SACD Quirk?

[mel graf]

After laboriously hooking up Yamaha's 1700s universal player, I was mistified why on many SACD's the center channel was silent? Other SACD were OK. I activated the multi channel control as directed and was carefull I had connected the annalog channels properly, including the center channel.

The problem SACD's played properly when I directed the player to CD and wound up hearing it in Prologic xll.

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[j_garcia]

What do you mean "many"? Can you give an example of a few? Note that all SACDs are NOT 5.1, there are quite a few out there that are stereo only - this will be indicated on the package.

 

[krabapple]

also, there are even some that are 4.0 -- no center or LFE. Surround comes in many formats . Some discs that are '5.1' have little or no center channel information in the mix. That's an artistic choice.

 

[j_garcia]

I've heard quite a few SACDs, but I haven't come across any 4.0s yet. I heard there are a few of them out there though.

 

[westcott]

I've heard quite a few SACDs, but I haven't come across any 4.0s yet. I heard there are a few of them out there though.

Dark Side of the Moon is 4.1 and 5.1 in SACD and DVD audio. Original mix by Parsons was 4.0, way back when 4.0 first came out, but only on CD if I remember correctly.

 

[pbarach1]

I've heard quite a few SACDs, but I haven't come across any 4.0s yet. I heard there are a few of them out there though.

Pentatone reissues some classical CD's in 4.0 that were originally recorded in quad for Phillips during the 1970's.

 

[markw]

RCA Living Stereo SACD's use the front three channels only. That's the way they were originally mastered back in the 50's and 60's. Don't be expecting anything from the rears.

 

[WeAreSurrounded]

Dark Side of the Moon is 4.1 and 5.1 in SACD and DVD audio. Original mix by Parsons was 4.0, way back when 4.0 first came out, but only on CD if I remember correctly.

There's no official TDSOTM in DVD-A format ...
And ... CDs were and still are only 2-channel media, thus - no, you did not remember it correctly TDSOTM was available in QUAD on LPs and Quad 8-track tapes.

 

[pbarach1]

There's no official TDSOTM in DVD-A format ...
And ... CDs were and still are only 2-channel media

Actually, there were some CD's issued in matrixed surround formats, such as Dolby Surround. There were only two channels recorded on the CD, but playback through a Dolby II receiver produces 4.0 surround (not as good, of course, as multichannel SACD's or DVD-A's, though). Some of these were issued by Delos, others by RCA, and I've seen some very low-priced classical "hits" CD's in the bargain bins at BestBuy that were Dolby-encoded. Telarc also issued a Wendy Carlos Switched-On Bach 2000 CD that was Dolby'd, as well as various "Spatializer" recordings that contained matrixed ambience information for the surround speakers.

 

[badahab]

Actually, there were some CD's issued in matrixed surround formats, such as Dolby Surround. There were only two channels recorded on the CD, but playback through a Dolby II receiver produces 4.0 surround (not as good, of course, as multichannel SACD's or DVD-A's, though). Some of these were issued by Delos, others by RCA, and I've seen some very low-priced classical "hits" CD's in the bargain bins at BestBuy that were Dolby-encoded. Telarc also issued a Wendy Carlos Switched-On Bach 2000 CD that was Dolby'd, as well as various "Spatializer" recordings that contained matrixed ambience information for the surround speakers.

Don't forget DTS-CD. Link to the wikipedia page. I have a couple of of DTS-CD discs, defiantly not something you run across every day. You can find a few on amazon still I think.

Thats OT though. As far as the OP's problem... Some receivers wont apply ProLogic or other DSP sound modes to the analog multichannel input, if thats what your trying to do. Otherwise I would just suspect that whatever your listening to has no center channel recorded like the other posters talked about.

-Sean

 

[j_garcia]

You can find plenty of them on www.dtsonline.com