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[Tarazet]

When I bought my PS3, I knew I was getting a machine that would play games and Blu-Ray movies.. but Sony's literature on the PS3 says that it will also play Sony's Super Audio CDs as well. This is fantastic for me, because half of the SACD library is classical music. Sure, the players are cheap, but I would never have bought one just to have one, so it's great that I now get to enjoy not one, but two optical-media format wars at once! Awesome!

This will be my first purchase:

 

[theBishop]

DVD-Audio FTL...

 

[alr1ght]

Doesn't it not work using optical out?

 

[Beer Monkey]

Flaming Lips and Porcupine Tree only on DVD-A...

(plus the awesome Dark Side of the Moon bootleg of the original Alan Parsons quad mix)

Doesn't it not work using optical out?

SACD Surround over HDMI only.

 

[Mr. Wednesday]

I have Pink Floyd's 30th anniversary Dark Side of the Moon CD/SACD, though I couldn't tell you how good the SACD mix is. You might want to check it out.

 

[Beer Monkey]

I have Pink Floyd's 30th anniversary Dark Side of the Moon CD/SACD, though I couldn't tell you how good the SACD mix is.

It's a new mix by James Guthrie...good, not great.

 

[Tarazet]

SACD Surround over HDMI only.

Oh baby. This gets better and better.

 

[Leo the 3rd]

You can get two channel goodness also but you'll have to use the analog out.

 

[Tieno]

What's the difference between SACD and CD audio?

 

[Zaptruder]

What's the difference between SACD and CD audio?

About 20 heart beats per minute for true audiophiles.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

SACD Surround over HDMI only.

Boo-urns.

 

[Dimmuxx]

I thought everybody knew that it played SACD. Too bad it doesn't play dvd-audio too though. :/

 

[Fox_Paradox]

What's the difference between SACD and CD audio?

5.1 Surround FTW (not many noteable releases on SACD though, which is a shame, cause it sounded great)

 

[Tarazet]

I thought everybody knew that it played SACD. Too bad it doesn't play dvd-audio too though. :/

Even the 360 doesn't play DVD-Audio.. which is kind of strange. That might be another thing that changes with the new HDMI-compatible rig.

I ordered a whole bunch of classical SACDs off of Amazon (through GAF, of course). I'll know by Tuesday or Wednesday whether I need to upgrade my sound equipment.

 

[DCharlie]

the missus got me an amp for xmas (rx1700) and i helped myself to some 525s speakers.

I got the SACD War of the Worlds 7 disk set.

ZOMG - it's pretty awesome.

a shame there isn't much else to pick up

 

[Pristine_Condition]

5.1 Surround FTW (not many noteable releases on SACD though, which is a shame, cause it sounded great)

Simple stereo ain't bad either. DSD sample rate is 2.82 MHz on SACD. That's 64x the sample rate of CD.

You have to have a receiver capable of at least HDMI 1.2 audio to take advantage of SACD on PS3, IIRC. Not many people have those kinds of receivers yet. I'll be getting one sometime in 2007 hopefully, for gaming (Resistance in 7.1!) and Blu--ray, so I guess I'll be able to check out SACD too.

 

[Beer Monkey]

You have to have a receiver capable of at least HDMI 1.2 audio to take advantage of SACD on PS3, IIRC.

Nah, HDMI 1.1 does it fine if you don't mind converting to high-resolution PCM (your receiver probably already does this for bass management and time alignment anyway).

Frankly, the mix and the mastering of any given release affects the sound more than whether it is presented/played in DSD, PCM, high-res, mid-res, etc. The best approach to music collecting is to look for the best mastering and not focus on formats per se. Now, many times the best digital mastering (not counting vinyl here) is on SACD (if there actually is an SACD release).

 

[Goldrusher]

It's always fun to discover stuff like that, but this has been all over the place since the console was announced.

It's everywhere, on Sony slides / presentations, on their websites, in the manual, on the box, it even has a logo on the actual console.

 

[Stinkles]

Doesn't help that SACD and DVD-A are effectively dead.

If you want a benchmark surround sound music experience, get Speed Tribes DVD (cheap) and pretend you are baked.

 

[Mason]

The PS3 does everything

Spoiler

I heard it cures cancer

Spoiler

but only through HDMI

 

[LuCkymoON]

Doesn't help that SACD and DVD-A are effectively dead.

If you want a benchmark surround sound music experience, get Speed Tribes DVD (cheap) and pretend you are baked.

Strange how those two formats never caught on. The same could happen to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. >:0

 

[SnakeXs]

Strange how those two formats never caught on. The same could happen to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. >:0

Apples to oranges.

Spoiler

Both to DVD's bananas.

 

[Tarazet]

Strange how those two formats never caught on. The same could happen to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. >:0

I'm pretty sure if you circulated this poll, you'd get the answer to that:

When was the last time you bought a CD?
When was the last time you bought a DVD?

