2. digital
  3. 1058366603

SACD/DVD-A and 2-channel recordings

I had wondered if it would ever be the case that only multichannel recordings would come out leaving us 2 channelers in the dust. I was told by a dealer friend of mine that Sony professed to always include a remastered 2-channel SACD layer with every SACD whether it is multichannel or not.

I am wondering if anyone else has heard this and whether this is also the case for DVD-A?

Thanks,
pardales
ellery911
549 posts
 
I'm glad you asked this question...I was just about to post the same thing.
bomarc
501 posts
 
Given the ubiquity of the Walkman and the boombox, I'd say it's highly unlikely that we'll ever stop getting disks that are playable in a two-channel system.

You may have misunderstood your dealer friend, however. The second layer on a hybrid SACD is CD, not 2-channel SACD. As for DVD-A, there was something recently about hybrids that would play on CD machines, but I'm not sure there are any on the market yet.

The more challenging question is whether record companies will take as much care mastering a 2-channel version anymore. It's also possible that the two-channel option of the future won't be a separately mastered layer at all, but an on-the-fly mixdown of the multichannel version.
sidssp
1,077 posts
 
As far as I know, all multichannel SACDs today include 2-channel tracks in a separate area of the SACD layer, not in a separate layer.
flex
292 posts
 
I know of no companies doing SACD multichannel without including a 2 channel SACD mix, but Tacet's DVD-A recordings are generally multichannel without the corresponding 2-ch high rez mix. It's certainly not an industry trend at this point.

The CD mix, if it becomes a reality with DVD-A, will be on the flip side of the disk. The hybrid idea didn't work out well technically, and was dropped by the dvd forum earlier this year.
More to discover