Does HIREZ music always mean multichannel to you?

[timw]

Yes they do Guy. Not much of a selection but at least it's something! And...you can also 'trade-in' for credit there. This comes in handy when you get a DUD of a disc (like the G. Benson DVD-A you have mentioned). I certainly didn't keep that one for long!
Tim

 

[Cai Campbell]

I enjoyed the George Benson - Breezin' DVD-A. I'm not overly familiar with the title so I can't comment on the reverb issue. The disc, on its own without comparing it to previous releases, seems quite nice. It's been a while though and I probably need to listen to it again.

 

[timw]

Peter, The CD World(aka: my home away from home) is in Paramus,NJ. They have a chain of about 10 stores in the North Jersey area.
The Beck disc is SACD(I know this for sure since I've had it in my hands a few times but didn't buy it!)
Tim

 

[Guy Robinson]

I enjoyed the George Benson - Breezin' DVD-A. I'm not overly familiar with the title so I can't comment on the reverb issue. The disc, on its own without comparing it to previous releases, seems quite nice. It's been a while though and I probably need to listen to it again.

Cai,
It's like being in a cave with George. Just awful.

 

[Quadzilla]

Ya know guys, if you want to make a relatively minor investment for a big improvement in CD playback from DVD players, buy a decent (and that can be modestly priced) outboard digital/analogue converter. You can pick them up used sometimes for about 100 loonies if you look hard enough.

I have a Theta Cobalt and an HDCD Theta Chroma hooked up to my el-cheapo Panasonic DVD-Video player and Toshiba SD-9200 DVD-Audio player respectively and the improvement in both is amazing. I also have an EAD unit, but that is getting pricey. Audio Alchemy made some decent ones and you can usually find them around as well.

Never mind the 'built-in' DACs in most receivers ... they are usually pretty sad ... and use the coaxial connection rather than the optical, if you want the best sound quality.

Cheers, Mike.

 

[petermwilson]

Hi Cai,
What I meant re cd players was that until I got into Home Theatre, I never purchased a designated cd player, but as soon as i got my first dvd player, I started buying DTS audio discs.

DVD ECT magazine has a list in this issue of 4 or 5 recommended DTS audio discs. Curiously I've owned and been listeng to all of them and others since mid 2000.

RE RedBook vs HIREZ, your right, I just don't have much inthe way of an enlightened opinion since I don't own many RedBook cd's but I look forward to hearing everyones opinion.

Peter m.

 

[petermwilson]

Hi,
Speaking of outboard DAC's, I see Chord has a new one with a 4 sec buffer that would be about $10,000cdn.

I wonder if you plugged a Sony Walkman into it what the result would be??

Peter m.
PS: Any Canadians notice that Sting's "Ten Somoners Tales" is selling at BestBuy for $38cdn!! I've had this since 2000. It's a great disc but not for that price.

 

[Guy Robinson]

Hi Guy,

He shares your opinion on "Breezin". He loves the Grover Washington "winelight" though.

Re the cd thing. I'm not sure why. I've owned a couple of reataurants and kind of fell off the face of the earth due to that for large periods of time. I'm a late 60's 70's guy and don't think I cared too much to what I was hearing for the last 20 years.

Peter m.

Winelight is a great reference quality disc. The same day I bought it I got "Fourplay". They are both great, musically and sonically.

I think a lot of us here are from that same era. I saw Hendrix in the late 60's so I am definately also mainly into 60's and 70's music but there are some gems since then. Beck's Sea Change is one of those.

 

[timw]

Ya know guys, if you want to make a relatively minor investment for a big improvement in CD playback from DVD players, buy a decent (and that can be modestly priced) outboard digital/analogue converter. You can pick them up used sometimes for about 100 loonies if you look hard enough.

I have a Theta Cobalt and an HDCD Theta Chroma hooked up to my el-cheapo Panasonic DVD-Video player and Toshiba SD-9200 DVD-Audio player respectively and the improvement in both is amazing. I also have an EAD unit, but that is getting pricey. Audio Alchemy made some decent ones and you can usually find them around as well.

Never mind the 'built-in' DACs in most receivers ... they are usually pretty sad ... and use the coaxial connection rather than the optical, if you want the best sound quality.

Cheers, Mike.

Good point Mike, I'm running a similar setup with a Theta Gen-3 D/A converter. Great way to improve your sound quality when you want to listen to 2-ch CD music from a DVD player.
Tim

 

[Guy Robinson]

Ya know guys, if you want to make a relatively minor investment for a big improvement in CD playback from DVD players, buy a decent (and that can be modestly priced) outboard digital/analogue converter.

I know what you mean about outboard converters. They usually do make a great difference. I don't use the DA's in the receiver, I use the Burr-Browns in the player. In fact everything goes via the 6 analog outputs/inputs as I use all the converters in the player. The receiver gets no action at all other than the volume control. This seems to be sufficient for myself for CD playback, as I may play 5 CD's a month tops.
Most of the CD playing is done in my car and on the smaller system upstairs in the family room when we have guests.
My 100 or so hi-rez titles get the major play time in my listening room. It has gotten to the point that when I sit down for that 2 hours of listening every few days, I use the time for what I really enjoy, MC music.

 

[petermwilson]

Hi Guy,
If you like Fourplay then I think Dave Koz's "The Dance" would be up your alley.
I don't know how you feel about Al Green but I really like his "Geatest Hit's". Both are dvd-a

The Canadian Brass "Amazing Brass" put out by Linus, have comeup with a "compete with sacd concept". On top of being a well done dvd-a, they include a RedBook cd with the package and it's priced competitivly with other dvd-a's.

