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Re: Audio Software Reviews; A Level Playing Field?

Posted by racerguy on February 21, 2006 at 07:54:19

In Reply to: Audio Software Reviews; A Level Playing Field? posted by Waldteufel on February 20, 2006 at 16:13:05:

Somehow/somewhere a significant number of would-be audiophiles got the idea that SACD was some sort of miracle-worker. The notion that the SACD format could magically make an inexpensive system sound like a state-of-the-art high-end system gained quite a bit of credence. Thus there were many people buying relatively low-cost players, expecting a $500 SACD-capable player from a mass-market manufacturer to beat a $5000 Redbook player from a specialty manufacturer. I never understood where they got this notion, but there sure were/are a lot of them.

Let's take a similar situation with a different format - let's say someone buys a $500 turntable. Most reasonable would expect substantially less of a $500 turntable playing mass-market records than they would of a $5000 turntable playing those same records. Replace the mass-market record with a 180gr audiophile LP, and most reasonable people would understand that it's still just a $500 turntable. The expectation would be that a minor improvement (at best) would be obtained. No one in their right mind would expect the $500 turntable to suddenly sound like a $5000 turntable just because better media was introduced.

So why then do some people expect miracles from SACD?

In my mind, the "improvement" of SACD over Redbook at low price points is in what SACD does that Redbook does not - multi-channel. If resolution is what you're looking for, the gear needs to be of sufficient quality and capability to exhibit it.

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