Wanting to gain SACD capabilities?? Best way...

[2channel lover]

I've paid in the $30+ range for a few SACDs, such as Jazz at the Pawnshop, probably one of the better recorded/mastered discs around:

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-At-Pawnshop-30th-Anniversary/dp/B000N39HOE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505920402&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+at+the+pawnshop+SACD

Dave Brubeck's Time Out SACD is also worth it, but I picked that up for like $12 around the time of his passing.

DSOTM was selling pretty inexpensively a year or two ago while there was still inventory ($10-12), but a lot of the OOP discs, often the most popular ones like that one, are going up in price still. Brothers in Arms is a must own especially while it is still cheap.

I would expect a reissue on DSOTM at some point...new I've seen as much as $120 when I was 1st looking for it.

I will definitely look into Jazz @ the Pawn Shop. I've got 3 or 4 Brubecks none are SACDs but I've seen Time Out and it's on my list.

The Pianist in Miles Quartet band...Bill Evans has a trio...his "Explorations" sacd is very good also and only $15

 

[Verdinut]

For those more in the know, are SACD's still being recorded/produced with any regularity?

While SONY jointly with Philips invented the SACD format, they have to a great extent dropped their production. SACD's are still being being released by smaller American, British and European record companies, but mostly for classical and jazz music.
For instance, AFAIK Concord, Linn and Chesky still produce jazz SACD's. I have a several but the ones on the Linn and Chesky labels have a recording quality which is really outstanding.

I am using an OPPO BDP-95 player and so many classical CD's are distorted. That is one of the reasons I prefer SACD's because these have usually been recorded at reasonable source levels to avoid that annoying edginess. The SQ always depends on the competence of the recording engineer.

IMO, the best sound rendition requires the surround format. I get the most satisfaction with SACD's, DVD-Audios, DVD's and Blu-rays with a DTS-HD Master Audio track.

 

[sterling shoote]

There is recent stuff out there Sterling, but a lot of them are re-issues.

Agree, if there is a "wow factor" with SACDs it is with multi-channel SACDs. The selection is limited to certain genres mostly...fortunately there is quite a bit out there that I like...on pricing...if you go to the speciality sites, the selection is larger but the prices are a bit crazy imo...especially for imports, but I've had pretty good success lately on Amazon...Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms" multi was $30 at Acoustic sounds...I got it for $14.99 & free shipping on Amazon.

Pink Floyd "DSOTM", and Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue" I just had to have those...DSOTM is out of print and for a new one you could pay 3 figures...I bought a good used copy for $34, and I think the Miles SACD I finally found it for $29. I won't pay that kind of money on the regular, in fact aside from those 2 I haven't spent more than $15-$18 on any of the others I've bought.

Bluray...I bought 3 so far none were multi I don't think but I've been pleased with the SQ for the most part.

Recently I've been buying the "Living Stereo" classic stuff from Amazon which is 3 channel for the most part. Many of these recordings were done in the early 1950's; but, they sound too good, like they were recorded yesterday. Cost for these runs about ten bucks plus shipping.

 

[Verdinut]

Recently I've been buying the "Living Stereo" classic stuff from Amazon which is 3 channel for the most part. Many of these recordings were done in the early 1950's; but, they sound too good, like they were recorded yesterday. Cost for these runs about ten bucks plus shipping.

I would suggest that you also give a try on the Mercury " Living Presence" SACD's. They were also recorded in three-channel stereo in the late 1950's and early 1960's. The recording engineers mastered their job and we can enjoy great recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra under Antal Dorati and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Paul Paray as well. I have several of these in my collection. This Mercury SACD collection, as well as their three Box Sets of Living Presence CDs which I have, contain real recording gems of the same period.

Also, one remarkable CD in the Originals Series is the Tchaikovsky Overture 1812 with the then Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and The University of Minneapolis Brass Band under Dorati. It features real cannon firing and an amazing dynamic range and a warning about possibility of damaging speakers.

