MHD vs SACD/DVD-A

[like.no.other.]

I have not own a SACD or a DVD-A but whenever I listen to MHD's music for quite
some time now and I really like the ambience. My question is, is it the same quality
if you listen on MHD (5.1) and if you listen on SACD/DVD-A(5.1)?

[KMO]

No. As far as I can ascertain, MHD is using Dolby Digital, not sure at which bitrate, so you're getting similar quality to DVD-Video.

SACD and DVD-Audio are a notch higher - not psychoacoustically compressed, and usually a higher bit-depth and sample rate.

[like.no.other.]

Originally Posted by KMO

No. As far as I can ascertain, MHD is using Dolby Digital, not sure at which bitrate, so you're getting similar quality to DVD-Video.

SACD and DVD-Audio are a notch higher - not psychoacoustically compressed, and usually a higher bit-depth and sample rate.

Thanks. I thought SACD and DVD-A use multi-channel uncompressed PCM so I was
a little confused.

[Dan Hitchman]

After a DVD-Audio's Meridian Lossless Packing data is uncompressed, you get back multi-channel PCM in high res.

SA-CD's are lossless packed as well using, I believe, Direct Stream Transfer (DST). The de-compression stage takes you back to a Direct Stream Digital (DSD) track. Consumer DSD is 1 bit word length with much, much higher sampling than DVD-Audio (in the MHz range rather than the kHz range). Pro grade DSD recordings are done at 8 bit word lengths in order to apply DSP manipulation and not lose data or add noise during processing (much like pro grade PCM mastering work is usually digitally manipulated at 32 bits).

[John Kotches]

Originally Posted by Dan Hitchman

After a DVD-Audio's Meridian Lossless Packing data is uncompressed, you get back multi-channel PCM in high res.

SA-CD's are lossless packed as well using, I believe, Direct Stream Transfer (DST). The de-compression stage takes you back to a Direct Stream Digital (DSD) track. Consumer DSD is 1 bit word length with much, much higher sampling than DVD-Audio (in the MHz range rather than the kHz range). Pro grade DSD recordings are done at 8 bit word lengths in order to apply DSP manipulation and not lose data or add noise during processing (much like pro grade PCM mastering work is usually digitally manipulated at 32 bits).

Capture is 1-bit, only processing is multi-bit.

That can be either DSD wide (8-bit / 64fs) on Sony's mixing solution or PCM (32-bit / 8fs) on the Philips solution.

Cheers,

[Coolpplse]

Originally Posted by like.no.other.

I have not own a SACD or a DVD-A but whenever I listen to MHD's music for quite
some time now and I really like the ambience. My question is, is it the same quality
if you listen on MHD (5.1) and if you listen on SACD/DVD-A(5.1)?

There isnt actually any 5.1 music on MHD, MHD is using Dolby Digital but is only Dolby Digital 2.0 for the 2-channel music videos they broadcast on there...

If 5.1 is coming out of MHD its most likely the AVR using PLII or Neo6 or any other matrix-surround effects avaliable on the AVR you are using.