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SACD recommendations

I only mention this for its superb recording quality and performance, it’s the Carpenters singles on sacd - only problem it goes for $140 to $215 a copy used on the bay. I got a used copy some years ago for about 40 bucks. With my Scott tube amp and Klipsch Cornwalls it’s like Karen is sitting 8 feet away from me. Incredible!
 
I have a handful of SACD's and DVD Audio, mostly well know albums/artists and they all sound good.
The oddest one I have is Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of War Of The Worlds. I had the album when it first came out and was surprised to find a multichannel version. Sounds really good.
 
i just streamed this on Qobuz and whereas the sound was great, I did;'t feel the urge to buy a hard copy version, SACD or LP. i CAN recommend the SACD of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. it is in surround for those that are set up that way. the sonics are superlative but the surround deserves some criticism, even though it is mostly very well done.
 
Texas Blues said:
I have a handful of SACD's and DVD Audio, mostly well know albums/artists and they all sound good.
The oddest one I have is Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of War Of The Worlds. I had the album when it first came out and was surprised to find a multichannel version. Sounds really good.
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I picked that up a few months ago. Not a sonic masterpiece but an entertaining listen. The album was never discovered in the US but was very popular in Europe.
 
I'm going to vote for one that flies under the radar, Alan Parsons On Air. Great use of surround and the engineering and mixing is top notch. Christopher Cross sings track 9, So Far Away, beautiful.
 

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Serious question about SACDs here: I recently acquired a Chord Qutest DAC, which makes CDs sound really fantastic (far better than ever before) and now I'm wondering if SACDs on my SACD capable mid-grade/mid-ft Denon DVD-1930 CI DVD player that I use as a CD transport (and very occasionally as a DVD player) are likely to be any sort of improvement over CDs on my system? I don't even own any SACDs to test, but in the past I did borrow a few from my local library. I figured out how to toggle between CD and SACD and found that the SACD setting did maybe sound a bit better than CD going through my much cheaper Topping D50s DAC that I had at that time... but now, with my newer, far better performing DAC, I have to wonder if SACDs are even worth bothering with?
 
I wouldn't guess you would hear any improvement. That being said I can tell you from my personal experience of sacd discs, it's a mixed bag. It really depends on how well who ever mixed it. I have a fair collection of sacd material and some sound absolutely amazing while others are just meh. I guess the determine factor would be how important is surround music to you. I run my sacd through an Oppo 203 and I personally love it. I know it's frowned upon by a lot of Audiophile's because true stereo is where it's at to them and anything else is fake and adds to much color to the sound, but I think it puts a nice twist on the listening experience, especially if it's done well and the music is well suited for it. Bottom line if your thinking of going with sacd stuff don't do it for audio improvement because I think you will be disappointed. Think how dark side of the moon would sound in discrete surround.
 
Musicman2112 said:
I wouldn't guess you would hear any improvement. That being said I can tell you from my personal experience of sacd discs, it's a mixed bag. It really depends on how well who ever mixed it. I have a fair collection of sacd material and some sound absolutely amazing while others are just meh. I guess the determine factor would be how important is surround music to you. I run my sacd through an Oppo 203 and I personally love it. I know it's frowned upon by a lot of Audiophile's because true stereo is where it's at to them and anything else is fake and adds to much color to the sound, but I think it puts a nice twist on the listening experience, especially if it's done well and the music is well suited for it. Bottom line if your thinking of going with sacd stuff don't do it for audio improvement because I think you will be disappointed. Think how dark side of the moon would sound in discrete surround.
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Yeah, in my previous testing with the whole SACD thing, listening with my 2 channel system, I could hear only subtle differences between CD and SACD settings. With some recordings, there was a bit more difference and some hardly any at all, which leads me to believe that maybe the mastering was what was making he biggest difference and not the format...
 
Just bought my first SACD off Amazon, Dire Straits Brothers in Arms for $17. Had the Sony SACD player 20+ years since it was new. Never saw the SACD light, light up. The player just works so good I just never bothered to upgrade the CD's.
 
I have that same sacd as well. Decent surround mix and a great price too. I really wish they would come back with the format. I've heard Atmos mixed discs and they definitely do add to the sound but I prefer sacd.
 
I feel the need to report my findings of my latest test. I mentioned how I once tested SACDs against the CD output of the same disks (I figured out how to switch between SACD and CD mode on my Denon DVD player), but I had done that comparing outputs with my old Schiit Modius DAC and now I have a new (to me anyway) Chord Qutest DAC. Since I don't actually own any SACDs, I borrowed a couple from my local library - really well recorded classical ones (though probably everything on SACD qualifies as well recorded) and did the same test, but with the new DAC. Before, I remember feeling that the SACD was subtly better than the CD output through the Modius. Now I feel that though the quality of the sound is maybe a slight bit different, that the CD output through the Quetest DAC sounds equally good as the SACD. Just for comparison, I tried the CD output straight from the Denon CD player which was very clearly not as good as either of the other aforementioned output... So, it seems that either a high quality DAC or SACD playback sounds better than the native CD playback on a relatively inexpensive player, but there really doesn't seem to be any specific advantage to SACDs (unless you're playing them through a multi-channel setup).

I was using my most resolving gear to listen, which consists of HiFiman Sundara headphones run through a Gustard headphone amp.

Anyway, I realize that probably most folks who are listening to SACDs are doing in part to exploit the multi-channel aspect, but as far as 2 channel listening goes, the sound quality doesn't seem to beat what a really good DAC can do with a regular old CD...
 
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