Blame my friend, but he found these DVD(A?)'s on the Internet of some previously unreleased Quad mixes of Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.

DSOTM is definitely better sound quality wise than WYWH. I haven't heard the SACD version of DSOTM so I can't compare to it, but the mixes treat the rear channels the same as the front. In fact its the first time I have thought my QS4's were definitely not what I need to properly listen to these. (I think the bigger issue is the placement of my surrounds is far from idea for multichannel music)

I'm pretty geeked to have these thou. According to the threads on AVS Alan Parson's did the DSOTM at least. It was recently converted to DVD-A I guess. I don't have a DVD-A player but it sounds great in DTS (and DD).

I had a chance to listen to both and I still think the SACD (5.1) version sounds superior. DVD-A version which is a raw quad original mix is still very nice but I would pick the 5.1 mix anyday. Just personal choice I guess. I like use of center in 5.1 SACD mix - it anchors the sound when there is a need and feels the artificial gap betwen left and right. It also makes some panning effects more subtle and refined. Note that this has nothing to do with the format (SACD vs. DVD-A), just the mixes are quite different. I also thought that SACD had more "evolutionary" approach to mix - not too radically different from the original LP.

I love that DSOTM SCAD on 8 channel direct….

I think my universal player is doing something funky with it though. There is a gap, or silence between the tracks and I do not get this when I play the CD through any of my regular CD players. It’s distracting. Does this happen for you guys when playing SACD?

It may not be the player. As far as I know the CD and SACD tracks are completely different on the disk, they just happen to have the same music recorded on them. The SACD tracks could easily have gaps between them where the CD tracks do not. Just a thought...

Well that's what I was thinking, gaps between tracks. The only problem is this CD doesn't have gaps. I've never really known where one song ended and the other started. Good think I don't smoke pot or this would definately kill the effect this CD is suposed to have.....not that I'd know what that is of cource.

I listened to the DSOTM on SACD tonight and there are no gaps between songs.

Was that in six or eight channel direct, digital or HDMI?

Same here. There's some other problems with my Universal changer, but my SACD stuff is gapless. I wonder if there's a menu setting somewhere that does that?

7 channel direct using the Denon link, that I'm assuming is digital.

Yes, it is digital, but it can be somewhat funk-ay.

I guess I don't understand this Denon Link. How's that work? Digital only goes through your Optical or Coax or HDMI/DVI. The 6/7/8 channel direct audio connections are analogue cables...well at least they are on my HK.

The reason I ask, is my Oppo 970hd will not pass the SACD audio signals over the Optical or Coax outputs. Something to do with DRM, whatever that is. It will only pass SACD audio over the analogue or HDMI outputs.

Before I give Oppo a call, I want to make sure I'm comparing apples to apples with how you guys are doing things.

OK, DenonLINK is a proprietary interface that transmits the 6/7/8 channel audio over a digital connection from Denon's SACD/DVD-A units to a Denon receiver. I assume they've worked out some sort of deal where this is acceptable. Firewire (IEEE 1394) works the same way. DVD-A and SACD are not DRMed (digital rights management, ie the content producers taking away the consumer's fair use rights), but instead rely on the large amount of data to prevent digital retransmission.

Oppo does not have a DenonLINK output, so you can't use that. Neither does H/K, and I don't think either of them have firewire, either.

Your Oppo won't pass SACD over optical or coax because (theoretically) optical and coax don't have the bandwidth to support that.

Also, don't confuse digital audio with digital video. While HDMI can (theoretically) carry both, DVI is video only. And I believe HDMI carries the digital signal as an extension of the usual SPDIF (coax/optical) range, so it wouldn't be able to transmit SACD/DVD-A either. I could be wrong there.

Oh....thanks.

Didn't really make that any clearer, did I?

>>Your Oppo won't pass SACD over optical or coax because (theoretically) optical and coax don't have the bandwidth to support that.

... and even if they did, your player would not be allowed to use those digital links because they are not protected. DenonLink is protected (encrypted) so Denon is allowed to output SACD and DVD-A over *their* digital link.

Ah, OK, I didn't realize that.

I just recently (last week) bought a dvd player which plays both SACD and DVD-A. I have connect the analog connections from dvd player to my HK reciever. I have also downloaded the DSOTM DVD-A. When comparing the lossless DVD-A mix to the DD or DTS versions, the DVD-A on my system has waaaaaayyyy less bass. Is this experience true for everyone else? I double and triple checked my analog connections and they are correct.

Leaving aside the "downloaded DVD-A", you have to adjust the levels output from the player when you're using the analog outs, unless you're using the 6- or 8- channel DVD-A inputs on your H/K, which run the analog signals through bass management.

RD, as Ken mentioned, unless you've set your new DVD player to do the bass management(as described in the manual), you get none on DVD-A(unless you have one of the HKs which does bass management on the analog inputs; apparently you don't). None of the low bass is sent to the sub and all the other speakers simply run full-range.

Thanks for the info! As far as the other part of my email, this entire thread is based on internet distribution of this material.

Ah. Guess I kind of forgot. Didn't realize you could burn DVD-As.