SACD which ones are really worth buying?

[nigsy116]

I don't have a massive collection of SACDs but was interested what people views were on them. I find them of varying quality; Dire Straights - Brothers in Arms I think is superbly produced and the crystal clear production just enhances the whole album; on the other hand Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell sounds worse than my '78 cassette that was contantly chewed up in my old Mk2 Ford Escort tape deck.
Does 5.1 surround etc add anything (Dark Side of the moon?) or is it just more gimmick, when good old Left guitar left speaker / right guitar right speaker and everything else down the middle did us fine for years?

I'm after a few recomendations to increase my collection; open to most music tatses (not classical); but they just got to be worth it sound and quality wise.

[Spectral Morn]

If you can find them the Dead Can Dance SACDs are very much worth getting, if you like DCD. These were Japanese Mobile Fidelity releases and fabulous they are imho.

I was lucky and bought them just after they were released.

[daytona600]

Not a full list but 10,000 + http://www.sa-cd.net/titles
you can,t go wrong with Mofi & Analogue Productions on sound quality
have about 1000 + discs myself & too many to list but if you like rock/prog this is stunning with dynamics off the scale

They do sound much better on a ground up designed Sacd player & universal players can make a decent stab at sound quality but still lag compared to dedicated players like esoteric , marantz , Dcs etc

DCD & lots of other Deleted Sacds as per above post are worth serious coin these days

2016 Grammy Winner for Best Surround Sound Album!

http://snvinyl.co.uk/WebRoot/Daily/Shops/eshop943300/5204/CBDD/ED00/FA20/C4CF/0A0C/05E8/CA04/atdnewcover.jpg

[Haselsh1]

Eleanor McEvoy 'Yola'
I always knew that piano was something special and sure enough, it was...!

[Haselsh1]

Paul Weller 'Studio 150'
Really good album of covers with a fine version of 'All Along The Watchtower'

Bryan Ferry 'Frantic'
Again, a seriously good album of covers

[Haselsh1]

Christ, I nearly forgot;

Tom Baxter 'Skybound'

Amazing album with exceptional quality

[Haselsh1]

Ian Shaw 'Drawn To All Things'
Tribute album really to Joni Mitchell but done in a really interesting way.
Fantastic selection of serious music

[m10]

Whether 5.1 (or 'surround' perhaps is more accurate) is worth it or not depends on your point-of-view. I'm a big fan.

One area where I think people get confused is in the number of channels versus speaker setup. The classic surround layout is 5.1 (front left, centre, front right, surround left and surround right plus subwoofer). Some people approach this from an audiophile perspective, aiming to achieve one speaker per channel with minimum processing. The problem is that some SACD surround recordings are 5.0 (classical releases in particular) or 4.0 (Pentatone reissues of old quadraphonic recordings). In the purist audiophile system these recordings leave the subwoofer silent (said audiophiles then bitch and moan about recordings being unsuitable, which they are not).

If you're going to go for surround, IMO, you've got to hang up your old purist audiophile beliefs and adopt a more pragmatic approach. Embrace HDMI, conversion to PCM and bass management and allow a nice, powerful processor (one with serious number crunching capabilities) to send the right audio to the right speakers. Surround can be seriously impressive. Albums already mentioned here, including Brothers in Arms and Dark Side of the Moon are exemplars, Wish You Were Here from Analogue Productions is probably finer still. And I think blu-ray audio is the only way to listen to The Endless River.

In the classical world, the Pentatone reissues of unissued quad material from the Philips and DG vaults is excellent (the Sir Colin Davis recording of the Berlioz Requiem is amazing, and there's been a rather nice issue of the Leonard Bernstein/Marilyn Horne recording of Carmen) and recordings from labels like Channel Classics, BIS, Linn and even the much maligned LSO Live sound wonderful to my ears.

[m10]

They do sound much better on a ground up designed Sacd player & universal players can make a decent stab at sound quality but still lag compared to dedicated players like esoteric , marantz , Dcs etc


I think this is very true in the classic/analogue/stereo environment, but for surround I'd say (nowadays) that a universal player is the way to go - Oppo, Pioneer are the ones I have experienced and the results are stunning.

[Bazil]

I have recently bought Yessongs on SACD , fabulous recording and a very nice package , 7" Sleeve.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1605/25480058585_f63179085a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/EPzXGV)


https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1662/25361609572_15e9420df3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/ED7SWy)

[Spectral Morn]

Eleanor McEvoy 'Yola'
I always knew that piano was something special and sure enough, it was...!

Nice album.

The Patricia Barbour SACDs are very good too if you like jazz.

[Spectral Morn]

Ian Shaw 'Drawn To All Things'
Tribute album really to Joni Mitchell but done in a really interesting way.
Fantastic selection of serious music

Great album as is the follow up too.