SACD and DVD-A

In this blog I want to discuss the High Resolution Audio formats Super Audio CD (SACD) and DVD Audio (DVD-A). The standard cd's that we buy are known as Redbook CD. The sampling rate of regular audio cd's we purchase in stores are 44.1khz at a resolution of 16 bits, whereas the sampling rates for SACD are almost 64 times that of a regular cd , and DVD-a is around 2-4 times more than a regular audio cd.

Sampling rate is the number of samples per second. A higher sampling rate would mean, more information is stored in the same second compared to the regular audio cd.

The bit depth refers to how much information is stored for each sample. So the higher the bit depth, more information is stored per sample. So its clear now why these are high resolution formats because for the same music, they store a lot more information which help in reproducing the audio closer to what was originally coming from the instruments or voices.

While this might not make a big impact for computer generated music such as techno and dance, the genre this has the largest impact on is the Classical music genre. When there is so much happening at the same time, several instruments playing together, you can imagine what a big difference 64 times more information can store.

The disadvantages of these formats are that they need dedicated players to decode the information and they will not work on our regular cd players. To make things worse, neither of these formats really got much recognition and there are only select artists who have released their albums in these formats. Also, the differences are night and day only when the corresponding equipment used (speakers, receivers, amplifiers) are all of high quality. Cheaper systems will not reveal the differences to justify investing in a dedicated player and buying the album again in a higher resolution.

The area where even cheaper systems can justify a purchase is when it comes to surround sound. Both formats support surround sound. If you currently have a home theater system setup with say a 5.1 setup, Left, Right, Center, Rear Left and Rear Right (thats 5) + subwoofer( thats 1), and if you have an album you like on SACD or DVDA, you should definitely pick it up and give it a shot. There are several extremely well executed Surround sound albums, even though the artist originally intended it to be a stereo recording. In most cases, they go back and remix the whole album in surround sound.

If you do not want to invest in a SACD player or DVDA player just yet, the advantage of most DVDA releases are that they are usually accompanied by a Dolby/DTS track also with the album in surround sound. While not equivalent to the quality of SACD, its still superior to the regular audio cd. So if you have a home theater with a regular DVD player (which can decode Dolby or DTS) then you can enjoy these albums in surround sound.

Some of the really good SACD's DVDA's
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon (SACD)
Nickelcreek - Nickelcreek (SACD)
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia (DVDA)
Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream(DVDA)
Queen - A Night At The Opera (DVDA)
The Allman Brothers Band - Live At Fillmore East (DVDA)