Beware of Audiophiliac scammers!!! Don’t fall for it!!

You may get a kick out of this! I'm 72 years old and the first time I ever heard stereo was from the Perry Como Show. What he did was introduce a new sound called stereo, this is back in the early to mid fifties and I remember this clearly. He had folks tune in a perticular station on the radio in your area and then put it a few feet away from the television set. Perry then performed live on his show, amost all the shows back then were live, and you heard stereo for the first time. One channel was from the TV and the other channel was from the radio. I was very young at the time! I remember being so amazed by it! It was a first, Perry Como was the first one to ever do this or the first artist to ever been heard in stereo! He also pioneered some other stuff in the recording and record industry also.

To me, as the owner of a small recording studio, the difference between audiophile speakers and studio monitors is that audiophile speakers blend the various components of a piece of music together in a pleasing way, while studio monitors separate those components for artistic and technical analysis, both individually and as part of the instrumental and (and often vocal) whole. For my main audiophile listening, I have a marvelous pair of Bowers and Wilkins 805D3s. Their blend of sounds is ideal for almost any type of music. (I bought them following your review some years ago, Steve). My main studio monitors are ATC SCM25A powered monitors. They are three-way, tri-amped monitors, with a separate amp for each speaker. They do a jaw-dropping job of separating the components of a piece of music. They can sound pleasing, but their only job is to tell the truth. For instance, when listening to a vocal we've tracked, I can easily tell if the singer's tongue was inflexible as she or he sang (thus creating a less open tone and timbre). I've had guitar players decide to switch to a slightly firmer or looser pick. Once something's recorded, we listen on the ATCs both to each individual track and the whole piece together, to make sure we've captured something we're satisfied with. But do I then mix on them? Only at the very end. Most of my mixing is done on my Avantone MixCubes, which intentionally have not much sonic range. (Some people use old Yamaha NS-10 speakers for the same purpose). I also make sure to see how the mix sounds in mono through the MixCubes. Why? As you point out, most people hear music in the background, from what to them is essentially a mono source, for example a stereo in another room in the house. So it's important to make sure the mix sounds good in mono. The final checks on every mix are just that - 1) on an okay stereo system just off my control room, listening from the control room; 2) on a fairly decent Bluetooth speaker, via Bluetooth, from the same room, and 3) on at least one car stereo, while driving. If the mix passes those final 3 tests, it'll sound good anywhere. When it's done the client gets to listen to it on the ATCs, where they really get to hear all the components, and then over my Bowers and Wilkins, where they hear more as a whole. Then I send them to their own car to listen, by themselves, for final approval. If they come back through the door with a big smile, we're done.

If you use those streaming services for hi-res music don't waste your time. Buy the sacd and get the best!

Thank you Steve-so much great stuff here. I've been a recording engineer for 40 years and an avid record listener and collector for 25 more and his reflections on the way the industry has evolved from a sound quality point of view are priceless and quite accurate. I just wanted to elaborate on a couple of points-I too thought surround music would become a viable of component of the industry but I failed to see that more and more people would be listening through earphones as their primary place for serious listening which made surround a moot issue. It also affected how we compress recordings that we mix and master. The availabilty of look ahead digital limiter plug ins has allowed us to compress and limit as much as we want without fear of creating distortion and, especially through earphones on phones with weak headphone amps, this was the only way to create an impactful experiance for the casual listener. Plus I've found that many clients, even ones that considered themselves sound concious always preferred the louder mix when I gave them the choice. To conclude, instead of moving towards a high quality sonic experience through surround and high resolution formats, this century had seen us move firmly in the opposite direction through the primacy of mp3 and other compression schemes played through earbuds and small speakers that prioritized convenience over quality as Steve so correctly points out. The audiophile world is a genuine but very small segment of the market and so many companies will use the term for marketing only that the average consumer has no reall awareness the differences these sorts of recordings offer.

I decided pretty early in my audio system journey that 16 bit 44.1 was good enough for me. How fortunate that was for me. Old CDs are readily available. Even the audiophile recordings I want to buy are cheaper in that format. It all ends up on a network hard drive and streamed through a media server that is tricked out to play just that format as well as possible. I am glad the other formats did not obsolete my system. Allows me to be happy with what I have got. And no, I did not settle for mediocrity. 44.1 played on a system with a clock optimized for that format can be very natural.

While I stream much of what I listen to, I do still buy CDs. I love the new SACDs put out by Chandos, primarily, of classical titles and performances. The depth of sound field, the sound stage width and instrument location are so good sounding to me.

