. I was inspired by some recent press releases from the Tacet website that I will use to start discussion (hopefully!)...
Let's start with two news items that implies Tacet are no where near done with their surround sound catalog (from: http://www.tacet.de/main/seite1.php?language=en&filename=news.php&layout=news):
1) From the news headlines: "Good news for surround sound fans: this year at least 10 new DVD-Audios in TACET Real Surround Sound will be released." (20090320)
2) New web article from Andreas Spreer (entire article posted at end of post):
"The current situation with SACD, DVD-Audio and Blu-ray Disc regarding Surround Sound" (20090506) http://www.tacet.de/download/SituationSACD_DVDA_Bluray0905_e.pdf
While I support surround sound more than I support a specific format, I like what Tacet are saying in this article. They are not going to jump into Blu-Ray and risk alienating their customers' investments in SACD and DVD-A. They also prefer the DVD-A format over SACD, and they make some potentially controversial statements about SACD that are sure to ruffle feathers over at SA-CD.net (of course, they may also be making some controversial statements about Blu-Ray too). While I love SACD surround, I tend to agree with them about DVD-Audio and am glad to see that they will continue their support of the format.
TEN new DVD-As THIS YEAR! Wow! What a year for discrete classical 2009 will be!
Josh :banana:
-------------------------------
Places to buy Tacet online (some titles are very hard to come by!)
Tacet.de
*Crotchet.co.uk (Good selection and generally the best prices; multibuy campaign sale going on NOW...Save 12% discount when you buy any 2 titles or more titles. Valid until 13-Jul-2009.)
*AdagioPlus.com (Canadian official reseller; good prices especially for USA buyers given exchange rate)
ElusiveDisc.com (expensive but an official reseller)
SpinningDogRecords.com (expensive but an official reseller)
Amazon.co.uk (very limited availability)
*=my favorites
-------------------------------
"The current situation with SACD, DVD-Audio and Blu-ray Disc regarding Surround Sound"
"Dear Music Lover:
At TACET, when it comes to new technology and formats we place high importance on good surround sound (TACET Real Surround Sound and Moving Real Surround Sound). TACET has a solid base of satisfied customers who listen to surround sound. Which of the three formats promises to be the most interesting for our customers in the future?
SACD (Super Audio CD): Recently, more SACD players have come onto the market playing back only stereo recordings and not multi-channel (surround sound) ones. It would seem that many manufacturers do not believe that the surround sound SACD has a future. There is good reason to doubt that the SACD will become the market leader for surround sound, in view of the high manufacturing costs (two layers to ensure compatibility with the CD) and a low level of SACD player owners amongst surround sound listeners.
Blu-ray Disc: It is not compatible with SACD or DVD-Audio. It sounds good, but not any better than the other two. Customers interested in surround sound are (almost) sure to own a DVD player and often an SACD player too. If they wanted to use a new format they would have to invest in both a new player and a new disc collection. In the longer term, in the best case there will be three formats rather than two, all of which must be playable. That is, if the Blu-ray Disc is to be an alternative to pure audio formats at all, in addition to its function as a movie medium.
DVD-Audio: In its original format the sound quality and capacity are ideal. With a minimal reduction in quality it is compatible with DVD-Video and will thus in the foreseeable future be playable on any surround equipment in the world.
Conclusion: TACET will continue to offer DVD-Audio and SACD. For the reasons we have stated, we will wait to see what happens with Blu-ray Disc. If Blu-ray should turn out to gain acceptance in the audio sector worldwide, TACET can still bring out Blu-ray discs at short notice. At the moment, however, this would probably be counter-productive and unsettle our satisfied customers. TACET is making a clear statement: starting from now we are releasing ten new DVD-Audios in tried and tested TACET Real Surround Sound (one per month).
Yours sincerely,
Andreas Spreer
TACET GmbH"
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