Is there a consensus as to blu ray sound quality?

Naturally I'm no insider on the subject of high def video discs being used as audio ONLY discs... but does that really make much sense overall?

I'm thinking the BR disc format was set into place for it's advantages in storage space which yielded the province of greater video fidelity or resolution. I sort of think the better audio came along as a matter of fact given the greater available disc space.

I seem to feel the format was pointed. Directed towards an appeal to mass market video.

I'd also be curious to know at this point what the numbers reflect as to BR sales v. rentals. $30 - $35 a pop seems to me as inordinate IMO, but it might be justified given the recent hikes in overall retail pricing. That's really too bad.

As high a price I consider BR discs being, it would be still greater to have to pay that amount for solely audio reproduction, wouldn't it?

AS to Neil young's forthcoming releases... I pray if these are any of his golden era productions they got cleaned up really well. Neil young, among others recordings' sound like they were done in a Bathroom or phone booth somewhere. they are mostly pretty noisey, eg., After the Gold Rush, Zuma, Decades, Journey Through the Past, and some other earlier works with 'Crazy Horse'. Many of his efforts weren't produced with high end audio in mind what so ever and they just don't sound too good when played on better gear.

yeah... for $35 I should hope so.

BTW... are these supposed BR audio discs done in stereo only, or are they done in multi ch? or is there some choice as in hybrid discs?

Also, are you Blue Ray owners using just the HDMI OR are you using the analog paths?

....Kr4

sorry Kal, my fingers got ahead of my brain… and thanks for the input. The singular interest I would have in BR is the audio side of things.

...others

I thought to interject this item or two as I've not seen it addressed.

if the intent here is to acquire better audible performance with formats that aren't the focus of Blue Ray players, eg., CD, SACD, DVD, etc, (given any are multi format players in the first playce) .... I'm wondering if the 'Focus' or prime intent of the player then wouldn’t over shadow any other of its format capacities?

it would seem to follow then that ANY possible gains by way of these secondary formats would then be merely, "oh, by the way..." gains.... IF at all… and dubious at best.

What I'm thinking is regardless the abilities of the wavelength of the laser reading the disc, the span of the conversion chips, damping, etc., if the initial aim is to envelope all the formats then unless the player were a no holds barred, price no object one box solution, some compromises have been surely made with regard to these ancilliary disc attributes.

If indeed greater abilities are inplace do to physical materials being used in the topology, yet aren't taken advantage of and set to task with 'as great a care' as the prime mover (BR) it seems doubtful one should expect much from these arbitrary, oh, by the way, possibilities.

... especially in mass fi and low end price points... $100 - $400.

of course one can try out a few and see if any audible day & night diffs are indeed endemic to BR players spinning 'other than' formats....

I'd not go into such a prospect of obtaining a Blue Ray unit with the hopes of also getting a better SACD, CD or DVD player in the bargain.... and certainly not for two or three hundred dollars.

I’d sure like to. That would be great! I’ll not hold my breath

I’m pretty sure the aim with these players is set to versatility and convenience over performance.

I once saw a post here, a long time back, which said the poster had plugged his CDP into the DVD digital input of his receiver to take advantage of the greater decoding range of the DVD DACs… I thought that was funny. Only if the Red Book signal was being upconverted or upsampled to the 24/96 region, would there be any reason for that move…. Otherwise it’s still like using the CD digital input.

I do hope whomever or those who do delve into this prospect by actually buying or auditioning some BR players with secondary disc playback, come back and let us know what is up with that.