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Why SACD isn't good for commercial recordings...

Daniel: I would like to make one more comment on my Sony "diatribe." Why do I think Sony has ulterior motives in pushing DSD? Because of their licensing fees. Look into it and tell me why this isn't true; because it's pretty well known in recording circles that DSD provides LESS fidelity than good old 24 bit PCM (which requires no licensing fees).

For fodder for argument on that point, open last month's Stereophile (the one with the Verdi on the cover). Open to Fremer's article on the Verdi/Purcell/Elgar+, and read through JA's measurements of the Elgar +. A few quotes:

"...DSD encoding used with the SACD medium results in very high levels of random noise extending from just above the audioband up to the region of the 2.82MHz sampling frequency. The residue of this noise, following the Elgar's low-pass filtering, can be seen in fig.2, well above the noise level of the 24-bit LPCM signal, though this does show a much smaller rise above 100kHz. The DSD peaks at around -42dBFS between 80kHz and 100kHz, meaning that the SACD medium has only about 7 bits of resolution in this region. In the audioband below 10kHz, however, the resolution is much better than the CD's 16 bits, evidenced by the Elgar's noise floor reaching almost -140dBFS at low frequencies. However, as the Elgar's 24-bit LPCM noisefloor in this region is even lower in level, this appears to demonstrate that DSD is not quite up to 24-bit PCM encoding in terms of ultimate resolution. "

AND

"Fig.2 graph shows 1/3-octave spectral analyses of the Elgar's analog noise floor while it decoded DSD data representing dithered tones at -90dBFS and -120BFS, as well as the 24-bit LPCM equivalent of the latter. The reproduced levels of all three tones are correct, implying excellent linearity, and no harmonic spuriae can be seen. However, with the -120dBFS DSD tone, a second peak can be seen between 600Hz and 700Hz. This was repeatable, and was also absent from the LPCM spectrum. It might well, therefore, be due to an idle tone of some kind associated with the DSD encoding. "

Every technology is a give and take, I think. And I'm not arguing that SACD sounds good, because it does!! But when good old PCM proves to be theoretically higher fidelity and doesn't incur licensing and distribution fees, I don't think it's only good for home recording.

In practice, I find both formats to sound EXCELLENT..! I just don't think Sony has audiophiles on their mind when they created DSD.

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