Hugging A Dead (SACD) Horse

From Edison cylinders to pre-amps to ProTools: talk about it here.
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Rspaight
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Postby Rspaight » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:59 am

Not your fault -- Sony manuals stink. I generally like their products, but the manuals are almost universally worthless. ("Press the Surround button to enjoy the Surround mode.")

Ryan
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Dob
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Postby Dob » Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:25 am

lukpac wrote:I personally haven't heard much difference at all between layers on the discs I've heard (mostly ABKCO stuff).

The CD/SACD layers on Let It Bleed sound identical to me.

However, my Billy Joel The Stranger SACD (non hybrid) is clearly a different mastering than the latest CD remaster, even though the packaging and the same mastering credits would lead you to believe that they are the same.

Although I haven't heard any examples, it wouldn't surprise me to find a hybrid that had different masterings for each layer.
Dob
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lukpac
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Postby lukpac » Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:48 am

Well, the mastering is probably the same, but the Sam Cooke best-of has slightly different *content* on the two layers. The radio clip at the end is only about 30 seconds on the CD layer, while it's something like 3 or 4 minutes on the SACD layer. Kind of a neat way to do it, I guess, since they just about hit 80 minutes on the CD layer.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

seth
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Postby seth » Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:01 pm

I recently needed to replace my CD player, and while I was very tempted to get one that plays SACD as well, I didn't find one that was good enough (at least without going into the really high end). I ended up with an Arcam CD93t, which doesn't even have HDCD decoding (though it does have "oversampling" and sounds great, and it also has the fairly useless "CD text" feature.)

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Patrick M
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Postby Patrick M » Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:02 pm

I really dig CD TEXT, personally.

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lukpac
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Postby lukpac » Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:15 pm

I love CD Text...
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

seth
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Postby seth » Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:37 pm

So far the only ones of my CD's that have had text show up are the Stones hybrids and one of my daughter's CDs (I think KimPossible). Do a lot of CDs have text?

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Xenu
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Postby Xenu » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:21 pm

No. It never seemed to catch on with commercial discs. The first CD I encountered with the feature was the Sony Rewind-series reissue of Colin Blunstone's "One Year." I remembering being shocked when my CD player suddenly started displaying song titles; I had no idea it was capable of such feats of techtasticity! I've always wondered why Sony never made CD-text standard on their CDs.

While CD-text is a no-show on the commercial front, it's been fairly successful in the world of CD-R. As most drives today can read CD-text (and, I would think, the same is true for most modern recording drives), it's become an almost ubiquitous feature of home-made CDRs; in fact, the only time I *don't* use it is on Japanese discs when I have major problems translating track titles! Many software programs support the CD-text routines, which eliminates a lot of guesswork with un-labeled CDRs (and also saves me from having to attempt to write out tracklistings on the discs) AND provides a handy on-disc catalogue of a CD's contents.

But heck, it's mostly about laziness. CDs in the CDDB/FreeDB database can have their info retrieved easily by EAC. Custom mixes and compilations cannot. Having CD-text enabled allows me to grab the stereo mix of Please Please Me from my PPM/WTB twofer without having to think about where the heck the track is on the album or having to type a keystroke.

I love me my CD-text.

[Edit: Pre-empting the obvious response...yes, CD-Text and I are going to Fire Island over break. He plays a mean KY-and-sand-pit tetherball!]
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Postby lukpac » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:54 pm

Sony is the only label I've seen embrace it on the CD front; most (all?) hybrid SACDs have it. Some discs of mine:

Train (1998) yes
S&G Live from NYC (2002) yes
S&G Best Of (1999) no
Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003) no
Dylan GH (1999) no

It seems like it's on more newer titles than reissues for some reason.

Sony seems like they're also embracing it more on the hardware front as well. My Sony car stereo supports it, as did our 4 year old Kenwood. But our year old Kenwood doesn't (same price point). Go figure.

Not sure why it hasn't caught on. It's one of those neat things that doesn't seem like it would take any extra work.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Rspaight » Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:05 pm

The two Sony 9/11/2001 releases I bought have it -- Ben Folds Rockin' The Suburbs and Dylan's Love and Theft. I don't remember if The Rising does or not off the top of my head.

Virtually all SACDs have it, and least nearly all the ones I have.

Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

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Patrick M
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Postby Patrick M » Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:06 pm

It's great for CDRs. If you get one McGoodwin labeled, you don't stand a chance in hell of even being able to deciper the artist.

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Patrick M
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Postby Patrick M » Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:06 pm

BTW, the CD TEXT support on the NS500V is crap.

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Postby Xenu » Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:50 pm

Patrick M wrote:It's great for CDRs. If you get one McGoodwin labeled, you don't stand a chance in hell of even being able to deciper the artist.


My handwriting usually isn't all that bad, but I'm awful when writing on CDs. Usually, the problem is that I don't have a flat surface--I tend to be juggling discs, and besides, you're not supposed to lay them down on flat surfaces--and so I end up writing on them without much leverage. They're not ALL that bad.
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Postby Rspaight » Thu Sep 09, 2004 10:30 am

Patrick M wrote:BTW, the CD TEXT support on the NS500V is crap.


Is it even possible to show song titles? All I can get is the album title.

Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

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Postby Kjoerup » Thu Sep 09, 2004 1:15 pm

Back on topic:

Shush! The great man finally weighs in. Please say it ain't so, Surrogate Daddy!

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showp ... tcount=109

Looks as if there'll be a whole lotta crying, maybe suicidal thoughts, in Audiofool Land today. I say good riddance to that rip-off format and the horse it rode in on.