 

[TLS Guy]

For those more in the know, are SACD's still being recorded/produced with any regularity?

Not really.

BIS are probably the greatest exponents of the medium. However since 2005 they record and edit in high res. PCM and transcode to DSD. I understand that is pretty general in the industry now.

Really DSD is a coding system that should never have seen the light of day. It came about purely to pander to audiophools. The system is impossibly hard to work in. So using PCM in production makes sense.

Honestly unless it is antiphonal music it is not really worth it. If it is just for ambiance then 2 channel recordings with good ambiance and Dolby PL IIx properly set up works nearly as well.

You can see the BIS catalog here.

Here is the Hanssler Catalog. The Britten War Requiem is antiphonal and is a particularly fine recording. That is something that should be in everyone's library.

Here are the Mercury Living presence SACDs, from the three spaced omni Telefunken mic, recorded either on a three channel Ampex tape machine or a three channel optical recorder by Robert Fine. These are fifties era recordings. They were remastered for SACD by Wilma Cozart Fine when she was in her nineties. These recordings are one of the best reasons for getting into SACD.

When you buy recordings from the Berlin Symphony Orchestra you get a CD, multi channel audio only high res BD audio, an AV BD and the rights to a high res download.

 

[sterling shoote]

Not really.

BIS are probably the greatest exponents of the medium. However since 2005 they record and edit in high res. PCM and transcode to DSD. I understand that is pretty general in the industry now.

Really DSD is a coding system that should never have seen the light of day. It came about purely to pander to audiophools. The system is impossibly hard to work in. So using PCM in production makes sense.

Honestly unless it is antiphonal music it is not really worth it. If it is just for ambiance then 2 channel recordings with good ambiance and Dolby PL IIx properly set up works nearly as well.

You can see the BIS catalog here.

Here is the Hanssler Catalog. The Britten War Requiem is antiphonal and is a particularly fine recording. That is something that should be in everyone's library.

Here are the Mercury Living presence SACDs, from the three spaced omni Telefunken mic, recorded either on a three channel Ampex tape machine or a three channel optical recorder by Robert Fine. These are fifties era recordings. They were remastered for SACD by Wilma Cozart Fine when she was in her nineties. These recordings are one of the best reasons for getting into SACD.

When you buy recordings from the Berlin Symphony Orchestra you get a CD, multi channel audio only high res BD audio, an AV BD and the rights to a high res download.

Until some recording entity comes out with a simple means to download multi-channel, perhaps as easy as downloading from iTunes, SACD, as limited for performances as it is now, remains the defacto medium for multi-channel

 

[Verdinut]

If someone is interested in getting one or several of the Mercury "Living Presence SACDs". both British MDT.co.uk and PrestoClassical.co.uk have only the same three discs available, but at a reasonable price (From $10 to $14 USD) which is a lot cheaper than what Amazon in US and in Canada are selling them for:
One is the Balalaika disc recorded in Russia and the other two feature the cellist, Janos Starker. By the way, two of these were originally recorded in 1962 and the third one in 1964. I knew my recollection was exact.

It's unfortunate that Universal decided to discontinue production of so good SACDs. Of course, it's always a question of demand.

 

[panteragstk]

I would expect a reissue on DSOTM at some point...new I've seen as much as $120 when I was 1st looking for it.

I will definitely look into Jazz @ the Pawn Shop. I've got 3 or 4 Brubecks none are SACDs but I've seen Time Out and it's on my list.

The Pianist in Miles Quartet band...Bill Evans has a trio...his "Explorations" sacd is very good also and only $15

I've got DSOTM on cd, dvd-a, DTS CD, and SACD. The DVD-A and SACD sound almost exactly the same. The DTS version is VERY different. Bass seems to be quite a bit hotter.