The 99%'s don't know what they are missing! I'm one of those Audiophiles that buys a lot of Classical SACDS and I appreciate the format as many of these recordings sound great with beautiful sound. I agree that many regular CDs that are not SACDs sound great due to an excellent recording technique and quality of the musicians. I'm an older guy who is tired of listening to the same old Rock n Roll bands of my youth listening to 2, 3 4 minute ditties of simple songs with little or no musical development or musicians who play great but can't sing. Lastly, always looking forward to your cool viewer systems of the day showcasing the many Audiophiles and Music Lovers who take pride and pleasure in their rigs.

The value of your take and perspective really shows with these types of videos. Great job.

I started buying CDs again about a year ago after realizing I was running out of room to properly care for and store my growing LP collection in an apartment. Already knowing a good deal about labels like MoFi and Analogue Productions I took a chance on SACDs despite their price and never having heard anything about them before. I was a kid in the early aughts so I have absolutely no recollection of SACDs ever existing alongside CDs in a retail environment and I usually have to describe to people under 30 what the hell it is I'm buying exactly, but overall I have to say I'm impressed. My system is as modest as you can possibly have (a Marantz UD5007 through a starter Yahama receiver), but for my present space and needs it gives me a solid sound that's a lot better than solid through good headphones. A big motivation for me to own physical media is having unlimited access to my favorite music and movies in the best possible quality, and it's hard to argue with an (allegedly) pure copy of the master tape. It's more likely to appeal to me than most people my age because I'm the guy who likes Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, The Doors etc, but releases like Run DMC, Pixies and Weezer have also really shown their merit. If labels continue to expand their catalogs beyond 1979 (or secure a few more BIG discographies) the format has a chance to stick around. It will probably hit it's end timeline-wise when music gets to the pro-tools era, but as you said, SACD has really only accounted for maybe 1% of the analog era as it stands.

When Pioneer came out with the DV-563A, an affordable universal player for SACD and DVD-Audio, I bought one as soon as I could. Surround mixes of some of my favorite albums were what attracted me to the formats. Sadly, the labels seemed to stop releasing titles at about the same time. But I love my surround copies of Kind of Blue, Dark Side of the Moon, Rumors, Tapestry, Brothers in Arms, Gaucho, Pet Sounds, Hotel California, Tommy, The Nightfly, Kamakiriad, and a stereo only SACD of Excitable Boy. They're now played on an Oppo BDP-105. Quality-wise, I'm eternally grateful to CDs for bringing analog tapes out of the vaults. For me, 'hi-rez' doesn't add anything unless it's one of the very few albums actually recorded at better than CD resolution - otherwise, you're just buying the identical pair of shoes in a bigger, more expensive box.

I have a dire straits brothers in arms sacd and it sounded way better then my regular cd on my blue ray/sacd player

Thanks for showing my system Steve!!!!!! Love the show so much!

Steve, I agree with you to some extant, but I listen to classical and there are MANY titles !!!

I started buying SACDs in 2000 and I have never stopped buying them. The supply from the likes of Universal Music Japan, ARS Produktion and BIS (to name a few) keep filling my shelves. I admit I have more SACDs than I can realistically have time to listen to, and they keep coming out! ESOTERIC is realeasing yet more DG titles this month! Streaming? What's that? I have never done any streaming and I don't intend to at any time!

Thanks Steve! Another great installment. Really appreciate the background and information on SACD and four channel playback. It’s very interesting to realize how low on the list of priorities audio quality really is to most labels. I do disagree with you a bit on the recording studio comments. My experience has been that engineers and producers strive to get the most beautiful sound they can. They will always give you a test mix and send you home to listen on every system you can get your hands on in order to test the broadest range of listening experiences. Anyway, love the channel. Keep up the great work!

Love it!! So refreshing to listen to you, also not sounding like-i-know-it-all-audiophile. Stay safe!

I remember the Stereo vs Quadraphonic Debate and the Quadraphonic proponents predicted the death of 2 Channel Stereo. This was decades before “Surround Sound” and major manufacturers of the time were promoting their new lines of Quadraphonic Equipment and the big record companies began releasing quadraphonic versions of Albums by the biggest artists of the day along with the Stereo Album versions. Despite all the hype, technology, yada, yada, yada 2 Channel Stereophonic survived then and it’s still in vogue today albeit in digital formats and that has brought us to this point in time and the current debates. It’s part of the history of audiophilia in the consumer electronics marketplace. Interesting Presentation Steve 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

The light at 6:30 is lovely.

