DVD Audio or SACD ?
Reply #96 – 2005-06-18 22:54:36
Call me paranoid, but the fact that record companies would be glad to phase out CDs sooner rather than later due to missing DRM/copy protection capabilities AND the fact that CD audio is already overkill for 99% of people on 99% of all equipment AND the fact that SACDs can be sold with a higher mark-up makes it very likely for me that CDs are screwed up on purpose to fool people into buying SACD/DVD-A [a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=307005"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a] That's a bold statement and I disagree. This loudness war has started long before these new formats were known. Perhaps you're underestimating the importance of having the music sound as loud as possible. [a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=307097"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a] I agree that there are other (and certainly equally important) factors that affect the loudness of CDs, but still the companies have good reasons for pushing SACD/DVD-A. Their main selling point is that they sound much better than CDs, which is plainly wrong. They may sound better with some kinds of music on high-end systems and with experienced listeners, but it's really ridiculously little advancement which in no way justifies changing systems on the part of consumers as it was the case with Vinyl vs. CD. So if an album is released simultaneously on CD and SACD, the record company has to make sure that the SACD version sounds better in order to justify its existence. Since this is only possible by making the CD worse than it could be, even with musical genres that are usually not much affected by the loudness race, they do it. At least that's what I would do if I were in their place