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The speaker shootout last month (detailed in THIS thread) was so much fun, AND so informative, that I'm thinking of doing another one, only this time comparing digital formats (CD, FLAC, MP3, SACD and DVD-A). I have three (3) titles where I poses CD, SACD and DVD-A (and of course FLAC, from the CD) - Fleetwood Mac Rumors, The Who Tommy, and Donald Fagen Nightfly. I would also compare a few CDs to their respective SACD and DVD-A. The reason I am wanting to do this, is that I have seen it stated multiple times, on various forums, that there is no audible difference between SACD/DVD-A and Redbook CD. This is not my experience generally, but I have never done an exhaustive A/B comparison. If I do end up doing it, it would be methodical, much like the aforementioned speaker shootout - I may even enlist the help of my son, in order to do a blind comparison. Any thoughts from the group?

that reminds me - I have the HD Tracks 92/24 download of Tool’s Fear Inoculum, and I have the CD....

I downloaded a test photo to my attachments to see if it would work and now that it did, I cannot delete it. Can someone explain how to delete the unwanted photo?

It's fair to say I'm a sucker for movies with a twist. In fact, about the only thing more satisfying in cinema than a great twist, is a twist that gives you all the information to piece it together, as opposed to the random left-field reveal. Take The Sixth Sense - it was all there, had you been able to make all the connections, which makes the reveal all the more satisfying. Which brings us to the current selection - Lucky Number Slevin. The first thing that needs to be mentioned is the cast - Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu, Bruce Willis, Josh Hartnet and Stanley Tucci. As expected, Morgan Freeman does the heavy lifting, but the entire cast is on point in this film. The second thing I find immensely satisfying in this film is the dialogue - Sharp and witty, with subtle dark humor throughout. And rounding out the package is the story - It is delivered in a semi Quentin Tarantino style, where you get a piece here and a piece there, and you find yourself awaiting the next piece. I really can't say much more without compromising the story and reveal, but rest assured, it will be worth your time!

Tom Petty Runnin' Down A Dream

This is confusing to me because the data structure for standard CD audio compact discs IS redbook..... as for SACD, much has to do with the master tapes; if they were digital (remember when most mixing boards switched to ADC from analog, back in the late 80's or so), then they have that redbook brick wall filter eliminating any content over 44.1kHz; re-mastering and re-pressing that content onto SACD will NOT restore any content above 44.1kHz; it's just not on the master anymore.

Love the idea of it, Mark! Don't get too overwhelmed by not having all "the perfect" sources. This likely won't matter for the Redbook CDs, and had better not for the SACD, but the mix put on many of the standard CD, has been abusively over saturated to where it's no wonder why vinyl sounds better- the CD version is clipped worse than a 20 watt receiver trying to outdo a MkII Carver power-amp. One of these CD's might be interesting to add to the mix, but could also be a bit disheartening, so beware.

That would be great, IF the tracks are level matched within 1/4 dB and from the same master (and the master is 92/24) btw, most of the evaluations I've read about that could repeatedly discern a difference came down to artifacts belying the source type; i.e., the type of dithering used can have artifacts that can be taught how to listen for, and observers could identify a medium by its artifact signature just a bit more accurately than would happen by random chance. In my opinion, that's not an objective evaluation of sound quality, it's rather a learned response to different artifacts

I agree Rich - and that’s the first (and biggest) hurdle that came to mind, but I didn’t want to tip my hand right off. I'm curious know if there is a way to tell if the same master is used for say SACD and Redbook...? After all, I’m interested in more than just a surgical “this particular SACD sounds better than the CD” - I’d like to make a broader-based determination...

One thing to wAtch out for is re-mastering of the original to the individual formats; it's impossible to discern whether a noted difference is due to the playbqack technology or the re-mastering of the original (you've experienced a bit of this already, when you noted differences in playback level). Conversely, if the original is only available at bitrate X, then even higher bitrate playback will be limited to the original bitrate. Those two things make it impossible for a consumer to make an accurate appraisal of each format. The MOST accurate comparison I've seen is that one done by the AES, and they had appropriate material to work with. Good luck!

Mark, This sounds like another great endeavor to take on. I listen exclusively to tracks streamed over my home network from the QNAP and Synology NAS units here in the house. I listen to mainly Flac files I've downloaded from HDTracks in mainly 24Bit-88kHz, 24Bit-96kHz and 24Bit-192kHz resolutions and find them to sound quite nice. I wouldn't say they sound night and day better than the Redbook CD versions, I've ripped into Flac from my collection of CD's, but they are, typically, noticeably better sounding to me. But that's not always the case for some reason. Some sound like they are not as loud as the Redbook versions off my CD's and sound slightly weak. I also have some tracks I've setup in Wav format, since my BMW could only play Wav files from it's hard drive, and I kept them on one of the NAS's as backup and do listen to them occasionally. I don't believe there is any difference between the Flac and Wav sound quality in any of the tracks that I've ripped from the same CD's though. At least I can't hear any difference. I look forward to your findings.

Loved the book. Read it twice. Did not care for the 1994 miniseries. This looks like it will be good.

my first topic from holland about Carver C-1 TFM-45 M-1,0t i doe som Restoration and the play beautiful

I don't know how to tell for certain; too bad digital files don't seem to have a header for information; that could replace liner notes and album art, and give info re mastering. ALl I know is that some of the early hi def files were mastered from Redbook CD, and even though there was NO additional content beyond the brick wall filter, many people STILL heard an improvement. Thaqt reminds me off the double blind evaluation of speaker wire that also had a sample using coat hangars for wire, and the coat hangers were preferred by many listeners