Very good. Your time in the business has been enviable. Love your stories. Keep them coming

This is funny. Surround sure as hell isn't dead to me. I just got the White Allbum, Abbey Road, Electric Ladyland, and Appetite for Destruction to name a few! The majority of my favorite recordings are SACDs because the hi res and surround elements can really take my favorite albums to a new level. Many SACDs were classic rock and while I was simply burned out on listening to Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic in stereo for the god knows how many'th time over the years getting it on SACD was almost like hearing it again for the first time it opened up the soundscape and improved it so much. SACD does this for alot of my favorite classic rock, as do BR, and DVDA. Beatles, Doors, Elton John, Pink Floyd never sounded better on any other media IMO and I play it all, but of course my system is tailored for 5.1 surround. If you're into classic rock there is a hell of alot more available than just that Talking Heads box set which I'd never heard of so thanks for mentioning!

Thanks for this video . And it’s true we al want our records and our cds to sound the way we want them to sound , or the way we think it should sound in our system. Thanks

The heck..... Thank you so much for that introduction to steve wilson... The moment i played luminol track i was surrounded with music (and that piano🥹). It was ethereal.

I love the wide range of reviews you do, Steve, from the bargain priced gear to the expensive. I have no interest purchasing 99.9 percent of the stuff you discuss, but I believe it makes me a more knowledgeable audiophile just knowing about the gear. And your comments about vinyl got me back into analog sound after thirty years of being digital - thanks for this! Keep up the great stuff!

More good stuff from my audio guru!! I just wanted to thank you for your help and common sense approach to audio and I actually purchased the Outlaw Audio RR2160mkll due to your reviews on it. I absolutely LOVE it! There’s not much out there on this unit, but safe to say you nailed it! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thanks Steve, another video to peek my interest. 👍

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about this. Now, I understand how the SACD, DVD-Audio, DSD fiasco played out. I loosely attempted to prepare for this. What a fruitless effort it was. I GAVE UP without nearly no money spent on upgrades.

Wow Steve everything you said about the old Days of Analog is so true, as with your statement of Recording Engineers not really putting their heart into it is quite evident. I'm 62 years Old and I build Speakers Hi-end Bookshelf and any Engineer either doing the Recording of Music or Designing a loudspeaker must have 110% of his Heart into what he is doing that being intellect and that artist empirical awareness of the Gift of hearing good Music and then passing it on to others via the Recording or the Lould Speaker. I would love to send you a pair in the next 6 months and would be horned as a fellow Audiophile. Best regards John

Steve, I have always found that Deutsche Grammophon produce very high quality recordings issued on high quality pressings. They know that their target market is a more informed and discerning one. They are quite transparent with respect to their approach to recording and distribution media. Today their releases often include hi-res and Atmos versions via disc and downloads. Their marketing usually has links to streaming services such as Apple Music which I use. A a result, within minutes of reading of a new release I can be listening to it on the system which I recently shared with you in my submission to the VSOTD. I really appreciate and enjoy your videos and podcasts.

Loved the latest podcast. Interesting to hear your thoughts on another subject Steve. It was like a live story telling event.

Thank you Steve Guttenberg, you are a to go person for us Audioheads.the new term.those who want but can't afford in the latest audio mega universe. I appreciate your up to date information on all there is in the audio industry. Keep it going we love you.A well deserved topic for today and beyond. What did happen to the wars in this format.Thank you clearing the air on the hesitation of this format.Yes !!!!! And we love the systems of the day.. Keep it coming.!!!!!

Chill.... ;) Love your videos Steve. And I do like seeing other brothers systems. It's cool to see all the different collections. And the music you listen to during a review has brought to me new music, or old(new to me), that I wouldn't have known about. Thanks. It's cool 😎

I listen to hi res Amazon streaming through a fiios DAC, and it sounds fantastic.

Thanks Steve. 😎

Thanks for the stories, Steve. There are many product reviews out there, but few people have your wealth of experience to share. The reviews might be the bread-and-butter content, but please keep telling stories, doing interviews, etc. The non-review content is great for those of us who aren't actively shopping for a new component. That has to be most viewers, right?

Very usefull video. Thanks so much :)

The best surround sound experience I have had was Stockhausen's "Invisible Choirs". This was composed specifically for multiple channels and multiple loudspeakers spread around the opera theatre. The impression it gave of voices moving around the auditorium and almost merging with the physical structures was memorable. It was something that has not been pursued since, and I think that music has missed out on a lot. But it can only be fully realised if music is composed expressly to take advantage of the technical facilities.

