Spectrum from SACDs-Very Interesting..and dissapointing

[ssully]

Awesome post, Disclord!

re: Philips' misleading/dishonest hype of DSD, allow me to refer again to the 2002 takedown of one of the most widespread of those claims, the 'square wave' hype

http://web.archive.org/web/200710110.../page_07.shtml

(it's an archived page so it takes a little while to load)

(I would add to that one that no one on earth is going to hear a 10kHz square wave as perfectly 'square' -- the higher harmonics above ~25 kHz are simply not going to be heard, meaning that what the listener 'hears' is more like, yup, that sinusoidal wave shown for the 44.1 kHz rate.)

I *still* see audiophiles on certain forums touting DSD on the basis of square wave reproduction; their other favorite, is the equally dodgy 'impulse' graphic that Pyramix hyped.

 

[Disclord]

Awesome post, Disclord!

re: Philips' misleading/dishonest hype of DSD, allow me to refer again to the 2002 takedown of one of the most widespread of those claims, the 'square wave' hype

http://web.archive.org/web/200710110.../page_07.shtml

(it's an archived page so it takes a little while to load)

(I would add to that one that no one on earth is going to hear a 10kHz square wave as perfectly 'square' -- the higher harmonics above ~25 kHz are simply not going to be heard, meaning that what the listener 'hears' is more like, yup, that sinusoidal wave shown for the 44.1 kHz rate.)

I *still* see audiophiles on certain forums touting DSD on the basis of square wave reproduction; their other favorite, is the equally dodgy 'impulse' graphic that Pyramix hyped.

I've had major personal stuff going on so I haven't had a chance to finish my post from the other day yet (I will finish it though), but one thing really gets to me about the whole argument that "DSD is better because it can reproduce square waves more accurately." Why don't they show us what a square wave from an analog tape recording looks like?

Multi-bit Delta-Sigma and Linear PCM (and the lossless packing systems that allow them to be handled easily on consumer-affordable media) have reached such states of perfection that nothing else can compete with them = especially DSD on SACD - there may be specific product implementation problems (when isn't there?), but the basic technology is beyond improvement until superconducting arrives; perhaps then we'll have 24-bit recordings that have 24-bits of real information and aren't wasting energy 'decoding' the noise of their last 3 or 4 bits.

Sadly though, as technology improves, consumers are given albums that have been brickwall limited so severely that a shellac 78 RPM record could contain their dynamic range.

 

[Ge Someone]

The introduction of the SACD was indeed because Sony/Philips were looking for a successor of the Digital Audio Compact Disc. For them a big point was that it was hard or useless to copy. To market the thing, they used what tech. industries always do, make sure the new system has HIGHER Numbers (hey, isn't the bit rate of SACD amazing) even if it's an apples/oranges comparison.
By the time Sony had their BluRay ready and in the shops, they put SACD on the backburner or should I say, burried it.

 

[ssully]

Anyone else seen this?

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/i...y-jackson-on-immersion-box-sets/#comment-4363

Mark says:
November 3, 2011 at 17:41
Julie, when you say “The organization prefers DSD” to whom are you referring to ? Is Pink Floyd, EMI, Acoustic Sounds,or James Guthrie-Andy Jackson?
Thanks

Reply

Julie Skaggs says:
November 3, 2011 at 18:26
By “organization” I mean PF, as specifically directed by their archival engineer, which is one of James’ primary responsibilities. James has officially endorsed DSD (his endorsement graces the cover of the Sonoma DSD Pure brochure, in fact) and every multichannel release he would be potentially involved with would originate with a mix for DSD. PCM would likely follow, given the market demand, as we have seen with the Immersion sets, but a release for SACD *is* in fact, a requirement.
Politically, of course, I can see why Andy didn’t comment on what was “better,” only that his preference was for DSD.

 

[grill]

Interesting also:

SDE: Are Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon sourced from a direct DSD transfer of the master tape or was it converted from hi-rez PCM ?

AJ: I don’t specifically know on these as it was James, but in general they are always taken from whatever was the mix master, in terms of the stereos of Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here it would have been the original 1/4″ tapes. James surrounds were mixed to hi sample rate PCM, and then a analogue domain mastering pass was done to which ever format (DSD or PCM) was appropriate for the release format.

Based on the spectra below DSD source seems to have been used for the DSOTM 5.1 Immersion and PCM (or filtered DSD?) for the WYWH blu: