Sa-cd.net

[Gordon Gray]

I guess I'd have to hear it in my system but the vast discrepancy in kbps does give me significant pause for judging the streamed Naxos sound quality and playing the SACD in a CDP player from an "apples to apples" perspective.

As to your last sentence, I have three redbooks that I've compared to their SACD counter parts.

No contest on my system. RB didn't make it through the first round of the 15 round fight.

PS: I have numerous RB CD's, some of which get reasonably close to very close (rare occurence) to SACD quality. But, when you play the same disc in both formats with the volume adjusted accordingly, the difference is quite obvious on my system.

By the way, Naxos is recording some contemporary classical composers that would otherwise never see the light of day. Kudos to Naxos. Two that I've been recently listening to are Penderecki and Lutostawski. Quite abstract but quite compelling.

 

[beanbag]

In your case, the SACD version will beat the Naxos version, so the Naxos is more of a full length album preview / evaluation service. No streaming service will give a SACD-level of quality. You will have to buy the physical disk.

The Journal of the Audio Engineering Society had a study where they took a SACD and down-converted it to Redbook format and nobody could tell the difference in music. So that means in theory Redbook should be as good. In real life, the SACD and Redbook versions often have different masterings, which explains the differences people hear. Or maybe the SACD player "tries harder" or does a better D-A conversion on the SACD stream.

Edit: apparently in the digital world there is a lot of blah blah going on via the various bitrates, i.e. DSD (SACD) vs 24/96 vs 24/192, etc. SACD is supposed to be equivalent to 20 bits, so in theory the 24/96 and 24/192 downloads are supposed to be even better. Fortunately (for you guys) I don't have much of an opinion on this issue.

 

[Bernard]

Kedar, if you can't find a good SACD of The Four Seasons, buy the Marriner/ASMIF version on CD; it's a good reading. I have it on LP.

 

[bonzo]

Thanks. Does the Nigel Kennedy one exist in good recording? I love his Summer

 

[User211]

Hm. I've moved from Spotify Premium to Qubuz Hi-Fi precisely because I found 320Kbps FLAC Spotify delivers to be sub par and slightly annoying. Qobuz is in theory exactly the same as CD quality. Actually playback quality appears incredibly close to CD if not the same.

I definitely could not cope with Naxos standard, and whilst 128K AAC is OK - it isn't CD quality, but as beanbag says it is good enough to tell if it is worth buying.

I don't know the Qobuz classical library size, t then again it is irrelevant, unless you use a proxy to gain access to Qobuz stateside.

Qobuz is a game changer IMHO. The Qobuz store has plenty of HD tracks to buy/download should you so desire.

Are there really no lossless services stateside?

Also, according to digital theory SACD does not provide any extra resolution over CD in the audible frequency range. Yet it gets called HD. Just a point to note It does in general seem to sound better, though why that is I'm not too sure.

 

[InterMechanico]

Sony Entertainment has a streaming service that provides 320 kbps AAC streaming. How high quality is that format?

http://www.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/ca-en/music-unlimited/why-music-unlimited/

 

[InterMechanico]

I have signed up. It appears to be pretty good. A lot of variety. Timm, there is a lot of great classical and free trial. I'll have a good listen tonight when I get home

 

[InterMechanico]

Huge Library. Unbelievable.

 

[User211]

Sony Entertainment has a streaming service that provides 320 kbps AAC streaming. How high quality is that format?

http://www.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/ca-en/music-unlimited/why-music-unlimited/

That's pretty good AAC is a very good compression algorithm. Much, much better than Naxos. Try and compare it with something you have on CD. Then you have your answer. All you care about is what you think

 

[Gordon Gray]

edit for gordon: by "sonics" I assumed the original poster meant things like miking technique, background ambience, reverb, voice placement, clarity, tonal balance, etc. so even the vbr is good enough to determine that. If you really want that last 1% (or however many percent you consider it to be) you will have to either get the physical disk or buy and download the high-res version of the file.

Beanbag,

My most recent RB vs SACD comparison (Analogue Productions release) was Oliver Nelson / Blues and the Abstract Truth. The audible difference in sonic quality was immediately apparent and well beyond 1% on my system. And far more involving if I may say.

PS: FWIW, on the opening of Track No. 1, there are four horns spread across the soundstage. It was far easier to differentiate each individual horn on the SA disc. Also, when Oliver begins his solo about a minute or so into the track, studio ambiance is clearly audible. Don't know if that matters to others but it certainly allows me to "better connect" with the music and well worthwhile IMHO.

Of course, YMMV.

 

[sb6]

Hopping on this thread late, but still hopping on the thread!

I agree SACD sounds "better" than CD comparing the same hybrid disc. However, as stated earlier, sometimes the recording but more often the mastering is different on hybrid discs. Also, the comparison where, "No one could tell the difference between SACD and CD", my reply is - on what system, room, disc(s)?

At the end of the say, with my sample of SACDs, they are clearly "better" sounding that my sample of CDs particularly via wider sound stage, more defined imaging, better ambiance and more detailed high frequencies.

Other great sounding SACDs - anything by Stockfisch records - TAS switched to this studio/recording process a handful of years back for their annual demo CDs. Analogue Productions are almost always fantastic sounding, MoFi is a bit more hit or miss. SACD.net I find useful if there are multiple reviews with similar comments/rating. If there is 1 review, it's hit or miss. And if you want to buy typically very good sounding CDs, check out XRCDs, most are quite good.