Thank You Steve! I feel blessed !!! I love the Porcupine Tree and other projects by Steven Wilson since mid 90s. And I'm so lucky to enjoy his multichannel recordings! But then came proper Athmos recordings and they are so much easier to enjoy! The thing with stereo or quadro or 5.1, is that speakers placement and room size/distance between speakers play a huge role for the end result. With object based Athmos, receivers are reproducing the correct image (sound stage) much better with much less effort from user side. And honestly, most of us have movies setups, and all they need is decent receiver, three good speakers for the front and a decent sub (preferably two). The surround/height speakers can be kinda 'junk'. Its really sad that there is almost no talking about multichannel. I guess most audiophiles are way to conservative to appreciate it.

Yes, I agree in lamenting why surround sound for music wasn't explored when the hardware finally caught up where it was now available to mainstream consumers. Quadraphonic of the early 70s wasn't ready for prime time. I remember experimenting with L-R set ups I learned from my EE uncle in the 1970s while in junior high school. As an adult, I tried Hughes SRS, their phantom surround. But Dolby Pro-Logic really made a big step. In car audio, we have always had multi-speaker front/rear/sub configurations. Some of us had equipped the systems with digital delays for spacial expansion of the enclosed space. Dolby Digital, and later DTS both refined the surround experience until it was very satisfactory. Now with dsp and psycho-acoustics, the results are luscious. I recall owning a car stereo system from Sherwood with a DTS decoder for surround audio in the car. And a Carver Cathedral delay unit too. Most of my audio days and passion has cooled. Post-audiophile lifestyle now after a bad divorce where the ex-wife stole my system. She did leave behind my old AR speakers from 1982. Too old fashioned looking. But I no longer have a system to drive them. I do have some DTS coded music recordings, but no means to play them back. Maybe after Powerball some day, LOL! I wonder sometimes why we don't have these legacy and current dsp based digital surround systems released as software based encoding and decoding algorithms for our laptops and desktops. CPUs and GPUs are more than powerful enough to do all this on the fly today. It would be much cheaper for some of us budget audiophiles to tinker with and set up our systems. Video games already take advantage of HW in desktops for decades now.

My first foray into audiophile territory was in early 2000 and I bought Sony's first SACD player and had some Paradigm Studio reference speakers and a $3000 Denon AVR. I had a Celine Dion SACD that was digital recorded and mastered and it was insanely detailed. I had a Sting album mixed in DTS that was great cause they had backing vocals in the surround channels. I'm hoping music in Dolby Atmos takes off.

Right on!

I can verify your points at about 7:40 regarding music being mixed with a specific ‘ambience’ in mind. I have several 45 RPM records in my collection with the same track on both sides, with one side being labeled ‘Radio Version.’ I couldn’t hear (or my system didn’t reveal) much of a difference, but the recording/mastering engineers thought there was enough of one to label it as such. And I agree with your points at and about 8:20 (that most of us listen to music in the background, or while involved in other activities), and that is certainly true of streaming music. One of the things I like about streaming is that it requires little active management; while phonographs and CDs require that you be at or near the machine to tend to loading fresh media. And albums or CDs are tracks intentionally arranged together, often with an ‘introduction’ a climax,’ and a conclusion. How often do you listen to a CD with your eyes closed and you can tell from the way a track starts up, it’s pace, tone, clues you in, this is the last song? Because you’re there, in the room, it’s more efficient just to sit down and really listen to the music. Do you go downstairs to put on an album before you do the dishes? I don’t. I go downstairs and stay there; dishes can wait until the morning. I also agree with your point at 20:00 (that everyone needs to please themselves) although many of us (even after all these years) are still searching, or at least open to ‘all’ or ‘new’ music. Although, I also think that a large part of the audiophile journey is to define ‘your’ sound, both by the selection of tracks in your collection, and by the gear on the shelf. Just my 2 cents.

I listen to a lot of electronic/ambient music with a 4 channel speaker system and a Lyngdorf high end processor and it sounds great. Immersive music as it really should be heard.

Im so glad to watch this video. Ive been an audiophile since the 80’s as a teenager. I woke up one day and they are talking SACD, i thought what the h&ll just happened… ive got cds and whats this. The best streamed music cannot make a piano sound like a piano despite my ribbons. CDs are still the best.

The best show on the internet machine!

