Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Overall sound -VS- Quality of sound

While it's true not all DVD players will play DVD-A *tracks* on DVD-A discs, virtually all DVD players will play the DD 5.1 compatibility track included on most DVD-A discs. So as long as you have a regular DVD player and a receiver with Dolby Digital decoding, you can play most DVD-A discs in this manner.

Now some would argue that's not getting the full benefit of DVD-A's high resolution. True as far as that goes. But my counter argument is the DD 5.1 sample rate is already above CD, plus on modern receivers you get full digital management of bass, level, speaker distance (aka time arrival), and in some cases parametric or graphical equalization. With DVD-A tracks (or SACD) you get high sample rates but give up all the fancy receiver stuff, so it's two steps forward and one back. More info:

Dolby on DVD-A

All that said, it definitely makes sense to double check that any DVD-A disc you're contemplating has a DD 5.1 compatibility track, if you only have a regular DVD player.

My view on DVD-As may be rather similar to Joe's. I'm not very excited over the "higher resolution" aspect and suspect that the advantages lie instead with the multi-channel surround, re-mixing, re-mastering, etc. Last year on another board I read an explanation of this by "soundhound", an engineer and motion picture music editor which tended to reinforce my thoughts. I linked his discussions in my reply in this thread. So although the higher resolution is certainly there for instruments to measure, it may not be there for our ears(which frankly suck in comparison with the instruments)to hear.

Oh boy. You guys are tough! Having listened to DVD-audio off a cheap DVD player with mediocre DACs, my Panasonic RP-82, I would say that there is a certain quality that is beneficial, a smoothness to the sound. Most audiophiles say it combines the benefits of vinyl & CD. My CD player still has better DAC's, so my CDs sound tighter and more accurate, but not quite as smooth.

That having been said, after reading many different reviews on hi-res hardware and software in Stereophile, it appears that a DVD-A disc originating from older recordings will sound mostly the same as a CD version played on a good CD player. Quality-wise, the real benefits will come from new recordings, as has already been demonstrated.

In terms of what the mass market will buy into, I agree that people don't care about sound quality, and will be sold more on the extra DVD-A features: graphic content including lyrics and photos, multi-channel music compatible with a 5.1 system, and surround sound in the car. There's also the chance to record at CD bitrates, plus MLP compression, yielding many many hours of content (perhaps up to 15 hours?). Think about the chance for mega-compilations at a cheap price!

-Cooper

I've often wondered, even way back when DVD was a new technology, why don't the record companies release "box sets" on one disc?

I'd gladly pick up a audio only DVD disc with multiple CD's worth of music on it. To be honest I own very few "box sets" because I friggin' hate the boxes. I want my CD collection all together. Those dang boxes are too big.

Well, for one, you can only play said box set on a DVD player. You couldn't take that same music to your car or your boom box / clock radio / discman. The market is much smaller for a multi-CD sized audio-only DVD.

Besides, some people love those boxes and all the extra material they usually come with.

Along the same idea, I've often wondered why car audio is so far behind.

CD players in cars are JUST now becoming standard. Who the hell listens to cassettes anymore?

DVD is great, but it seems like its potential has been pretty wasted. DVD as an audio only source is something that I was really expecting. It just never happened.

If they get rid of tape players in cars, then I sincerely hope they start adding a mini-stereo aux input jack. I don't want to resort to using an FM transmitter to play my MP3s in the car. Right now I use a tape adapter with my iPod. (My car has a tape and CD player.)

You could do what I did which is to have a 7.1 system with dipole surrounds and monopole rear surrounds. I have the surround channels from my SACD/DVD player hooked up to my rear surround pre-ins on my receiver, so I get movies through my dipoles and multichannel music through my monopoles. You have to have a full set of 7.1 pre-ins, which not every receiver has.

Mark

In reply to:

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Who the hell listens to cassettes anymore?

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Books on tape make rush hour traffic tolerable.

You have a very good point there. The selection of books on CD is nowhere near as large books on tape, yet.