Playing Music in Surround: Part Two
DVD-Audio
First available in late 2000, DVD-Audio uses the increased
storage capacity of the DVD to distribute much higher quality music than a CD can. A
typical DVD-A recording will be 24 bits instead of CD’s 16, with a 96kHz sampling
rate instead of CD’s 44.1kHz. In order to play this new and better media, you also
need a DVD-A-capable DVD player. While initially quite expensive, these players have come
into the mainstream, with models like Toshiba’s SD4800 now selling for well under
$200.
The digital output of a DVD player lacks both high data
speeds and copy-protection mechanisms to support DVD-A. Because of this combination of
technical and legal concerns, if you connect a DVD-A player using only the digital output,
you don’t hear the full quality of DVD-A music. You can only get that by running a
six-channel set of analog cables between the DVD-A player and your receiver or preamp. If
you’re only worried about stereo titles, you can run just two, but in order to hear
surround-encoded DVD-A you’ll need six cables for the 5.1-channel sound.
A typical DVD-A title will include several versions of the
music. A high-resolution, "24/96" or "24/192" surround-sound mix of
the album is usually included. Frequently a 24/96 or 24/192 stereo version, similar to a
remaster you might find on CD but of even higher quality, is also included, and for
backward-compatibility purposes, most DVD-A titles include a copy of the music that can be
read by any regular DVD player. This is normally encoded in Dolby Digital.
The formats you get vary on a disc-to-disc basis. For
example, the excellent DVD-A release of the Eagles’ Hotel California [Elektra
60509-9] includes three versions: a Dolby Digital track you can play on any DVD player,
and both 24/96 uncompressed surround and 24/192 stereo versions for DVD-A. Meanwhile, the
much less impressive DVD-A version of Toy Matinee [DTS Entertainment
89286-01030-9-2] includes a DTS 5.1 mix and a Dolby Digital compressed stereo mix of the
music playable on any DVD player, as well as a 24/44.1 DVD-A version -- not quite taking
full advantage of the format’s capabilities. Sadly, the exact details of each version
included on a DVD-A title are rarely disclosed on the packaging or even in the liner
notes, and often there’s no way to confirm what you’re getting unless you pop
the disc in a DVD-A player and change the display around to show the technical stats as
you switch among versions. Some of the audiophile retailers who carry these titles do
include this information; check www.amusicdirect.com
and www.redtrumpet.com as two good
sources.
All of the DVD-A titles are packaged in jewel boxes about
midway in size between a CD and a DVD case. That makes them easier to pick out when
you’re shopping. Always make sure to check the label to see if you’re getting
the versions you expect and to verify it really is a DVD-A release and not one of the DTS
CDs packaged in the same-sized case. This is particularly confusing because some titles,
like Toy Matinee, have been released on both DTS CD and DVD-A and may be mixed in
the same section of a store.
A final warning is that a typical DVD-A title requires
navigating a menu in order to select the version of the recording you want to hear, so a
system connected with some sort of video display is a must. You can usually get something
to come out if you just hit play a couple of times, but even that isn’t guaranteed to
work with all titles. The upside is that some titles include bonus video features similar
to the extra content on DVD movies, often including the song lyrics. Alice Cooper’s
nicely reworked Welcome to My Nightmare [Atlantic/Rhino R9 76785] adds interviews
with Cooper and producer Bob Ezrin, while Queen’s A Night at the Opera [DTS
Entertainment 69286-01091-9-3] adds the very popular music video for "Bohemian
Rhapsody."
SACD
Just as studios and consumers with Dolby Digital and DTS
decoders were starting to get comfortable with higher-than-CD-resolution recording and
playback, Sony released an interesting technology. Their SACD system throws out the
standard sampling-rate/bit-depth combination of PCM and replaces it with a system they
call DSD (Direct Stream Digital). DSD samples the music 2,822,400 times a second and spits
out a single bit of data each time. They claim this can capture frequency response to
100kHz with 120dB of dynamic range. The results can sound as good as any high-resolution
PCM recording. The primary downside is that music is rearranged in a very different
fashion all the way from the recording studio to your receiver.
Early SACDs and SACD players only supported stereo
recordings, but current production units handle 5.1 multichannel as well. Titles are
clearly labeled as to whether or not they include each format. Many of Sony’s DVD
players now include SACD support, with other companies climbing on board as well.
Entry-level models like Sony’s DVP-NS500V are available for under $200.
Like DVD-A, you’ll likely be stuck running analog
interconnects if you want to hear what’s special about the format -- two of them for
stereo titles, six if you also want surround.
Many of the early SACD titles were new versions of very
popular rock recordings. The remastering that went into a lot of these titles wasn’t
impressive, resulting in some releases that hardly showcase the format. A good example of
this is the Toto IV SACD [Columbia CS 37728], which in my system fails to sound as
good as the Mobile Fidelity CD remaster of the same title [MFSL UDCD 747]. There are
certainly a number of great-sounding SACDs around to balance this out. The Dave Brubeck
Quartet’s Time Out [Columbia/Legacy CS 65122] will make you believe 1959 was
just the other day, and Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells [Virgin 7243 8 50733 2
S] so fantastically improves upon the CD of the same title that I opened the liner notes
to see if they had re-recorded it. They hadn’t, but there is an interesting surround
remix on the disc as well.
Sony designed the new format with support for hybrid discs
that a CD player can also read. The idea here is that you can buy a Hybrid SACD, listen to
it in environments that only read CDs (like your car), and still benefit from the
high-resolution audio when you play it at home. Because of this, SACDs are packaged in
regular CD jewel boxes and in some cases mixed into the regular portion of the record
store. Some titles don’t have this hybrid layer for backward compatibility and will
only play on a SACD player.
Veterans of the format wars
The audio press has been making a big deal of the brewing
format war between DVD-A and SACD. With equipment manufacturers and music companies each
choosing sides it’s certainly possible a market showdown is coming. However, each of
these new formats includes provisions for playback on older equipment: DVD players in the
case of DVD-A, and CD players for SACD. SACD titles are showing up right next to regular
CDs in the store bins, and DVD-A music titles are sitting next to DVD concerts by the same
artists.
While many summon images from the VHS versus Betamax
videocassette clash when talking about these new surround formats, it’s more useful
to look at what happened with Dolby Digital and DTS. When these two formats were first
introduced to consumers, the audio trade magazines were filled with proclamations about a
war that would leave one or neither of the contestants standing. Well, it didn’t
happen that way; instead, the continued price drops in complicated electronics have
allowed both formats to coexist on playback equipment, and each has amassed some degree of
success at delivering content. We’re starting to see the same thing happen with SACD
and DVD-A. Already "universal" players capable of playing both are appearing at
reasonable prices. Pioneer’s DV-45A does both quite well for under $500, while
Apex’s AD-7701 manages to do both for $250 -- admittedly with some major quality
concessions in the process.
Buying one of the new universal DVD players seems like a
pretty safe move for the next couple of years. The main feature coming up on the radar is
a high-speed, copy-protection-enabled digital link between components. This will return
the connection between your DVD player and your receiver to digital, and add support for
potential upcoming HDTV content. While early interfaces like this are starting to appear
on high-end components from companies like Meridian, Pioneer, and Denon, they’re
still far from showing up on budget equipment. Nothing you can buy anymore is
future-proof, but a player (or even two players) supporting both SACD and DVD-A would be a
pretty good bet for playing high-quality music for quite some time.
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