Steve, you are a nice man. Music industry isn't. Plus, modern music industry is a servant to agenda. Enjoy what you have and what you like

for surround, i found that DynaQuad, devised by David Hafler, extracts the ambience from the out of phase material in the difference between left and right channels. ALL formats respond well to it, radio, tv, dvd, LP, CD, SACD, or whatever stereo source you put through it. studio stereo recordings can be quite subtle but LIVE recordings sound LIVE and music like that of Isao Tomita. SQ and QS recordings sound pretty good as well. things only occur in the rear when they belong there. an excellent example of a live recording that is spectacular in DynaQuad is On the Night by Dire Straits. from the time that the pot opens, the recording is electrifying. you probably know this but Dolby Pro Logic is based on the Hafler circuit with logic steering enhancement. the way i adjust the DynaQuad unit is to play a regular studio stereo recording so that the rear channels are barely detectable, then Tomita and LIVE recordings really sound natural. the big test is when you return to stereo and the rear channels go away and the soundfield collapses to the front; it's dramatic. i agree that CBS/SONY really dropped the ball with SACD and also those that marketed DVDA. with SACD they could have marketed them two ways in a retail store. a special rack where only the SACD product, both single layer and hybrid would exist. AND in the regular stereo mix of CDs, the hybrids could have been populated without fear of selling a disc that couldn't be played in a conventional cd player. i did my best to support sacd because i wanted it to survive but the lack of CBS/SONY's support squelched that. it's possible that they were afraid of such a perfect sounding recording that piracy wouldn't have required sophisticated equipment to bypass the copy protection in digital. an analog transfer would have done the job. ...hifitommy

Hi Steve. Great topic as always . I’m an avid fan of multichannel music just as much as stereo (both analog and digital). I still have my collections of both SACD’s and DVD audios and a few DTS surround music CD’s. I do stream music on TIDAL and Apple Music and have a decent collection of vinyl. You need to check out the new format for multichannel , immersive audio in Dolby Atmos. They’re mostly sampled at 48/24 and are available in TIDAL and Apple Music. As of now, there are so many titles that are available to stream. You do have to own an Apple Music 4K steaming box to be able to listen to them over HDMI but they’re amazingly good. The engineers that have mixed them have done such a great job to make the experience truly immersive . Better than most SACD’s I’ve owned . Highly recommended.

Another Awesome Video

Remember Quadraphonic (?) sound of the ‘70s. One had to sit in the exact middle of the circle formed by the four speakers to get the effect.

Thx Steve

Chill. Peace. #1 reason I watch is because I like Steve.

I remember acquiring a love for music recording and a lust for audio gear when I was around the age of 15 in 2013-2014, when battery powered portable Bluetooth speakers were somewhat new, and I learned that a decent sounding system could be a small 100$ box. I spent a few years reading reviews and dreaming of having a surround sound system, until I finally learned that most music recording was in stereo and a 5.1 system is for tv and movies 😂.

There are lots and lots of boutique audiophile grade classical music recorded in high definition. My own label 'Base2 Music' specialises in organ and classical and all recordings are made at 192 and 384, in 5.1 surround and Stereo and all available on pristine SACD discs. SACD is the disc of choice for Classical music listeners.

Thanks!

I remember my first set of speakers the Technics SB-L300 and they sounded very good, but something was missing when playing vocals. I went to a Lafayette store, and I heard these Sony SS-610 set and the vocals where perfect with good bass but muddy highs. I bought them and operated them in conjunction with the Technics and the combination of the two was VERY satisfying. So, when a friend wants me to recommend speakers, usually I recommend two pair of a different brand that when combined sounds great.

Yes, mastering is a big problem and has been for some time. Heck, back in the day, the execs used to listen to their mixes broadcast to telephone or AM radio because they wanted them to sound good on low-fidelity systems. However, when I'm listening to Qobuz I can tell if the stream is 24 bits, regardless of mastering quality. 48 kHz vs. 96 vs. 192 doesn't matter as much as the bit count, at least to my ears.

Nice Cave DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! is great 5.1 DVD Audio.

Great great points made here! I do wish at minimum when DSD first came out that it became the recording studio standard for all the big shops. Not that the format take over the home per se. Just in the production stage, so at least our CDs/Vinyl got a little boost in quality.

At 52 years old I finally managed to own a Sansui turntable and a Haman Karden 330a receiver . We always had good systems in our house growing up in the 70s which I wasn’t allowed to touch but nothing from Japan or Germany as my dad was a soldier in the war

I came late to sacd, but I love it. I bought a Marantz SA KI about 3 years ago. Since then I buy sacd if available and have been known to spend way too much for oop titles. I recognize that they could have rolled it out better. And yes the lack of major label support is baffling.

