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Discussion: The Nordic Sound

Posts: 61
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 next

Post by zeus January 5, 2010 (1 of 61)
As I got a Blu-ray player from Santa, I thought I'd give the BD version of this sampler disc (and others from the 2L catalogue) a spin. The player is a base model Sony BDP-S360 which I bought mainly because it does 1080P upscaling and maybe one day there'll be more than a handful of BD movies I'll want to own. My comments here are about audio though.

While I've taken my stereo system about as far as I'm prepared to go and am really happy with the sound, my TV system is somewhat basic. I hesitate to call it Home Theatre. The system is cobbled together from parts I had kicking around. The player is set to output PCM at 24bit/96Khz (downsampled from 192kHz on this disc) via optical/coaxial to a brand new Peachtree Nova. Speakers are an old pair of Paradigm Atoms (v2) and a B&W ASW 2500 sub connected to pre-out. Cables are nothing special. So a very basic 2.1 sat/sub system with the crossover tuned at the sub.

What I heard though with the above is WAY better than it has a right to be. Huge sound, great clarity, dynamic, ample resolution, no grain ... in another words pretty impressive. Not perfect but engaging enough that I got to the end of the sampler and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Apart from the obvious care Morten puts into his label's recordings and the fact that the DAC/amplification I used is probably better than your typical receiver I'm somewhat at a loss to explain the results. It definitely shows how great bang-for-buck is in audio today.

I'm not sure how far I'll push this system. The speakers could obviously be upgraded but placement will still compromise the results. A full 5.1/7.1 system that does SA-CD as well is likely years off for me.

So would I buy future BD audio discs with no SA-CD included? Maybe. Would I buy comparable resolution downloads and feed these into the same system? Probably not. The optical disc has many years of life in it yet and represents unprecedented value (to me at least).

I'm sure this is old news to some here ...

Post by flyingdutchman January 5, 2010 (2 of 61)
I was fortunate to have gotten this from audaud.com as a gift.

Post by rammiepie January 5, 2010 (3 of 61)
Zeus, I have an old saying: If you can't lick 'em, join 'em! I have been into blu-ray almost since its inception and having been burned by the early non-play, players (it wasn't Profile 2.0) I have steadily built up a very large blu-ray collection. The early comparisons on this post between the sound of blu and sacd to me was pure jibberish as there are really NO blu-ray players available that could compete sonically with a dedicated SACD player. But one thing you have to agree on, ALL the majors are involved in Big Blu and the prices of discs are dirt cheap (cheaper than RBCD and certainly cheaper than SACDs). Since I love movies and love jazz, pop, rock and classical, buying into the plethora of blu-rays (with the diminishing POp, Rock, Jazz SACD releases) was a no-brainer. I do agree that a lot of garbage has been released on blu-ray (which is to be expected) but some of the music releases in classical, rock, pop and jazz are simply astounding with long running times, bonus featrures, etc. and as the format matures, there will, I'm sure, be sonic equivalents to SACD. What I've always enjoyed about this website is the Open Mind approach and your willingness to accept new formats (like blu-ray) and I certainly hope that SA-CD net, while never straying completely away from its moniker, will accomodate this relatively new bastard child. Because one common thread on this site has been the lack of diversity in new titles (what, another Mahler 8th, what, another Beethoven cycle). We NEED and CRAVE diversity and now we have it in the form of blu-ray. It's a new decade, it is certainly a new world order so why not embrace the winds of change. BTW, Happy New Year and thanks again for keeping the proceedings on this website alive and focused! Audiophile Audition has a blu-ray review section which is right up your alley: they reviews almost all new classical blu-rays and of course I rely on their SACD reviews for guidance, as well.

Post by Disbeliever January 5, 2010 (4 of 61)
The Sony BDPS-5000ES will compete with any player for BD sound which can be more realistic than SACD especially if used with the excellent Sony DA6400ES/5400ES receivers ,when bi-amped the combination competes with high end separates where you are mainly paying for over engineered case work.

Post by Claude January 6, 2010 (5 of 61)
zeus said:

So would I buy future BD audio discs with no SA-CD included? Maybe. Would I buy comparable resolution downloads and feed these into the same system? Probably not. The optical disc has many years of life in it yet and represents unprecedented value (to me at least).

For the moment, there are no hi-rez downloads which are multichannel, so optical discs still have that important advantage.

But because the market for hi-rez audio is limited, downloads offer the possibility of selling hi-rez content even where small production runs of SACDs or Blu-rays are not viable.

It would be great if new reissues of stereo material could, in addition to the CD release and regular MP3 and lossless redbook quality downloads, be offered as hi-rez downloads, directly made from the hi-rez digital transfer before it is downconverted to 16/44 for CD production and regular downloads. This could be implemented immediately, with almost no additional cost for the reissue projects.

Post by DSD January 6, 2010 (6 of 61)

Post by audioholik January 6, 2010 (7 of 61)
zeus said:

So would I buy future BD audio discs with no SA-CD included? Maybe.

I seriously doubt we are ever going to see any push for BD audio discs. Sony will soon be introducing their new 3D movie format and new 3D Blu-ray players - that's where I think Sony's major focus will be put on in 2010.

Post by Claude January 6, 2010 (8 of 61)
The big labels are not interested in high resolution audio anymore. But it could be smaller labels (classical, audiophile) which make use of the popularity of Blu-ray (as a video format) and it's increasing hardware base to sell their hi-rez releases.

But I see one major commercial problem: Whereas hybrid SACD allows for single inventory releases, with Blu-ray it will be necessary to release a CD version seperately (or a Blu-ray+CD combo pack), because CD will still be the dominating music format for the next couple of years, depite all the talk about it's imminent death.

Post by Disbeliever January 6, 2010 (9 of 61)
audioholik said:

I seriously doubt we are ever going to see any push for BD audio discs. Sony will soon be introducing their new 3D movie format and new 3D Blu-ray players - that's where I think Sony's major focus will be put on in 2010.

Despite the initial success of a rubbish film Avatar I can not see Blu-Ray 3D taking off

Post by audioholik January 6, 2010 (10 of 61)
Disbeliever said:

Despite the initial success of a rubbish film Avatar I can not see Blu-Ray 3D taking off

Sony already invested in the development of the new video format and now will have to try to recoup the money they put into it.

Speaking of Avatar, the movie has already earned over 1 billion dollars and according to audaud.com it will probably be the first title available in the new 3D format.

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