SACD, DVD and TNT

SACD & DVD

Friends, sometimes I just don't understand you. I don't understand why you comply, even if not willingly, to the frenzies and the swindles of the market, and then you cry wolf when the market eventually offers you all a chance. I am talking, obviously in an ironic and sympathetic way, to those "boys" - some of which are quite grown up by now - who love the best hi-fi, to those whose hi-fi history has been a long and passionate horse ride, longer than Henry Fonda's or Gregory Peck's ones, in the analogue prairies, those who had to leave their horse - or, at least, to keep the horse in the stable longer than they wanted to - when a silver disc, which was born somewhat one-eyed and pretty lame (and whose parents were more than a little deaf), but quite arrogant, began shouting and boasting to be the lone star of the music reproduction stage, even if born in a lab. I am obviously talking about those boys - actual boys, now - who haven't lived the black disc history and have always considered it an ancestor, only to discover later that it sung like a nightingale. I am talking about all of those audiophiles who are worried by the so-called "new digital formats". To those who are speaking without hearing and on a preconceived concept, to those who fear the retirement of CD ("just now that it was beginning to sound quite good" - it's taken ages, hasn't it?).

My friends, this time - a really rare occasion - the major record labels are doing us a gift (major labels' gifts are always to be paid later, what price is to be seen…), SACD and DVD-Audio are the best opportunity this miserly market has had in the last twenty years, exactly since the time of the massive CD introduction. Let's first debunk the myth of the "new formats": DVD-Audio isn't new at all, it's the audio implementation, which was envisaged since the time when the high density disc with compressed data option was developed, of the video disc; neither SACD is new, being just the natural technical proceed, the one we have been waiting for years, of the music-oriented optical disc technology. To be more precise and explicit, SACD is the natural and long overdue evolution of the CD standard, of which, let's say it upfront, it's much better sounding. And about time, it was. Being the sceptical kind, I feel a bit strange and almost nonplussed giving such a sure and almost trenchant opinion. But I think I can say I have quite a long experience in listening tests, repeatable comparisons and economical considerations, which I think should be convincing not only for all of us working, as professionals or as informed dilettante, in this market sector, but also for all hi-fi buffs: it might be useful to remember that a weak market offers less competition and cuts out or limits into niches independent manufacturers, new designers or less viable products.

As a consequence, it's a market offering little quality, and at high prices, and an almost infinite variety of low quality, or plain bad, products, at prices which aren't that low. A rich and alive market (as was that of the unforgettable Eighties, with all of their problems, but in our sector, with all of their glories) has, as a direct consequence, an abundant and varied offer, both in quality and in price. SACD (DVD-Audio is, for the moment, a different matter, as there are few, even if high quality, records and players, but universal players are enhancing in quality and lowering in price) has all the chances to repeat Compact Disc's success, which not only imposed the format (a process driven with extraordinary force by the same companies which are now behind SACD), but revived, paradoxically, even the seemingly starving world of analogue reproduction, which gave its best when the terrible competitor was trying to kill it (even the attention was gained, of that part of the public who was convinced by the press of the time that a record player just had the simple (?) task to spin a record at the right speed…). Fact is, even if CD is the universal format of the moment, analogue technology is not only alive and kicking, but even major labels are pressing vinyl issues of the top releases - and not only of the top ones - and for the young customer, too (!!!).
Contrary to what happened with the CD, SACD is totally backwards compatible. No CD collection will be lost and no one will be forced to throw her/his (maybe beloved) CD player in the dustbin, as for years to come SACDs will have a CD compatible layer, making them readable by every CD player. The best SACD players in their price range are showing to be able to read normal CDs at least as well as a same price-range CD player, often better or even much better in terms of musicality, dynamics and soundstaging.

Why, after 20 years, staying stuck to the original 44.1 KHz sampling frequency, with its limit of a 22 KHz response? We were able to listen to those wonderful, and prematurely killed off, DAT machines that allowed us to hear what difference a 48 KHz, and a 96 KHz, sample frequency made. We have been knowing for years that the 20Hz-20KHz straitjacket cuts frequencies which are fundamental for musical and spatial reproduction, those infra- and ultrasounds which contain an amazing quantity of harmonic and spatial information our psycho-physiologic system is able to decode (to put it in a different way, which our ears aren't able to perceive but our body is fully able to decode). Multichannel isn't compulsory; it's a chance SACD offers, if we want to stick with stereo we are allowed to. So, what are you afraid of ? Of changes? They already forced us to accept changes for worse, this is one for the better. Yes, we are taking sides, and we take side in favour of SACD. The next issue will contain a comparison between two machines which share the same technological core, and which some, who don't know what they're talking about, are saying are one and the same (they aren't at all), the Micromega SACD Reference and the Philips 963. One of the best (and highest price) SACD players around and the best seller of the moment, both equipped with a Philips transport and a Philips topology (even this is not completely true, but wait for our number 4 to know…)

TNT

It was a nice, almost moving surprise, in these times of fierce and unfair competition, to read the words and space Lucio Cadeddu, the Editor of www.tnt-audio.com, has dedicated to us in a recent editorial.

Lucio's editorial is a wonderful example of how two entities, different in many ways, but similar in others, and dealing with the same items, can not only live in peace, but might also, in future (these are only hypotheses, at the moment, not announcements) share common initiatives or battles. In these years, competition was often replaced by the disregard of every civil rule, the competitor was taken for an enemy which had to be killed at any cost, and intellectual and human respect replaced by denigration and FUD spreading. We think, as TNT does, that there's no competition between us (we will perhaps be, in some instances and in some periods, but gentlemanly), but in their differences (for instance, we do video, TNT does not) these two initiatives can only enrich this market, since we think we can give our contribution to develop it and to make its ideas and its critical culture grow. So we not only reciprocate the wishes and the appreciation, but we will also be more than happy if our readers will be TNT readers (and, obviously, vice-versa…)
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