Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater High Definition Audio

I'm starting to see more of SACD and HDCD. I'm thinking about getting some Rotel equipment that supports HDCD. My question is if I have a CD Player that supports SACD, does my receiver have to support SACD or HDCD as well to get the full benefits? If anyone could explain the two in more detail it would be greatly appreciated.

My theory is to take the lessons of the past. As hindsight is 20/20, I am sure my father would not have spent $400 on a Betamax player 20 years ago. As such, I am going to wait until a specified format is available and widely adopted by all major players. SACD, DVD-A, HDCD, who knows if any will be successful at all.
The last thing I worry about is the missing digital-out on the back of the players. It is great to have a hi-fi player, but connecting it analog has me a bit worried.

Both SACD and DVD-A usually require 6-channel analog inputs (not just a single optical/coax input) . As long as your receiver has input jacks for that, it should fully support those formats.

Personally I think the high res formats SACD and DVD-A are worth while, especially the multichannel releases (some are just stereo). However I don't attribute the benefit primarily to the high res sample rates, but to the careful remix/remaster process and a quality surround remix. Note these aren't guaranteed, and depend on the engineer.

Negatives are that six channel analog input is required (several cables), and if you have a fancy receiver with digitally implemented bass crossover, speaker distance, equalization, etc, it can't be used for analog SACD/DVD-A imputs.

Positives are a quality multichannel SACD/DVD-A release on Axiom speakers are the best thing you've ever heard. Some supreme examples of this are Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon (SACD), Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (SACD), Eagles Hotel California (DVD-A) and Fleetwood Mac Rumours (DVD-A).

The Pioneer DV-563A ($179) is a "universal" player that does both SACD and DVD-A. However since DVD-A discs usually have a multichannel Digital Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1 track, Sony SACD/DVD players (or any old DVD player) will play these. SACD seems to currently be winning the high-res material war, and SACD doesn't have a downward-compatible multichannel fallback like DVD-A. For this reason make sure your player has SACD capability in addition to regular DVD.

Depending on your musical taste, there's not much high-res material, but the quality stuff is so good IMO it makes the limited incremental investment of SACD/DVD-A playback worthwhile.

DVD Audio and SACD are spectacular (with well recorded material). HDCD is bogus. Just my opinion.

I agree with that assessment. I'd also add that well recorded/mastered CDs are spectacular, too.

Agree with you there PMB. I've had DVD Audio (Toshiba SD9200), SACD (Philips SACD 1000) and yet the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb tube output CDP with upsampler is the most listenable of the bunch. Not as dramatic as the HiRez sources, but just downright beautiful, especially with a tube amp.

Gah! You're giving me that tube itch again.

Do your ears and soul a favor and scratch that itch!

In reply to:

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and yet the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb tube output CDP with upsampler is the most listenable of the bunch.

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I know what you mean. I have SACD and its wonderful but I keep gravitating back to my tubed California Audio Labs Alpha DAC and Pioneer CDP(transport) like a moth to flame. When I do listen to SACD it's alwaws in 2 channel. I don't like music in multi-channel.

I agree with you 100% about HDCD. As hard as I try, I can't hear any difference between HDCD and regular "red book".

I do not have a DVD-A player, but I do have some DVD-A discs that I play on my Sony DVP-CX777ES (not a reference player at all). But I do still want to make some listening comparisons between DVD-A and SACD.

I will tell you this though. The Bob Dylan sampler that came with the player sounds fantastic. None of Dylan's material had been remastered until the SACD transfer and it's mindboggling how good it sounds. I listened to Dylan on LP when my parents had it on when I was growing up and like some of it quite a bit. But Dylan on SACD blows me away.

Based on what I've read about the two formats, I need to do some side-by-side comparisons. DVD-A bitstream "wordlength" is supposedly longer and more complex to decode leaving some detail out of the music. SACD is supposedly easier to decode since it's closer to regular CD letting more of the music out. But finding the same title in DVD-A and SACD will be somewhat tough. The only title that comes to mind is Deep Purple's "Machine Head".

I'll do some more research on my own, but I welcome comments on my perceptions.

Todd