IT'S A GAS, GAS, GAS!!
MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVES/WEEKLY ROCK POLL POST
Return to Gasx3/Poll Post Board Homepage
Name: Cardinal Fang
E-Mail:
Subject: For 2000 Man and John H
Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2002
Time: 10:09:53 PM
Remote Address: 64.158.18.68
Message ID: 26304
Parent ID: 26292
Thread ID: 26278
2000 Man !!
......I've been hearing it has two tracks on it. If so, can an SACD player play like twice as much regular CD audio? ......
First off, NICE explanation of the DVD-A! (Totally right on.)
To answer your question (which sort of gets into John H's question, hence why I lumped them here together)
The "two tracks" you are referring to are two "layers". To think of layers, imagine 2 CDs stuck together.(double decker like) The top layer is the SACD layer, and the bottom layer is the old standard CD layer. This is WHY they are able to be played on both types of machines. The SACD laser that reads the discs is a little bit shorter than a regular CD laser so it will only read the top layer (with the SACD data) Meanwhile the old CD laser penetrates through the SACD top layer and reads the bottom CD layer. It ignores the SACD data because it isn't being reflected back the exact same way that the CD data is.
Since this sort of relates to John H's problem (more than likely, since I'm not at his house and have no way of testing it myself!) allow me to use one of my usual weird analogy's. The way this two layer / SACD-CD compatibility thing is kind of like having two sets of binoculars (the lasers) Let's say binoculars #1 (or "B1" from now on) has a set focus of only 10 feet. That's all you can see clearly is 10 ft in front of you. NOW, lets say binoculars #2 (or "B2" from now on) has a set focus of 20 ft. That's all you can see clearly is 20 ft in front of you. Now, say you have two eye charts (or two signs or whatever) Sign #1 is 10ft away, Sign #2 is 20 ft away. (still with me?) If I look through B1, I can read Sign #1 (at 10 ft away) perfectly, Sign #2 is too far away at 20 ft and thus NOT read. If I look through B2, I can NOT read Sign #1. Even though it's only 10ft away (and B2 can see 20ft away) the problem is Sign#1 is too close and therefore out of focus, so I can NOT read it. Sign #2 I can read perfectly because it's 20ft away. In my analogy, B1 = SACD laser, B2 = CD laser, Sign #1 = Layer #1 of SACD disc (the top layer) Sign #2 = Layer #2 of SACD disc (the bottom layer) Hopefully that all made sense?
To answer your other part, NO you do NOT get twice as much regular audio. You will also see the spec that the SACD can read/process four times the data. That does NOT mean you get four times as much regular audio. It just means it's 4 times faster or efficient.
Back to John H's deal! It's really hard for me to give you an accurate diagnosis without being at your house and checking it out. I do have two theories for you. First one is, yes it may be your hardware. The easiest way to test that is to get another SACD disc and try to play it. Try to get one that's been released on a DIFFERENT record label than the one you already have is on. (which leads to theory #2) Because the SACD disc are a relatively new media for some of these labels, I won't be surprised that in the beginning there WILL be quite a few SACD releases that have quirks or are a little "buggy". Like they will play on one brand of CD player but not another. Very much like how it is with some brands of CD-RW's and car stereos. I would start with theory #1. You might even try cleaning your CD player if you have one of those Alsop type cleaning discs. Also try taking a can of compressed air and open the CD player door and give it a quick blast. Try playing a different disc too.
Also you can NOT play your SACD disc on your DVD player.
Maybe it was one of you two, maybe somebody else but I think somebody else asked about the DVD-A discs being compatible with SACD's. The answer is NO. Like 2000 Man has said, DVD-A's have better sound than regular CD's but SACD's have the best sound out of all of them. It will be interesting to see what happens with the two different media. With SACD's there is a license fee that has to be payed to Philips & Sony. The reason why DVD-A is still in the race is because there is NO license fee involved. Kind of reminds me of the 1970's and VHS vs BETA. At first you had manufactures who did one or the other (and in some cases BOTH) but after about 5 years, VHS won out. It's really hard to say at this point which one will dominate? SACD has the best quality but will be more expensive. DVD-A has better quality than the current CD's, will (probably) be cheaper, AND the manufacturers don't have to pay any fees to Philips & Sony. We'll see?
I hope this helps.
Later, Cardinal Fang
Note: Do not hit the "Post Message" button more than once, even if it is taking a long time to post your message. Doing so may cause a double post to appear and could slow down your posting time even more.
Download your free, customizable Burton Networks Message Board now!
© 1998 - 2022 by Keno Internet Services, except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.