Hello,

I'm very sorry if this has been answered 1000 times before. If it has, please point me there.

There are:
SACD's
Hybrid SACD's
Two channel SACD's (what's the point?)
Multi-channel SACD's (I thought that was the whole point?)

Do DVD-A's have the same distinctions?

:confused:

Please explain...

Thanks,

There are:
Stereo SACDs
Multichannel SACDs
Stereo Hybrid SACDs
Multichannel Hybrid SACDs

The point of Super Audio CDs is high resolution audio.

Hope this helps,
George

Both have to be checked to see whether it's stereo (2.0), surround (5.1), some are even 4.0, 4.1, 5.0................you get the point. It depends on what the artist/studio wished to put out, or in some cases what they had to work with in regards to the ability to do a real surround mix. Regardless of the number of channels the mix contains, you are also getting a higher resolution with the dvd-a and sacd. So the point of the two channel mixes is they should sound much better that their cd or mp3 counterparts.

george..., and David...,

Thanks,

I'm going to buy new components this week- Denon 5308, 3930 and maybe a 3800.

Now I need to start my SACD and DVD-A collection...

:)

george..., and David...,

Thanks,

I'm going to buy new components this week- Denon 5308, 3930 and maybe a 3800.

Now I need to start my SACD and DVD-A collection...

:)

I would not buy both the 3930 and the 3800...a better buy would be the 3800 + Oppo 980 assuming you are using digital transport for the SACD/DVD-A.

george..., and David...,

Thanks,

I'm going to buy new components this week- Denon 5308, 3930 and maybe a 3800.

Now I need to start my SACD and DVD-A collection...

:)
Welcome to the club! Do you know many places to get good prices, etc?
There's some good threads here with lots of links. They're there.

Super Audio CDs have higher resolution playback than standard CDs. Whether a SACD is stereo or multichannel does not change the fact that it is a more exact reproduction of the master tape. Some SACDs come from stereo masters, and the production team elected to leave the music as two channel. (These stereo SACDs usually sound better than their "regular" CD counterparts.) There are MANY extremely good stereo-only SACDs available.

Other SACDs are either recorded originally as multichannel, or remixed to produce a multichannel version of the original recording.

Hybrid SACDs contain both a Super Audio layer, which can be stereo or multichannel, and a regular CD layer (playable on standard CD players). Hybrid SACDs can be stereo or multichannel. Multichannel Hybrid CDs will only contain a stereo version on the regular CD layer, and may contain both multichannel AND stereo SACD mixes as well.

A smaller number of SACDs are "single-layer", which means they are ONLY playable on SACD-compatible players. They have no regular CD layer.

I hope this helps in sorting out the different types of SACD. That's the best I can do with my understanding of the medium.

Lee

Both SACD and DVD-Audio are primarily formats for high resolution music, be it mono, stereo, or surround. Not every SACD contains a surround mix. The Rolling Stones SACDs are like this.

A few more random minor SACD facts, which may or may not be of interest.

SACD-only discs can store more information than hybrid discs - you lose nearly half the capacity by including the CD layer. Not generally a big deal - a hybrid disc can fairly comfortably hold the standard CD length of 74 minutes in stereo and multichannel.

SACD only supports 2.0, 5.0 and 5.1. Any 4.0 or 3.0 releases, or similar, just have silence in the unused channels.

The LFE channel on 5.1 SACDs is equal-level, rather than the conventional +10dB boosted. As a result, if using a digital link like Denon Link, i.Link or HDMI to connect an SACD player, you may need to turn down the LFE in the receiver. With my Denon DVD-3930 and AVR-4308, for example, the LFE needs to be set to -10dB. Fortunately that receiver remembers it on a per-input-type basis, so it's set-and-forget. If using analogue interconnects, the player should deal with the difference itself. Also, if the data is being transferred as PCM instead of DVD, the player may deal with the difference itself.

Good SACDs will just be 5.0; the LFE channel is pointless for music, and just adds the possibility of calibration errors.

Most "high-end" SACD players from people like Sony, Denon and Marantz are 2-channel only. :eek: Linn are the only people I'm aware of with a high-end multichannel player: the Linn Akurate CD - that's also unique in being the only domestic DVD-Audio player I know that doesn't do DVD-Video.