I lost in the BD/HD-DVD war when I bet on the wrong horse first. I still have those discs and several players before they departed to the realm of obscurity, but it very definitely sounds just like the SACD/DVD-A wars too

Thank you Steve, for another great Video! Especially your thoughts about the SACD and DVD Audio Formats are very interesting, and I agree with you. As I worked from 1980 more than 20 Years in the Audio Business as a Salesman I see the introduction of the CD and later than the introduction of SACD and DVD Audio. I never understand why the Industry don't support these Formats. I'm always been a Anolog Guy, so this don't bother me to much , but I think this was a wasted opportunity.. By the way Steve.. Are you in Germany at the Munich High-End Show next week? Wish you all the best.

Always a brilliant watch / listen . Nice guy And very Knowledgable . Thanks Steve 👍 Ps What a shame SACD / DVDA didn’t make it , I have quite a lot of both and still derive a please from them Rumours / Avalon in surround that is hard to replicate in any other format . Keep up the great reviews !!

Quick note on hi quality streaming, a couple of stations “ Hi on Line Radio” and “Lynn” both out of Europe both stream for free at 24bit x 192khz constantly. They both have several music categories to chose from and sound way better then what I can from my CDs (my player may need upgraded) and better than most of what I can get out of Tidal. Other than going to your computer if you have a Yamaha receiver you can find then under Net Radio and go to hi quality stations where there are many others, some of them don’t sound as good as these.

I still like SACD, a fantastic SACD is Grace Mayha, Last Live at DUG Tokyo. Just an incredible album. There is not one song on there that is not listenable, this little gal really rocks the house. And to play those SACD's, I use my old OPPO BDP-83 and strip the DSD signal out of the recording via HDMI that runs through the GeerFab Digital Break Out Box that sends that signal via S/PDIF to my Denafrips Ares II DAC, to the Denafrips Hades preamp and out to their Thallo amp, which feeds my KLH Model 5's. Also two SVS SB3000 subs in the mix. The soundstage is incredible, the instruments are very well detailed and separated. And the vocals, especially the female voice, in a good recording is simply incredible. And that is one thing about that GeerFab box, it makes everything sound so much cleaner and more detailed, as long as it is a decent recording. It will not fix crap, crap in, crap out. Surround sound? I ripped out the HT and went back to two channel. Movies today are crap, and my current listening position does not play well with surround. I will stick with what few SACDs we have out here, and this setup simply makes everything sound better, win win!

Your killing it steveo-short but sweet bought some LG earbuds for my commute just for the convenience also hav e Tin T4 and I have to say that sound modeling through TIDAL is really good-PS audio had a segment on meridian sound modeling -that’s not for everybody but sounds good to me

I purchased a 2 channel SACD player last year for the classical discs, my UK living space being barely big enough to listen in stereo, which is why I think surround sound will not take off here. I have a quad vinyl pressing of Tubular Bells, although I have never heard that mix.

As always lots of interesting stuff, I was on the buy an sacd player track but gave up after buying one cd that I could find, it mostly failed for lack of current content in my opinion

I had several reference systems with SACD/DVDAudio and the occasional HDCD….guess which format sounded consistently and demonstrably superior? HDCD! That was the way to go…cheaper and easily implemented.

The planets have now aligned to foster SACD. It and Apple Music are awesome and it’s easy to hear the superior sound.

I bought the Jackson Brown on used vinyl for $5.00 and it sounds pretty good

Good piece. I have 45 + SACD classical from companies I have a Yamaha CD/SDVideo player that handles almost anything playing them - or one of the other 1,000 CDs. I can toggle ACD/PMC when I use the remote. SACD sounds different - I think beter.

Giles Martin gets it. The Beatles albums he has done so far, are AMAZING! Also, the INXS surround he did, is also very well done.

Steve, you're right about the highly compressed tracks you listen to that will never benefit from hi-res. However, in the smaller classical and jazz markets, there are many fine recordings coming out, some in surround, that are NOT compressed and eq'd for earbuds. Listen to nearly anything on Pentatone or BIS, for example. And BIS is still selling SACDs.

After listening to 5.1 SACD going back to stereo is like going back to a Coke gone flat, no fizz. Today I enjoy 5.1 SACDs via an OPPO-205 to a Sony TA-P9000ES Analog Multi-Channel Preamplifier. I am also excited about Dolby ATMOS music from Apple Music but I do not yet have a means to it.

The Talking Heads are 5.1 DVD audio. I have a few and they are a lot of fun!

