maxg Posted June 5, 2001 Share Posted June 5, 2001 My current setup is strictly stereo (Heresy's and an Accuphasee E211 with Marantz CD6000 source). The CD6000 was a strictly temporary move till the new formats establish themselves and either one wins or a player comes out to handle both. Anyway, the point. I understand that SACD is currently 2 channel and will develop multi-channel at the end of this year. From what I hear DVDa is only multi-channel (ie not 2 channel). Is this correct? Would I need surround sound for DVDa? IF SACD is in both 2 channel and multichannel will it continue that way or will that to go multi-channel only. Right now I am a touch about all this. Any one out there can explain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted June 5, 2001 Share Posted June 5, 2001 The June 2001 issue of Hi-Fi News has a review of the Philips SACD-1000, which is a multi-channel SACD / DVD player. It plays CD, SACD, DVD, CD-R, CD-RW and can decode Dolby Digital/AC-3 and MPEG2 audio. To quote from the review... "...while SACD and DVD-A have the potential to encode fully discrete multi-channel mixes, there is no comparison with their two channel performance. In DVD-A players, this is usually mixed down from the multi-channel original using a standardised algorithm. SACD has entirely independent two channel and multi-channel mixes on separate parts of the same disc. The inner band on an SSACD disc is the two-channel mix that is derived from the multi-channel master by the recording engineer, and is presumable uncompromised by arbitrary internal mixdowns..." It also points out that the multi-channel SACD format allows all channels to be recorded at maximum bandwidth, while the DVD-A format restricts the multi-channel mode to a maximum 48kHz sampling frequency when all channels are in use, rather than the 192kHz available in strickly two channel mode. Article closed with "...whatever commercial disadvantage SACD may have by virtue of a lack of DVD-style industry wide support, it is counterbalanced, at least to an extent, by the uncompromised sound quality of SACD when all channels operate together..." ...and they loved the player. ------------------ Music is art Audio is engineering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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