 

[pewternhrata]

Well, if you have lots of CDs and you do enjoy the process of playing physical disk, then by all means get a transport. Like I said - look for DSD HDMI support. No all do.
As for sound quality improvements for SA-CD vs regular CD - let's just say they are dubious at best. It's much more depends on the original recording and your speakers.
check out this site for better recordings:
http://dr.loudness-war.info/
Higher the DR number - like better the recording.

Also good read here - https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

I have these speakers at my office, positioned in nearly ideal way - away from any hard/reflective surfaces and far enough from walls.
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/jbl-lsr-2300

I had DSD/DSF capable DAC at my disposal, this one - http://archimago.blogspot.com/2017/05/measurements-smsl-idea-usb-dac.html
I had installed all sorts of Foobar DSD plugins and made sure that they send a native DSD to DAC and not PCM.
I did sighted comparison between DSD (SA-CD format) and regular CD recording (as flac 16/44) and couldn't tell the difference between them.
This was music I used (not youtube source of course)

What's the difference between the range norm,min, and max?

 

[2channel lover]

If someone is interested in getting one or several of the Mercury "Living Presence SACDs". both British MDT.co.uk and PrestoClassical.co.uk have only the same three discs available, but at a reasonable price (From $10 to $14 USD) which is a lot cheaper than what Amazon in US and in Canada are selling them for:
One is the Balalaika disc recorded in Russia and the other two feature the cellist, Janos Starker. By the way, two of these were originally recorded in 1962 and the third one in 1964. I knew my recollection was exact.

It's unfortunate that Universal decided to discontinue production of so good SACDs. Of course, it's always a question of demand.

I just bought 2 SACDs from the Living Presence Series, both classical...I think I paid about $24 for combined...I got them from Amazon actually.

 

[Verdinut]

@lovinthehd
@Jeff R.

http://store.acousticsounds.com/c/4/SACD

There's the following store as well: http://audiophile.elusivedisc.com/search?w=SACDs&x=13&y=5

 

[Mikado463]

There's the following store as well: http://audiophile.elusivedisc.com/search?w=SACDs&x=13&y=5

used them often, very satisfied.

as for SACD, I acquired quite a few through a recent estate sale.

 

[OldAudioGuy]

Have you considered a streamer with HDMI out, SACD is just a patented package to hold DSD files, for $289 you can get the VP70XD Industrial Digital Signage Media Player
it comes with HDMI out, you can download DSD files from many sources, and if you have a computer you can transfer your SACD files to a microsd card and play through the Media player, over all I think you will be happier as SACDs are near extinct and the DSD and higher file rates are becoming more popular.
From: Old Audio Guy

 

[slipperybidness]

Have you considered a streamer with HDMI out, SACD is just a patented package to hold DSD files, for $289 you can get the VP70XD Industrial Digital Signage Media Player
it comes with HDMI out, you can download DSD files from many sources, and if you have a computer you can transfer your SACD files to a microsd card and play through the Media player, over all I think you will be happier as SACDs are near extinct and the DSD and higher file rates are becoming more popular.
From: Old Audio Guy

I'm just gonna leave these right here
https://volumio.org/
https://volumio.org/product/allo-kali-piano-2-1-bundle/
https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Micro-Supply-Listed/dp/B01C6FFNY4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1515678195&sr=8-4&keywords=rpi+3
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-microSDHC-Standard-Packaging-SDSQUNC-032G-GN6MA/dp/B010Q57T02/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1515678217&sr=1-4&keywords=micro+sd+card

 

[3db]

The Sony 4K player, UBP-X800 will play them.

 

[sterling shoote]

Just bit the bullet today and ordered an OPPO 205 for pursuit of multi-channel SACD pleasure. I thought about the purchase 9 ways to Sunday; but, this morning I concluded there is not another product which will satisfy all of my desires. At any rate, I'm looking forward to sharing my impressions once I hook it up. Looks like that will be sometime between this Friday and next Monday.