I've purchased SACD Discs by FOURPLAY, Marion Meadows, Nora Jones, Dian Krall, Stevie Wonders album 'Songs form the key of life' (a digital recording) and many others!!

Cool shirt. Add a pair of vintage cowboy boots and you would that mid 70s retro look

Success through lower expectations! I agree with your observation, and it’s sad how people are generally satisfied with mediocrity. I just recently opened up and replaced the three belts on my 400-disc Sony DVP-CX777ES. This unit is connected directly to a pair of Edifier S3000 Pro Audiophile powered bookshelf speakers (my listening space is very limited, so this is my solution). I am in love with high-res music again!

The DVD, MP3, SACD, high-bit rate CD era in audio is what led me to the vinyl solution.

Hi Steve. Just to throw a spanner in the works re SACD. I recently did an extensive listening test, on one of your favourites, the Luxman D10X. I ran through a number of SACD, playing the CD and SACD layer. The thing is that, in all but one (possible) instance, the CD layer sounded obviously better than the SACD counterpart. So, do not despair if you have no high res. CDs still have a lot to offer. :0) Additionally in my experience, Streaming, even at high res (and even on very expensive units) sounds flat and one dimensional, compared to a decent CD player (of a few thousands upwards).

Right on Brother. I’m 62 with a nice stereo and I’m a musician, and see most of these things in the same way you do. Is it our generation? Probably in part. But it’s not all of it. My brother (2 yrs younger) who’s also a musician, is squarely in the Engineer camp that you describe. The love of good sound. Innate? Learned? Both probably. I get it though.

As an owner of Court of the Crimson King and Starless… you are absolutely correct, Steven Wilson is a gifted engineer who absolutely gets how surround should work and has the ability to work in those extra dimensions. That being said, a good friend got the Talking Heads brick and WHOA!!! Jerry Harrison REALLY gets it, at least as it pertains to the Heads catalog. Though honestly he’s been a gifted producer for some time (notably the early-mid 90’s album Live-Throwing Copper, brilliant!). I still believe in music for/in surround sound and wish some newer music was worthy of the effort to be recorded and/or mixed in surround. I think Jack White, The Black Keys, and particularly Muse could sound otherworldly. I feel perhaps the industry didn’t push for it because as it became apparent the direction in which music distribution was headed, they may have had concerns about the viability of being able to download or stream an uncompressed or hi-res x.1 surround file. Quad was more than interesting when well implemented, but that seems to be the deal. At that point it’s no longer enough to be well played, recorded, produced, and mastered…it must then be exceptionally well engineered. Which of course adds another hand to pay…

I want music/stereo that touches my senses much so if it's sad I want too feel my tears coming.

Great Points (as usual) Steve. Also, hi-res or higher res files, regardless of format SACD / DVD audio, streamed, hard-drive etc. will still sound bad if mixed and mastered to sound "good" on ear buds, bluetooth speakers, car systems. As you point out, this accounts for a lot / most new music released today. Sigh.

The most amazing thing is that today, a lot of folks have all the equipment needed to experience good surround music in their own homes. Any DVD player, played through a home home theater system will give a very good experience with a good DVD audio disc. Not only that, but Sony DVD players almost all play SACD as well. All most folks need to do to enjoy surround music is buy the discs.

I guess the modern surround sound experiment is spatial audio (and Sony's 360 reality audio which seems almost dead in the water before it even started and has retreated from a speaker based format to headphones). An entirely headphone based surround format. I like surround when it's done well. Still a niche undertaking. Love seeing the listener systems. Best wishes.

I love SACD and Hi Rez streams, own an sizable catalog, but i could care less if it comes with a Multi channel mix. IMHO, the barrier is cost. Most HT receivers have music listening as an afterthought. A lot are about rumbling the room with an explosion than accurately recreating the impact of a kick drum. Take $3k which is a lot of money for most people. Invest it in quality AVR, Speaker package, and Multi disc player capable of both Blue-ray and SACD playback. Take the same amount and invest in a integrated\ 2 channel receiver, a pair of towers or sub\satellite, and SACD capable CD player. Compare the sound quality of the two. IMHO you will always get more out of that 2 channel rig than than the HT receiver trying to do double duty. A lot of people just do not have the resources and space to invest in a high end Multi channel rig and speakers. Asinine mixes aside, even with best engineering and mixing the industry just doesn't get that the investment in a dedicated multichannel music listening system is cost prohibitive.

I agree with you about 16/44 PCM recordings sounding better than higher resolution recordings in many cases listening to Qobuz through my Roon Nucleus fed to a PS Audio DSD DAC/Steamer. Same high-quality by Cherry picking excellent recordings on CD and there are plenty of them.