 

[LuCkymoON]

I'm pretty sure if you circulated this poll, you'd get the answer to that:

When was the last time you bought a CD?
When was the last time you bought a DVD?

I still buy both. =(

Spoiler

Ipod sux!

 

[Naked Snake]

Buy this

 

[elostyle]

Buy this

Are you going to make me come up with a magic find-title-and-artist-to-cover-art software or something?

 

[Flo_Evans]

dude its beck :lol

where does one buy these mythical SACDs? there must be some website with a decent selection? I found pink floyd at my local BB but that was all they had that I wanted.

And I thought the PS3 did DVD-audio? (I thought any DVD player did?)

 

[Beer Monkey]

Here's another good surround SACD (HDMI required if using the PS3 for your player):

Bowie's 'Reality' and 'Heathen' are also good.

Anybody who likes surround music should also get the Flaming Lips and Porcupine Tree DVD-As and at least play them in DTS mode if you don't have a DVD-A player.

$150 gets you the Oppo 970 DVD player, which would give you great upscaling, DVD-A, and SACD.

 

[Tarazet]

I have a bunch on order from Amazon, but I picked Pollini's Chopin Polonaises up from Fry's so I could try something today. It's a BIG improvement, even with my less-than-optimal setup. It actually brings the standard for this recording up to other performances of the music I know, which is really something given how miserable Deutsche Grammophon's transfers have always been for the piano. Now I can finally hear this Italian virtuoso the way I always knew I would, someday.

 

[jamesinclair]

And I thought the PS3 did DVD-audio? (I thought any DVD player did?)

SACD = Sony

They dont want the competing format on their player

 

[garrickk]

SACD = Sony

They dont want the competing format on their player

I took a quick look at Sony's DVD players at www.sonystyle.com. At least their high-end movie player supports SACD and DVD-Audio. It was the DVP-NS9100ES/B and it was the only one I checked.

Perhaps the PS3 will have a firmware update to support DVD-Audio if there is much demand for it. Clearly, it's not a company wide rule. Or, maybe they just recently came around.

 

[Rancid Mildew]

The PS3 SACD player is very inferior compared to my standalone and DVD/CD/SACD players. There is a lot of static background sound that really irritates me, noise that isn't there on my dedicated players. I do recommend you look elsewhere for a SACD player especially since you are interested in classical.

Of course I'm a rather severe audiophile and my speakers/preamp/processor very revealing of weak music players so I think you should take a listen yourself and pass your own judgment but this is just my experience with my system.

 

[Tarazet]

The PS3 SACD player is very inferior compared to my standalone and DVD/CD/SACD players. There is a lot of static background sound that really irritates me, noise that isn't there on my dedicated players. I do recommend you look elsewhere for a SACD player especially since you are interested in classical.

Of course I'm a rather severe audiophile and my speakers/preamp/processor very revealing of weak music players so I think you should take a listen yourself and pass your own judgment but this is just my experience with my system.

I am classically oriented, but I'm not interested in the ultimate solution, nor do I have that kind of money. It's just very cool to me that the PS3 opened this door.

 

[Raistlin]

Errr ... it's been talked about many times ...

... and is listed on the box, instruction manual, PR materials ... etc.

 

[Raistlin]

The PS3 SACD player is very inferior compared to my standalone and DVD/CD/SACD players. There is a lot of static background sound that really irritates me, noise that isn't there on my dedicated players. I do recommend you look elsewhere for a SACD player especially since you are interested in classical.

Of course I'm a rather severe audiophile and my speakers/preamp/processor very revealing of weak music players so I think you should take a listen yourself and pass your own judgment but this is just my experience with my system.

The upcoming firmware update will give the PS3 SACD playback the best signal-to-noise ratio I'm aware of

 

[Raistlin]

I took a quick look at Sony's DVD players at www.sonystyle.com. At least their high-end movie player supports SACD and DVD-Audio. It was the DVP-NS9100ES/B and it was the only one I checked.

Perhaps the PS3 will have a firmware update to support DVD-Audio if there is much demand for it. Clearly, it's not a company wide rule. Or, maybe they just recently came around.

Someone working on that web site ****ed up.

To my knowledge, that model (nor any other Sony player) does NOT support DVD-A.

 

[Raistlin]

You have to have a receiver capable of at least HDMI 1.2 audio to take advantage of SACD on PS3, IIRC. Not many people have those kinds of receivers yet.

The PS3 doesn't even bother with passing SACD bitstream via 1.2a ... it converts the SACD's DSD stream to PCM for 1.1 receivers/pre-pros.

 

[Naked Snake]

Converting DSD to PCM is like opening a can of worms to most audiophiles, isn't it?

 

[Beer Monkey]

Converting DSD to PCM is like opening a can of worms to most audiophiles, isn't it?

Dude, you have no idea. :lol

There's a whole format they created called 'DSD Wide', which is actually a form of PCM, and the whole reason it exists is so that various consumer and pro equipment can pretend to do stuff like mixing, bass management, etc. in 'pure DSD'.

