Post by Peter December 17, 2007 (11 of 21)
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The Seventh Taylor said:
New hi-res, surround audio formats don't improve the situation, they only worsen it. The problem lies not in the technical capabilities of the format, and arguably not even in the installed base of players. The problem is consumer apathy and confusion.
Adding new formats will do nothing about the former and worsen the latter. What's need is a unified push behind a single format, and SA-CD is the best candidate as it stands.
I agree with you completely!
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Post by JasonG January 1, 2008 (12 of 21)
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Post by Allen January 1, 2008 (13 of 21)
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Just curious, how does HD-DVD fit in audio reproduction system? I understand the overlaps, but...
Do I have to watch the screen, and hit multiple buttons before I can start the music? Or it can be simplified as operating a CD?
Why do we need a video format for our audio need in the first place?
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The Seventh Taylor said:
New hi-res, surround audio formats don't improve the situation, they only worsen it. The problem lies not in the technical capabilities of the format, and arguably not even in the installed base of players. The problem is consumer apathy and confusion.
Adding new formats will do nothing about the former and worsen the latter. What's need is a unified push behind a single format, and SA-CD is the best candidate as it stands.
Absolutely on all counts - the thing is, we need to do something about that consumer apathy - to the extent we can - after enthusing about the sound in my listening room a friend said he would never bother because (although he claims to love classical music) he never sits down to listen to it seriously when at home. He actually has one speaker facing one room and the other facing the adjacent room!
Not everyone is like that thank goodness! But I do believe we the consumers must make a heroic effort to "sell" the medium to friends and acquaintances if it is to thrive. No one else is doing it. The hi fi shops should, but they just aren't doing it!
The magazines are another problem we can all address with a letter writing campaign. Stereophile, Gramophone etc need to review mch SACDs in mch. Most of the reviewers apparently ignore the sacd layer completely.
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Castor said:
I doubt that there will be an end to the HD video "war" in the foreseeable future.
Well, of course, the future is not foreseeable but this announcement (http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,1700383,00.html) would seem to suggest otherwise...
Now, hopefully, companies like Naxos could be encouraged back into the surround sound issuing world (preferably by using SACD).
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Post by Cilea January 9, 2008 (16 of 21)
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In the recent Stereophile (Vol. 30, No. 12, December, 2007), Jason Victor Serinus interviews Klaus Heymann of Naxos:
Klaus Heymann: A 20th-Anniversary Chat with the Founder of Naxos
"JVS: Although you've stopped selling SACD and DVD-Audio releases, you're still recording in surround sound. Do you see Naxos releasing titles in high-resolution surround formats in the future?
KH: We record all choral and orchestral releases in surround. This means we create 40 to 60 new surround recordings a year, which we save for the day when we have a really good medium for them. I think SACD was never meant to be a surround medium; it was designed as an upmarket stereo medium, with surround capability added as an afterthought. Technically, DVD-A is a much superior format because of the amount of data it can carry. You also have longer playing times.
Unfortunately, DVD-Audio never took off, and SACD is dying. Even though smaller companies still sell SACDs, they're hybrids. People buy hybrid SACDs because that's the only format available to them, and they mainly play the normal CD-quality stereo layer. We actually have the market data.
For two or three years, we released all our big-budget productions in all three formats: CD, DVD-A, and SACD. When we sold DVD-A and SACD at a higher price, people only bought the CD. If people today had to pay a premium for SACD, they wouldn't buy it. That's why we're currently trying to recoup our manufacturing costs by selling all our remaining SACD and DVD-A titles for the same low price as our regular CDs.
JVS: HD DVD and Blu-ray can support higher-resolution data.
KH: And that's what we're going for. We're waiting until HD DVD and/or Blu-ray have good market penetration, then we'll release all our surround recordings in that format. You can have AC-3, discrete surround, encoded surround, stereo, and video all on the same carrier, manufactured at a price no greater than the price of manufacturing either SACD or DVD-A."
(The full interview available at http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/1207hey/index.html.)
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For those like me, Blu Ray is an acceptable medium.
But if Naxos are recordign and producing music in surround formats, then why not make those available in download form? I'm guessign that there are sound high-resolution sound file formats that support at least 5.1 surround sound???? Does FLAC?
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Post by tommwi January 9, 2008 (18 of 21)
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FunkyMonkey said:
I'm guessign that there are sound high-resolution sound file formats that support at least 5.1 surround sound???? Does FLAC?
Yes - FLAC will handle any high res format and channel configuration. This is probably the best lossless tool right now. It downsizes the file to 60% of its original size. A main drawback is that it won’t fit into iTunes. Apple has its ALAC format and obviously supports it, though it is inferior to FLAC. But also ALAC will handle high res and mch.
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tommwi said:
Yes - FLAC will handle any high res format and channel configuration. This is probably the best lossless tool right now. It downsizes the file to 60% of its original size. A main drawback is that it won’t fit into iTunes. Apple has its ALAC format and obviously supports it, though it is inferior to FLAC. But also ALAC will handle high res and mch.
More importantly to me, I don't think PS3 supports FLAC. :-(
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Post by Orpheus January 9, 2008 (20 of 21)
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A personal comment here. I'm in general not interested in video. All that I'm usually interested in is the good reproduction of the listening experience where a recording was made of classical music. Whilst it would be good at times to see on a screen what the performers were doing during the recording of a work that I'm listening to, I don't see this as necessary as I like to do other things (like catching up on reading, etc) whilst listening. If on the rare occasion I'm interested to see on a screen what the performers were doing during a recording, then I'm prepared to pay extra for this probably on a different medium.
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