Used to be that it didn't matter so much how the speaker was "voiced". Most amps and receivers came with tone controls and you could more or less tailor the sound to what you wanted. Graphic equalizers were also seen as totally legit fifi components. Somewhere along the line the "minimal signal path" freaks gave the manufacturers permission to give you an off/on switch and a few input buttons.

As PT Barnum once said, there's a sucker born every minute!

I’m all about pleasing me with sound - the over analytical ear is a distraction from the glory of the music. Imho. Great video, Steve. Also - why would people have a problem with built in South Korea? First world labour on a hyper expensive product? Fantastic.

over the years i developed an addiction to buying and listening to cds in every new format that would emerge and have enjoyed doing so.what i would like to see are the capitol and reprise boxed sets of frank sinatra reissued on audiophile cd,same for that of the beatles.

I just got my hands on the Bob Clearmountain/Bob Ludwig 2018 remixes remasters of The Band's first few albums. The Band's Big Pink never sounded better to my ears. I chalk it up to Bob's ears and his technical knowledge and advances in the technology. More evidence that a regular cd is all you need if it is in the right hands.

Huge fan of this topic such a interesting time in music sales that fell flat. Lots of promises made and very disappointing results.

I have recently expanded my stereo system to 5.1, with active surround speakers and Central channel powered with an additional monoblock. I like the upgrade, certain SACD I already had and so far listened in stereo, do sound terrific in 5.1, to the point I do not listen to them in stereo anymore. Examples: the dark side of the moon (2003 SACD), wish you were here (analogue productions), genius loves company, Tschaikowsky 1812 overture SACD by Telarc, and many more. On the more recent recordings take Clique! by Patricia Barber, 2021 recording on multichannel SACD.

About the SACD, DVD-audio (and for that matter, any TRUE digital audio format) the most distinguishing fact is that SACD versions are truly Hi-Res audio in the sense that they were produced from a super clean master (and not today's "remastered" scam versions there are in every online "hi-res" music platform) and correctly engineered after that (you know, no noisy tape hiss, plenty of room for dynamic range, crystal clear vocals, zero noise, etc), specially *JAPANESE* editions of SACDs. Other than that, digital formats (when non-destructively compressing data) are just a mere way of packing the bits and obfuscating the musical info (i.e. if someone decides they want to lock you into his format by using some form of DRM).The final quality of digital output is exactly the same for any digital format, by definition.

Just a few comments re Dvda, sacd and surround music. Dvda and sacd were trying to do several things at once, failing at most for the masses. They wanted to be hi res 2ch for audiophiles, multichannel music for the hot 5.1 home theater market of the early 2000s as DVD video took off, with most movies having 5.1 tracks that often sounded good in surround. Yes, not all were demo quality but I believe far more movies had good , sometimes great, surround soundtracks. Blu-ray solidified video surround audio with lossless 5.1-7.1 IMO, the surround music niche is fulfilled by concert, live performance dvd and Blu-ray. Yes there are gimmicky stinkers, but also a large number of outstanding live performance surround music video discs, with many throwing in a lossless 2ch track for purists. Assuming higher than 16/44 res is technically or sonically needed for even audiophiles, it’s an even harder sell for the masses weaned on lossy compressed and dynamic range compressed music the past 2+ decades Dvda fumbled for audiophiles by adding audible watermarks to the mlp encoded hi res tracks, destroying any value to audiophiles. Dvd video discs could always do lossless 24/96 2ch and lossless 48khz multichannel, or high bitrate lossy Dts multichannel, and Dts CDs could do 1.5kbps lossy multichannel, basically more like flac lossless, so Dvda was never needed other than to collect mlp license fees Sacd similarly tried to recoup fees from expired pcm and cd patents with dsd and the sacd disc format Technical arguments might be made that 1 bit 2.8mhz dsd sampling might improve time domain sound quality vs 16/44 pcm, but I’ll let tech geeks argue that one Both new sacd and Dvda discs are still produced and released, usually new transfers and remixed from source tapes by the Steve Wilson’s of the world as mentioned . And now we have BluRay discs that supercede DVDA for audio-only and music videos/concerts Not a Bad thing when done right, especially if you like good 5.1+ mixes, live performance or not, and get a true 24 bit transfer off original tapes

Meanwhile I am still rocking my hdcds thru my hdcd players. Neil Young, The GD, Joni, Tom Petty, and Beach Boys can't be wrong!