There's not a hell of a lot you can do mathmatically with one-bit data, so you pretty much have to convert it to something PCM-ish when you want to do something meaningful with it (stuff beyond simple edits) in the digital domain.

But of course, when people think that something is 'pure', they don't hear any problems with it.

Anybody that is a real purist should only use bass management that uses analog crossovers, and skip any time alignment. Or just use all full-range speakers and equipment that keeps a clean signal path. Oh, and don't ask too many questions about how that album was produced, because unless it's live-to-DSD or a full analog production which was then output to DSD post-mix, it probably has some PCM in there.

 

[CamHostage]

...Too bad it doesn't play dvd-audio too though. :/

Seriously, I can't believe that this format war (or scrum) is still going. Nobody cares at this point, but can't they just settle this and put some damned discs out? And isn't DVD-A just an audio file in AAC or something like that, how hard would it really be to make a combo player, or even for Sony to integrate it into its SACD-capable players?

Strange how those two formats never caught on. The same could happen to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. >:0

When was the last time you bought a CD?
When was the last time you bought a DVD?

Hard to say how much of an impact HD video disc formats will have. I know that as soon as the feature lists improve and prices even out, I'll be buying only HD instead of old DVD (in this case, Blu-Ray since I have a PS3), but on the same, I have no drive to replace all my DVDs with HD video like I did with tapes. And also, direct downloads are becoming a possibly big market. Meanwhile, Bittorrent and its ilk have kept SD a viable format for many (plus, even BT rips are getting freaky-good), and upscaling seems to do wonders for everybody with a regularly-sized TV set (of course, those with 60" TVs, hawk eyes and tiny schlongs will say that DVD is just not good enough for them, but middle America is pretty happy at this resolution.) I don't think the HD video war will fail the way HD audio did (HD audio was doomed when you think about how it faced competition of car radios and iPod), but there's not a lot of reason for it to heat up either.

 

[mollipen]

dude its beck :lol

Not everybody pays attention to the same gernes of music, so it should never be assumed that somebody is going to know who it is without a name to go along with the image.

I mean, I knew it was Beck, but at this point I probably couldn't tell you who 90% of the popular American musicians/bands are.

 

[Flo_Evans]

q: so with a HDMI 1.2 reciever you can still get the full recording out of a stereo SACD?


shidoshi I just thought it was kind of funny that someone doesn't know who beck is. Its not like he is some new pop teen band, he has been around for over 10 years and anyone that listens to music AT ALL should know who he is.

 

[Kiriku]

shidoshi I just thought it was kind of funny that someone doesn't know who beck is. Its not like he is some new pop teen band, he has been around for over 10 years and anyone that listens to music AT ALL should know who he is.

Heh, I recognize the name 'Beck' and that's about it. Can't remember a song made by him (maybe I would recognize one if I heard it). I do listen to a lot of music, but Beck is apparently out of my range, so to speak. Could be because I don't actually live in the US though.

 

[Naked Snake]

Read up http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=Beck+"Sea+Change"&btnG=Search

I absolutely adore this album, I don't listen to music that often (I could go on weeks without listening to music and I wouldn't notice or miss it), and this is the only Beck album I own, but it is so good that I bought the regular CD and the SACD AND I'm thinking of buying the DVD-A just for the hell of it (and of the videos actually )

 

[mashedpotatoes]

Honestly I pity audiophiles, for me sound quality ranges from ok to great, as long as the music is something I like I rarely notice the sound quality. 128kbps mp3's satisfy me.

 

[Stinkles]

Heh, I recognize the name 'Beck' and that's about it. Can't remember a song made by him (maybe I would recognize one if I heard it). I do listen to a lot of music, but Beck is apparently out of my range, so to speak. Could be because I don't actually live in the US though.

You're a Swedish music fan and you have never heard of Beck Hansen?

wtf

 

[mashedpotatoes]

ehh? Beck is american... a swede wouldn't be any more likely to know who he is.

 

[Stinkles]

ehh? Beck is american... a swede wouldn't be any more likely to know who he is.

he is more Swedish than David Hasselhof is German.


But the point remains - it's Beck. he's hardly obscure.

And I agree with you about audiophiles. Basically, it sucks to be them. More interested in the quality than the content.

 

[Kiriku]

You're a Swedish music fan and you have never heard of Beck Hansen?

wtf

Just because I'm from Sweden and a music fan doesn't neccessarily mean I listen to his type of music.
If he had actually been Swedish though (as in a Swedish artist), I probably would've known a lot more about him.
But if he's really famous I would probably recognize his songs if I heard them. It's a lot easier remembering songs rather than names after all.

 

[Woman]

I hate to bump this old thread, but I just bought an SACD to try out on my PS3, and when I try to play it, a message comes up that says "Playback of this disc using the connected device is prohibited." I have it hooked up via HDMI, so I don't understand the problem. Maybe I'm just retarded.