SACD and DVD-audio..... your best and worst recordings!

RussKon · « **on:** 17 May 2004, 12:20 pm »

a recent thread had started this topic as an offshoot.....

what are your best and worst examples in SACD and DVD-audio???

maybe this will help us all build our collections with quality recordings!!!

thanks!

RussKon · « **Reply #1 on:** 17 May 2004, 01:08 pm »

i will post my choices - all are multichannel unless indicated....

on SACD:
Classical
1812 overture - cincinnati pops orch - telarc
carmina burana - atlanta symphony orch - telarc

Jazz
one more trip to birdland - maynard ferguson - verve
when i look in your eyes - diana krall - verve

Pop/Rock
live in '75 - earth, wind, and fire
soul vaccination:live - tower of power - epic (stereo)

on DVD-audio
the only disc i have right now is queen - a noght at the opera - very good!!!

the only poor recording i have is a carol king recording - tapestry....(on SACD and in stereo).....

Mag · « **Reply #2 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 04:39 am »

Just got Dire Straits/Brothers in Arms sacd in the mail. Gave it a spin at approx. 92 db and I was Wowed! Of coarse I bought this on recommendation from someone else and concor that it really is good. I have the cd as well, which is a good recording but the sacd on my system just blows this away the instant I heard it, with realism.

I also like 4 songs on Shania Twain/Up album which has a bloom to it in multi-channel that I haven't encountered yet on other sacds.

Kitaro's Live at Yakushiji is also good but cannot say that it is definitly better than the dts version.

Jeff Beck/Blow by Blow sounds good but I only like the one song, Freeway Jam.

Mike Oldfield/Tubular Bells was a major disappointed. Sacd didn't do anything for it because of the style or structure of the music. So save your money on this one.

carusoracer · « **Reply #3 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 05:11 pm »

I do not want to stray from the topic but I find some SACD recordings to be very hot sounding.
By this I mean if it is a particular performer, artist who is featured it seems the recording will highlight their voice or instrument but not allow the full overall sound of the recording to come through? i.e all of the performers instruments in the recording.

I also notice a roll off of high frequencies on some recordings as well. I luv the format and after listening to it I find I need to be accustomed to the sound of SACD before switching back to redbook. It does on several recordings blow redbook away. I can not seem to put my finger on it. Dynamics and swing are one thing I noticed can not be matched with SACD. Maybe it is the difference between PCM and DSD?

The best SACD I have is: McIntosh Classical Music Demo

I have not heard anything that good for sometime.

Nice thread!

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #4 on:** 28 Feb 2007, 08:27 am »

Porcupine Tree's Deadwing is a favorite of mine on DVD-A and a great sounding disc. A few of my other faves, for SQ:

DVD-A

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots- Flaming Lips
Sea Change - Beck
Two Against Nature- Steely Dan
Sailing to Philadelphia- Mark Knopfler
The Nightfly - Donald Fagan

SACD

Time Out- Brubeck
The Girl in the Other Room- Diana Krall
Dark Side of the Moon- Pink Floyd

Kim S. · « **Reply #5 on:** 28 Feb 2007, 12:06 pm »

I only have a few SACD's and overall I am not impressed with the format. Worst SACD-Cosmos Factory-CCR. To me sounds very processed and artificial. Best-Louis Armstrong-Sach Plays Fats. This is a joy to listen to in terms of content and sound quality. I also have the ABKO collection of Rolling Stones Singles which don't sound that great but I have never been impressed with the sound quality of any Rolling Stone recording. I have a Moody Blues SACD of Threshold of a Dream which sounds great. However I have some CD remasters of the Moody Blues that to me sound just as real. Finally I have some Kinks SACDs that sound good although maybe a little dry. Here again I have some CD remasters that sound just as good.

SWG255 · « **Reply #6 on:** 28 Feb 2007, 12:30 pm »

I just bought my first two DVD-A discs to listen to using the McCormack Audio UDP-1 Deluxe I'm trying to deciee to buy. Both are musically excellent and sonically excellent as well:

Mark Knopfler "Shangri La"
David Crosby "If I Could Only Remember My Name"

Both of these discs are the equal of the many good SACDs I have in terms of detail, but are punchier than most of my SACDs, although some of this could be the way the UDP-1 sounds since I can't play DVD-A discs on my VSE modified SCD-1 for a direct comparison.

As for favorite SACDs, I have over 150 discs now, and although I have one or two clunkers, most are certainly very enjoyable. Some stand-outs:

Ryan Adams "Heartbreaker"
Jacco Pastorius Big Band "Word of Mouth"
several of the RCA Living Stereo classical SACDs
All of the Moody Blues SACDs

BTW, I do all my listening in two channel.

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #7 on:** 9 Mar 2007, 04:24 pm »

All of the early Elton John SACD re-releases sound outstanding on both the stereo and multi-channel mixes. Not surprising, since Gus Dudgeon did them, as well as the original LP releases, which were also outstanding. Steely Dan Gaucho is also great.

On DVD-Audio, Fleetwood Mac Rumors is excellent and I prefer the DVD-A of Elton John's GYBR over the SACD version.

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #8 on:** 9 Mar 2007, 04:41 pm »

I've been almost uniformly unimpressed with SACD....they sound just as artificial as the CD (like Kim S. mentions above), but just with wider dynamic range. It somehow makes them worse sounding a lot of the time than CD...more dynamic makes things worse when it's a flawed format.

DVD-A's are almost uniformly better than CD's...and a lot of vinyl, too. I have only a cheap and awful Pioneer 656A to play DVD-A's on now, but I can still tell Neil Young's 'Harvest' is better (well, preferred might be more correct) than the vinyl version. BB King and Eric Clapton's 'Riding with the King' is powerful, too. Gotta' buy me one of them cool and cheap OPPO's soon

Looking at the range of responses so far, I see most of you are finding some of the same in the SACD vs. DVD-A debate.

I can't comprehend all the technical reasons why, but DVD-A is a more worthy format - the only one I'd ditch some of my vinyl treasures for

launche · « **Reply #9 on:** 9 Mar 2007, 08:52 pm »

Linkin' Park- Reanimator

Thing damn near drove me crazy, I tossed it somewhere and haven't found it since. I would probably give it away if I ever found it. I don't even remember which format it was. Maybe I was just having a bad day...who knows.

There was one other recording that drove me to such terror. it was a John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins effort called "Saxophone Madness" or something, I love them both dearly but I clearly was not ready for this one. To this day it remains my single most hated disc. It's probably a masterpiece but I tossed it somewhere about 5 yrs ago and haven't seen it since. I remember saying "I will have to revisit this in 10 yrs, I am not ready yet" I kid you not it sounded like the were killing elephants...it was unbearable.

Everytime I do the impression of how this disc sounds my wife laughs until she cries. In the 5 yrs since, I ask ocassionally and I have not met a person who has this disc because I would love to know what someone else thinks of it.

I'm cringing just thinking about it.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #10 on:** 11 Mar 2007, 10:28 pm »

Looking back, ChairGuy, I wish SACD had never been concieved. DVD-A is a far superior format IMO. SACD can sound good (in MC at least) but DVD-A has a lot more going for it. Too bad both were mishandled.