On Mon, 9 Feb 2009 07:37:54 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

It is pretty much impossible to compare CD to SACD. You will hear
differences, but they are nothing to do with the medium, but rather
the mastering of the recording. SACD releases are, I'm afraid, rather
closely associated with the "smiley face" eq curve which places
greater emphasis on extreme bass and treble. The result is a sound
with a little more fizz and thump which can in the short term sound
better - it soon gets tiring though, I'm afraid.

A relevant comparison that is easy to do, which involves playing a SACD or
DVD-A. Intermittently and under listener control t a device is inserted
that transcodes the "Hi rez" data into CD format. This has been described in
at least two AES papers, and the result was that experienced listeners could
*not* detect the insertion of the transcoder in a blind test.

Yes, I know that one - one can also record the line out from the SACD
player onto a CD with similar results provided it is done well.
Neither is a trivial matter for a quick home test by the non-technical
though.

d

Don Pearce wrote in message news:4993241d.404931515@localhost...

On Mon, 9 Feb 2009 07:37:54 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

It is pretty much impossible to compare CD to SACD. You will hear
differences, but they are nothing to do with the medium, but rather
the mastering of the recording. SACD releases are, I'm afraid, rather
closely associated with the "smiley face" eq curve which places
greater emphasis on extreme bass and treble. The result is a sound
with a little more fizz and thump which can in the short term sound
better - it soon gets tiring though, I'm afraid.

A relevant comparison that is easy to do, which involves playing a SACD or
DVD-A. Intermittently and under listener control t a device is inserted
that transcodes the "Hi rez" data into CD format. This has been described
in
at least two AES papers, and the result was that experienced listeners
could
*not* detect the insertion of the transcoder in a blind test.

Yes, I know that one - one can also record the line out from the SACD
player onto a CD with similar results provided it is done well.

Or, one can switch a reasonably high-quality ADC/DAC pair (one example
would be M-Audio's "Flying Cow") in and out of the signal path in real time.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ item 220354041443, for example.

Neither is a trivial matter for a quick home test by the non-technical
though.

Unfortunately Don, that doesn't keep people you and I talk to every day from
thinking that they are experts in the matter. I give points to people like
the OP who at least showed some awareness of the limitations of such
evaluations as they have done.