De som funderar på hur de nya formaten står sig mot CD kan läsa vidare: I den senaste journalen från AES finns en artikel som heter "Audibility of a CD-Standard A/D/A Loop Inserted
into High-Resolution Audio Playback*".
Sammanfattningen får förklara vad den handlar om:
"Claims both published and anecdotal are regularly made for audibly superior sound quality
for two-channel audio encoded with longer word lengths and/or at higher sampling rates than
the 16-bit/44.1-kHz CD standard. The authors report on a series of double-blind tests comparing
the analog output of high-resolution players playing high-resolution recordings with
the same signal passed through a 16-bit/44.1-kHz “bottleneck.” The tests were conducted for
over a year using different systems and a variety of subjects. The systems included expensive
professional monitors and one high-end system with electrostatic loudspeakers and expensive
components and cables. The subjects included professional recording engineers, students in
a university recording program, and dedicated audiophiles. The test results show that the
CD-quality A/D/A loop was undetectable at normal-to-loud listening levels, by any of the
subjects, on any of the playback systems. The noise of the CD-quality loop was audible only
at very elevated levels."
Från "Results":
"The test results for the detectability of the 16/44.1 loop
on SACD/DVD-A playback were the same as chance:
49.82%. There were 554 trials and 276 correct answers.
The sole exceptions were for the condition of no signal
and high system gain, when the difference in noise floors
of the two technologies, old and new, was readily audible."
Det finns alltså ingen större anledning att springa och köpa en DVD-A/SACD-spelare om man inte specifikt är intresserad av nån speciell utgåva på dessa format.
dvs att det är cd formatet som "komprimerar" mastern (om än nu inte hörbart uppenbarligen).
