Animals Retrospective: is it REALLY an SACD?

U

Upgrade

Audiophyte
Just got The Animals "Retrospective" and although every website where I have seen this album describes it as an SACD, I see no mention of SACD anywhere on the album itself (no SACD symbol, either). All it does say is that is DSD. Any one know more about this issue?
 
M

matthewraz

Enthusiast
i have that disk. it has the sacd logo on the cd and the back of the digipack (cardboard packaging, not jewelcase)
 
M

matthewraz

Enthusiast
i have that disc. it has the sacd logo on the cd and the back of the digipack (cardboard packaging, not jewelcase)
 
S

skriefal

Enthusiast
Upgrade said:
Just got The Animals "Retrospective" and although every website where I have seen this album describes it as an SACD, I see no mention of SACD anywhere on the album itself (no SACD symbol, either). All it does say is that is DSD. Any one know more about this issue?
My copy of it -- purchased shortly after release -- was recognized as an SACD by my Pioneer DV-563A SACD/DVD-A player. It's packed in a box right now (upcoming move) so I cannot verify whether the packaging mentioned the presence of an SACD layer.
 
U

Upgrade

Audiophyte
I checked my CD again and still no SACD sign, only DSD and something called SBM. Mine came in a jewel case, not a digipack. Damn will I be mad if Amazon.com is advertising this as a Hybrid SACD when it is not.

I guess I need to find an SACD player to confirm (still waiting to purchase one).
 
B

BostonMark

Audioholic
why are you buying

SACDs if you don't have an SACD player??

If it is DSD though, that is the format SACDs use. I bought some new Rolling Stones CDs which I thought were remasters, and I was delighted to find out they were actually hybrid SACDs. The packaging indicated in no way that these were SACDs and they were at CD prices. If I had known, I would have bought more!!!
 
U

Upgrade

Audiophyte
BostonMark said:
SACDs if you don't have an SACD player??
Because I lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and I am waiting until I have a permanent place to live before re-purchasing any equipment. The Animals album is supposed to be a hybrid SACD, so I can listen to it in my car until I have a home and stereo again.
 
B

BostonMark

Audioholic
Sorry to hear that

hope you are able to rebuild and regroup. To answer your original quesiton though, I am pretty sure if is encoded DSD, it is the format used by SACD. I think one of the problems in marketing with SACD was the lack of format. I used to have these stupid plastic cases on my SACDs that slid over the regular jewel case. I threw them away because they just gave one more step to playing an SACD. I keep all my SACDs together, because I really have to examine the darn things to figure out if its the regular CD or the SACD. Best of wishes!
 
RobertC

RobertC

Audiophyte
I just received this disc from buy.com. It looks as Upgrade describes it. It will not play as an SACD in my Sony player. If you look at the bottom it has the gold tint like hybrids usually do but it won't play as SACD. :(
 
dvda-sacd

dvda-sacd

Junior Audioholic
Upgrade said:
I see no mention of SACD anywhere on the album itself (no SACD symbol, either). All it does say is that is DSD.
You have got the CD (DSD remastered) version.

Regards,
Leo F.L.
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Darn I just picked up a copy of Animals on sale for $9.99 on CD and never thought to check for an SACD version. What a great album even to this day!
 
Zer0beaT

Zer0beaT

Junior Audioholic
Thought I'd chime in.

I work in a CD store that deals in mainly used CD's, but we carry new CD's aswell but only current releases and old stuff that we rarely see traded in which compliments our stock (and spreads good music).

Anyway, the Animals: Retrospective cd on ABCKO is one of those CD's. It has sold like crazy in our store, we get replenishments in every order each week.

It used to come in a digipack (cardboard case). This version is 2 channel SACD/CD hybrid. Sounds amazing, really good mastering. Anyway, suddenly we started getting it in a regular plastic jewel case, and I do believe the SACD symbol is missing on the back, whereas the digipack version has the SACD symbol (I've got it in my hands).

I noticed another CD that had the DSD symbol on it but no SACD symbol, a Sam Cooke best of.

So I don't know if DSD equals SACD. The Animals cd in my hand right now has both SACD and DSD and Direct SBM symbols on it. I have a feeling DSD and SACD are different things, and that the lack of SACD symbol indicates that it is NOT SACD, but used the same mastering methods etc. so perhaps equivalent to the "20Kbit" thing eg. CCR.

One thing you can do is look at the discs playing surface. If it's goldish colour like a DVD than it's a dual layer dics and likely a SACD/CD hybrid. If it's silver, then they've probably dropped the SACD layer but used the same master, hence the DSD symbol.

Let's be frank, who could blame any record company from dropping SACD, very few (like less than 1%) of people, who are into music, have even heard the term, much less know what it means or how to take advantage of it.
 
S

soundboy

Audiophyte
The Animals "Retrospective" was originally issued, in a digipak, as a hybrid SACD. It was later re-issued, in a regular CD jewel case, as a regular CD (although DSD-remastered). Both versions have the same bar-code number and catalog number.

This also happened to ABKCO SACD releases such as the Rolling Stones titles, the Herman & the Hermits retrospective, and the Sam Cooke "Portrait of a Legend"....initially a SACD, then re-issued as a regular CD in a CD jewel case.

BTW, there're a number of DSD-remastered CD titles out there. The just-released 2 CD "The Essential Elvis" collection is one. Not to mention various classical CDs fro Sony Classical, Telarc, etc.
 
D

drmusic

Audiophyte
Animals Retrospective

Just got The Animals "Retrospective" and although every website where I have seen this album describes it as an SACD, I see no mention of SACD anywhere on the album itself (no SACD symbol, either). All it does say is that is DSD. Any one know more about this issue?
Check out direct stream digital
 
Last edited:
D

drmusic

Audiophyte
Just got The Animals "Retrospective" and although every website where I have seen this album describes it as an SACD, I see no mention of SACD anywhere on the album itself (no SACD symbol, either). All it does say is that is DSD. Any one know more about this issue?
dsd Direct Stream digital
 
djreef

djreef

Audioholic Chief
It's good to see the industry is yet again pulling another bait and switch. When are these guys gonna learn?

DJ
 
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