comparison CD versus DVD-A

DVD-Audiobahn

New DVD-Audio music releases and talk about the latest players.

I have for the first time, had a chance to compare ,directly the RBCD and DVD-A of a recording .I have listened the Naxos' Elgar-Payne 3rd in both formats via Sennheiser HD 650 headphones and the Musical Fidelity X-Can V3 tubed headphone amp.
My initial impressions were, that there wasn't really that much difference, between the two.But repeated hearings have revealed quite obvious differences.
The RBCD sounds closer ,more upfront and might therefore mistakenly IMO,be thought of as better.Many pop-rock listeners would probably prefer the RBCD, if they were to listen to real, acoustic music, for a change.
But when you start listening to, and compare the way individual instruments actually sound,the DVD-A sounds more realistic,has more air ,longer reverberation , more natural timbre,and individual instruments are more clearly defined in space than on the RBCD.The DVD-A simply sounds more realistic to me.
THe DVD-A stereo layer is only delivered at 24 bit linear but still sounds more high res than the RBCD IMO.The differences I hear are similar to what I also hear between good SACDs and the RBCD layer on hybrid discs.
I quess the bits count even at a lower sampling rate?
As a pro photographer, I do know for sure, that the higher the resolution ,the finer the grain is on you film ,the clearer ,the sharper, your final image will be.And maybe it would not be completely wrong to assume that a higher sampling rate would be similar to moving up from say, Velvia on 35m/m film to Velvia on medium format ?
The recording itself is actually very good and has been engineered by Tony Faulkner at the original sampling rate of 176 Khz.
I hope they go back to the original sampling rate for the SACD version.This recording might make an interesting comparison between DVD-A and SACD.
But as things stand now, this is quite a good introduction to DVD-A for classical listeners IMO.And the music is absolutely stunning.
But in all honesty I must say that I have many old LPs that sound even more realistic than this DVD-A.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

Topic - comparison CD versus DVD-A - cf@tiscali.se 01:10:13 03/28/04 (4)

What player did you use for DVD-A playback? - Eric LeRouge 03:55:59 03/30/04 (0)

Re: comparison CD versus DVD-A - NotMe 21:07:34 03/28/04 (2)

May I suggest "Steady Pull" by Jonatha Brooke? - Duilawyer 18:02:50 03/29/04 (1)

Let's Get it On... @ 24/192 - Eric LeRouge 01:19:03 03/30/04 (0)

You can not post to an archived thread.