Muddy Waters Comparison

[Guy Robinson]

I didn't know where to put this as it discusses both hi-rez formats. Does anyone find this misleading? He has a PCM (non MLP encoded track) and he is saying that anyone with DVD-V can play this. I am not sure how this would be possible unless your DA converter in your receiver was 96/24 capable. So does this then get passed through the digital connection to your receiver thereby not requiring the 6 analog inputs?

www.musictap.net/Reviews/...DDVDA.html

 

[Guy Robinson]

On second reading I see that he says that there are no path changes for either format which means the DVD-A is going out the 6 analogs. That means the player is interpreting the 96/24. I find it hard to believe that a cheap Sony SACD player has this kind of high-end hardware in it. I can almost bet that it is being downsampled to 44 khz and 16 bit which would render it as a "surround CD". Am I out to lunch here?

 

[Cai Campbell]

The "Folk Singer" was not released as a DVD-A, but as a DAD (digital audio disc). The DAD's were originally released prior to the finalization of the DVD-A specification by companies wanting to get hi-rez product on the market and too impatient to wait (who can blame them?) The only downside to these discs is they cannot offer hi-rez surround sound (they are stereo only) and they are limited to 24/96 resolution (no way to offer 24/192 and still play on regular DVD players).

Virtually all DVD players have 24/96 capable DAC's, since 24/96 audio is part of the DVD specification. Classic Records and Chesky (and perhaps other companies I am unaware of) took advantage of this by taking the existing DVD specification and simply allocating the majority of the bits to audio instead of video.

The analog output of your DVD player is how you can enjoy the high resolution stereo offered by DAD's, and they sound very, very good. However, if you utilize the digital output of your DVD player, output will almost certainly be "dumbed down" to lower resolution, usually 16/48, but it really depends on the DVD player.

Anyway, there are quite a few DAD recordings available and a majority of them are quite spectacular, including the "Folk Singer". You can think of DAD's as being DVD-A's father... get it? Dad? Oh, nevermind...

 

[Guy Robinson]

Thanks for the explanation. Somehow I missed this "interim" format. I also wasn't cognicent of the fact that all DAC's on DVD-V players were 96/24. So I guess then that a valid comparison can be made between a SACD and DAD of the same title and there would be no benefit of having DVD-A instead of DAD (as long as you didn't want 192/24 stereo or surround on the disc).

 

[Guy Robinson]

And of course as long as the DA converter in the SACD player used is of equal quality to the DTS hardware components. And as long as etc etc etc. Comparisons are always hard. Too many factors come into play.

 

[bnyhof]

Note that Musictap has now clarified the review to indicate it is DAD and not DVD-A.

 

[Guy Robinson]

That's because I E-Mailed Matt Rowe on it.