I saw an article recently stating that the only advantage of SACD over DVDA was the compatability issue. i.e. they can make one disc which will play in a CD player or an SACD player. The SACD system uses a technique known a DSD (direct steam digital) which is different to the PCM (pulse code modulation) used for CD and DVD. The players then use a technique called Super Bit Mapping which they claim improves the transparency and musicality of the sound. A counter claim is that in doing so it generates a lot of distortion. The claim was that DVDA was a basically superior medium (but then so was Beta video). The main problem at the moment is that no trully high quality DVDA players are made at a price which most punters are likely to pay. (a complete Meridian system is around the price of a car! but for a review check out http://www.avguide.com/newsletter/2003.01/meridian.jsp) the audio section of current DVD players is quite poor and the main reason they sound better than CD is that the DVDA system carries much higher quality in the first place. At the moment I have more pressing needs so surround will have to wait until quality hardware becomes affordable. I'm skeptical about the idea of listening to music whilst apparently being sat in the middle of the band. It brings back memories of early HI FI nuts who listened to recordings of passing trains just because it demonstrated stereo.
Eryl