Peter m.

 

[timw]

Guy / Peter, A couple of other recommendations if I may....
Spro Gyra's "In Modern Times" and "Original Cinema". Both are SACD-Hybrid Multi Channel discs. VERY well done surround mixes.
If you like the music of Foreplay, Grover Washington jr., Dave Koz I think you'll really enjoy these...

Tim

 

[Guy Robinson]

Hi Guy,
If you like Fourplay then I think Dave Koz's "The Dance" would be up your alley.
I don't know how you feel about Al Green but I really like his "Geatest Hit's". Both are dvd-a

The Canadian Brass "Amazing Brass" put out by Linus, have comeup with a "compete with sacd concept". On top of being a well done dvd-a, they include a RedBook cd with the package and it's priced competitivly with other dvd-a's.

Peter m.

I have seen the Dave Koz disc a few times but really didn't know what it was. I will have to check it out now. I have "Amazing Brass". It's okay but not really my cup of tea. I haven't touched the redbook that came with it. I actually picked it up the day it was released for $17.99 so I guess it was a good deal based on the price.

 

[Guy Robinson]

Guy / Peter, A couple of other recommendations if I may....
Spro Gyra's "In Modern Times" and "Original Cinema". Both are SACD-Hybrid Multi Channel discs. VERY well done surround mixes.
If you like the music of Foreplay, Grover Washington jr., Dave Koz I think you'll really enjoy these...

Tim

I like Spyro Gyra. I have heard that "In Modern Times" is very good. It's on my shortlist of titles to buy. I just ordered "The Planets/Warriors" - John Eliot Gardiner and Bucky Pizzirelli - "Swing Live" (Both MC SACD's) from amazon.ca so that's it for this week.

 

[daved64]

I like Spyro Gyra. I have heard that "In Modern Times" is very good. It's on my shortlist of titles to buy. I just ordered "The Planets/Warriors" - John Eliot Gardiner and Bucky Pizzirelli - "Swing Live" (Both MC SACD's) from amazon.ca so that's it for this week.

Just think how many more discs you could have bought if you sold those bunnies in the backyard to the local Mandarin!

 

[Guy Robinson]

Just think how many more discs you could have bought if you sold those bunnies in the backyard to the local Mandarin!

Man, I didn't think of that! Wait, don't they only want cats?

 

[timw]

Guy, I have been listening to everything directly thru my receiver's 5.1 input too. What a difference since recently getting a Pioneer DV45 player!!! (I believe this is the model you have also?) My old JVC player's built in decoders were terrible!
I'm also basically just using my Pioneer receiver as a HT Preamp since I can run my seperate amps off of its preamp outputs and bypass the internal 90 watt'ers. This has made a huge difference too.
Tim

 

[Guy Robinson]

Guy, I have been listening to everything directly thru my receiver's 5.1 input too. What a difference since recently getting a Pioneer DV45 player!!! (I believe this is the model you have also?) My old JVC player's built in decoders were terrible!
I'm also basically just using my Pioneer receiver as a HT Preamp since I can run my seperate amps off of its preamp outputs and bypass the internal 90 watt'ers. This has made a huge difference too.
Tim

Yes I have had a 45a for many months now and I just love the thing to death. This is the first player that I have been totally happy with. I'm running 120 watts per channel which seems to be adequate.

 

[petermwilson]

Hi Guy and Tim,
It sounds like you have interesting setups for your HIREZ inputs, would you mind explaining how your doing it.

I got lost a bit with the mention of a 5.1 input. Are you running the .1 directly to the woofer?

thanks,
Peter m.
PS: almost forgot, In the nature of KOZ and Fourplay, ESTEBAN (enter the heart)

 

[ssully]

Right, hi-rez will not necessarily sound better than CD, but that is beside the point. The point is, hi-rez has the POTENTIAL to sound much, much better than CD.

In and of itself? I don't think so...at least, not until I've seen some decent evidence that people can hear music above 20kHz , and can 'hear' bit-depths beyond 16 bit. There's no good evidence from controlled comparisons, AFAIK, that properly done Redbook is *distinguishable* from DVD-A or SACD.

Also, high-frequency extension is not the main draw of hi-rez digital. The main draw is that the high resolution digital sine wave is much closer to a pure analog sine wave (as opposed to the choppy, staggered mess of a sine wave that 16/44.1 offers).

That's a common misunderstanding; what comes out at the analog end is a sine wave that is *indistinguishable* from the input sine wave, assuming good recording. And if it's really such a 'mess' at the sampling stage, how can there have been *any* great-sounding CDs, ever?

16/44 was chosen for sound reasons. The *scientific* evidence that greater sampling frequency and resolution are needed for *playback* is simply not there. Greater bit depth can be useful for *recording*, because it allows more digital 'headroom' for manipulation int he digital realm without information loss; if you start at 24 bits, and you end up losing a few after heavy digital massaging, you haven't lost anything audible. In fact DSD was originally developed as an *archiving* medium, with this in mind.

The reasons DVD-A and SACD *can* sound better than their cognate CDs is , IMO, because at this point in their history, with all the hype about their sound, great care is usually taken at the mastering stages -- to find the best source tapes, for example. Also, at least until now, the excessive compression/limiting seems not to have been applied to hi-rez releases, that's applied to CDs. In other words, it's still *all in the mastering*.

The other perk is multichannel remixes, of course.