Sony DVP 9000

Twl
If on a scale of 1 to 10 anolog was a 10,what would CD rate?
SACD?
Tim

Twl, The SCD-1 has a leg up because it is an excllent CD player that happens to also sound excellent with SACD.

SACD is not the clear winner over redbook CD. That conclusion, as always, depends on the quality of the recording and the quality of the music. There's good and bad SACD software and there's good and bad CD software.

SACD has never bowled me over (it kinda sneaks up on me) to be the clear and distinct winner in a format war. Of course, the same goes for analog verses digital. There's good analog, and there's good digital.

Everything (the recording, the format, the music, the equipment, speaker placement, the electrical supply, the room acoustics, the listener's mental state at a given time) has to do with the quality of sound reproduction.

Just like you said, garbage in, garbage out. Cheap analog will sound like, well... cheap hi-fi analog and the same goes for digital.

-IMO

Stehno, I agree with your points. I was speaking more generally, than specifically to the points of disc recording quality. I have also noticed, like you have, that SACD is not a "bowl you over" improvement, but on good recordings has a roundness and 3 dimensional sound that CD lacks when playing the same recording A/B in both formats. I think this speaks to the ability of SACD to hold more info than CD. Again, I agree, that SACD does not make a poor recording better. You just hear more of the poor recording. A good test is Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells on hybrid CD/SACD. Very noticeable improvement on SACD. I don't hate CD. I only try to make the point that there are better things out there if done correctly.

Flemke, if I were to rate the formats on an absolute scale, I would put CD at 8, SACD at 9 and analog at 10. With 10 being the highest known source quality at this time. Of course, as Stehno points out above, the advantages are not always realized on poor recordings. A great CD may sound better than a poor vinyl record, but not because of format reasons. Strictly by apples and oranges comparison of great recording vs poor recording. As I said to Stehno, I am not a CD hater. I am just pointing out the relative differences and strengths in these source formats.

Twl
I would like to hear the results of an a/b with vinyl and one of these tubed output CD players. I think it would be very interesting.
Tim