streaml1ne Posted January 7, 2005 Report Share Posted January 7, 2005 (edited) Some musings about the topic. Hopefully it will help someone looking into DVD-A/SACD....So about a year ago I was browsing for music in Best Buy and I noticed a 'DVD Audio' section. I'd heard about multichannel stuff being put out on DVD and figured it would be neat to try out on my growing home theater setup. I picked up STP: Core and Sting: Brand New Day. Brought them home, played, enjoyed. There were significantly better details both through higher fidelity recordings (more later) and obviously more channel separation. Months passed and then I got my Hi-MD. Came to these forums and in general regained my interest for how stuff works in music reproduction etc. As a part of that I started doing more research into the DVDs I bought a while ago and found that DVD Audio is a tricky little thing. Originally I thought, hey I have a DVD player and this is a DVD, so I can play these discs. Well that's not entirely the case with DVD-Audio. Sure they play in regular DVD players, but only because most discs are ALSO encoded with a Dolby Digital or DTS version of the recording to remain compatible with DVD-Video players. This sparked my interest. A few google's later and I'd found that while the DVD-Audio specification has been around since 1999-ish, MOST DVD players still don't play the high fidelity tracks encoded on the disc. Yes, even 6+ years later if you want access to the high fidelity 96kHz/24-bit multichannel or 192kHz/24-bit stereo DVD-A tracks you need a specialty player.Most are dubbed Universal players since most manufacturers bundle SACD, DVD-Audio, and DVD-Video support into them, except Sony. I don't believe they have a DVD-Audio compatible component since it competes directly with SACD. Regardless, I started shopping for a nice Universal Player to replace the Harman Kardon DVD player I'd just purchased a few months ago (yep, I'm a hardware junkie ). HK made a new player that supported DVD-A and SACD, but after some research I noticed you can only play DVD-A or SACD tracks via the 6 or 8 channel direct outputs into a pre-amp or AVR, which means a DAC conversion in the player. This bothered me because you have this lovely 96Khz signal and you're going to convert to analog!? I'd thought that since my Harman AVR supported 192kHz and 96kHz rates within its DSP/DACs I'd want to fiber the DVD-A directly to the unit and let it do the A/D conversion on the better DAC. (I also really really wanted to see the 192kHz and 96kHz led's light up on my reciever ) But this isn't how things work in DVD-A/SACD land. It seems there's a combination of bandwidth limitation on TOSLink/digital coax AND a DRM component that prevents existing fiber/coax from being used to transfer these signals to your AVR. Also, most, if not all AVR's don't know how to decode MLP which is the lossless codec used in the DVD-Audio spec. The same applies to Sony's DSD system which is what SACD uses.(edit: Newer Universal players do allow digital transfer of DVD-A/SACD via firewire or proprietary link. Denon's 3910 player uses firewire (Denon Link??) to transfer digital data directly to your very expensive AVR for decoding/conversion. I haven't found a comparison between letting the player do the DAC instead of the AVR, so I don't know how much better it would be to stay digital into the AVR given the high performance components you usually find in these players.)With all that digested I kept shopping and based on a bunch of reviews settled on a Denon 2200S player. It was a hell of alot pricier than the HK unit, but had alot of cool 'audiophile' features like Pure Direct, 192kHz Burr Brown DACs, progressive scan, full bass management etc. Pure Direct is probably the coolest feature, it allows you to shut off subsystems in the player that aren't being used. So when you're playing a CD/SACD/DVD-A you can turn off the video processors and the fiber/coax subsystems when using 6-channel direct. It eliminates high frequency interference from those systems that can affect the reproduction of your high fidelity recordings. Funny enough it actually does work. I recorded songs with the Hi-MD with the video processor on and off and you can actually see the difference in spectral graphs at about 18,000-2,0000 Hz. The difference becomes audible if you crank the stereo and turn each system on and off.The one downside to DVD-A/SACD is the loss of EQ-ability. My Harman has bass and treble pots like most stereos for basic EQ. You lose those pots when using 6-channel direct. Makes sense, you're just using the amplifier at that point, but it becomes important depending on the recording you're listening to. For instance. STP: Core sounds great with whatever signal comes from the DVD-A. The SACD version of Synchronicity (2-channel) though needs more treble, for my ears at least. Whereas the SACD of Dark Side of the Moon I just picked up sounds excellent. It mostly comes down to the recording/remastering that's done on the DVD-A/SACD versions of existing albums, but still, having at least those bass and treble pots would be a help. Most multichannel EQ options are expensive ($9000 for a Diva ) OR they resample things and do EQ digitally which is just stupid. What's the point of having a 96kHz recording converted to analog, only to be A/D'd to 44 or 48kHz only to be DAC'd again... To EQ each channel separately I'd need 6 discrete EQ's or 2 dual channel EQ's and at least another single channel for my center channel speaker. All options are costly and/or a pain in the arse to store. So for now the EQ stays out of the picture.Overall I'm extremely happy with the result. Every DVD-A/SACD I've purchased to date (STP: Core, Alicia Keys: Songs in A Minor, REM: In Time 1988-2003, Floyd: Dark Side, etc etc.) have been better than their CD counterparts. Like I said before, it's for multiple reasons. Channel separation absolutely lets more detail through. For instance in Fallin' on Songs in A Minor there's a violin that's largely faint throughout the song and only comes forward nearer the end. On the DVD-A it's significantly clearer, so much so that you can actually hear some of the intricacies the violinist goes into. Those intricacies are pretty much not there on the CD. No Memory on Core brings out details and entire instruments (maracas and other percussion) that are inaudible on the CD version. Time on Dark Side... Forget it, hearing ticking clocks coming from all around you is trippy enough without the drugs The clarity of most of these recordings is FAR better as well thanks to 96kHz rates 24-bits of depth.If you happen to be in the market for a new DVD player or are a hardware junkie like me and feel like upgrading I heartily recommend making the move to multichannel alternatives like DVD-A and SACD. You won't be disappointed...-streaml1neSome Links:http://www.digitalaudioguide.comhttp://www.hometheaterhifi.com/main.htmlhttp://www.denon.comhttp://www.harmankardon.com Edited January 7, 2005 by streaml1ne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.