What happened to Blu-ray Audio?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by floyd, Mar 25, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Name me a high end model with a laser which is long lived? Equal to a CDM-1 Philips transport in longevity. No longevity or durability, not worth my trouble to buy. Digital disc transports are getting cheaper, and cheaper made, and not long lasting. BluRay audio is not worth the trouble for me, 99% of the music I want is not available, nor will be available in the format.
     
  2. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    Or you can just get a cheap model, and use an HDMI deembeder to connect it to your high end DAC. Hi-Res Bluray audio sounds amazing though my PS Audio Direct Stream DAC.
     
  3. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Don't own a high end DAC. And the format isn't justfiable for me either. Most of the music I like best often doesn't see digital and if it does on CD, and often only one release. SACD is a better format and always will be. NO Hollywood MPAA DRM junk goes near my audio system. For me, Blu-Ray is best for movies.
     
  4. scobb

    scobb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    May not be hollywood but SACD is the ultimate DRM!
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2018
    dobyblue likes this.
  5. Daedalus

    Daedalus I haven't heard it all.....

    I am listening to my Solti Wagner Ring on BD in stereo as I type this comment. And I have some BDs from the Karajan box waiting in the wings( along with King Crimson).
     
  6. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    But SACD DRM never got in my way with me playing them on the equipment of my choice. End of discussion. Blu-Ray Audio in many cases HAS done that. Why, the MPAA DRM insistence on no Analog outputs on most mainstream players is why. This and the limited selection of music on this medium is why I choose not to adopt it at present. What part of this do you not understand? I'll consider this format when there is content I can't get nowhere else which is useful to me. Right now anything on this medium, I can buy elsewhere on media I can live with, and in many cases already own.
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  7. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    All of which I have available on original vinyl. Which sounds very excellent. And does not limit me to what I can play them on. P.S. I have heard the Karajan and Solti on Blu-Ray Audio on other systems. Those discs sounded excellent. And likely would have sold more copies on SACD. They were nice demos of Blu-Ray audio.
     
    Daedalus likes this.
  8. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Why? Just play it or rip it.
     
  9. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    The nearly non-existent selection of music on this format is my biggest problem with it. And the menu structure which must be navigated to play anything is my next biggest problem with it. For both of these reasons, I have long preferred SACDs.

    But Sonics is not one of the reasons. High-res PCM actually sounds at least as good, if not better, to my ears than does DSD 64.

    But since all physical digital formats are nearing their deathbed anyways, this whole argument seems nearly as silly as would have arguing whether dirigibles were better than bi-planes upon the advent of jet-aircraft.
     
    McLover likes this.
  10. I don't switch my T.V. on to play my BD-Audio discs, actually when I got a new title I DID switched the T.V. on just to have a look out of curiosity to the menus, but these are unnecesary, pop the disc in, press play and depending on the disc it defaults to the stereo or multichannel track, if you want to change them, push red for stereo and green for multichannel, if memory serves me well. With SACD you can't switch from stereo to multichannel tracks on the fly, and beware, I've been enjoying SACD since 2003 and I LOVE how DSD sounds. But I also thinks that BD-Audio is a well developed, versatile and when done right, as with any media, its sound is outstanding.
     
    dobyblue and Ignominious like this.
  11. scobb

    scobb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    The MPAA DRM insistence is that video content is not analogue, the lack of analogue audio is lead by consumer demand (AVR's have taken their place) on low end players. This is further seen with the lack of 7.1 analogue in on AVR's (Yes I know there are still some providing it but it is disappearing). What is interesting is that, as far as I am aware, there are no SACD player's on sale today offering multi channel out, where as, Panasonic do have a Blu ray player that still offers 7.1 analogue out.
    Ultimate may be too strong a word but SACD is not available over Optical and Coaxial which were the main digital cables at the time and, outside Japan and America, SACD wasn't able to be ripped till the Oppo 103 and there are no players available to buy new today that can allow you to rip an SACD. In my view the DRM on SACD is still least as strong as that of Blu ray audio and my response was to someone who liked SACD over Blu ray audio because of the DRM on Blu ray audio.
     
  12. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Also analog, at the time.

    Nope. The PS3 method preceded that by years.

    True but now you can buy the downloads in many cases.

    Neither represents any problem for me.
     
  13. Not entirely true. With Sony's UBP X-800 UHD BD Universal player, which plays SACD's, if you set the audio output to PCM and play an SACD discs it outputs 176.4/24 PCM out of it, I know it's notnative DSD, DoP (DSD over PCM) would have been more desirable, but when set up this way it doesn't mute its digital coaxial or optical outs as it happened before with SACD players.
     
  14. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    Some BluRay disks do default to high-res PCM stereo. These work adequately when playing these on a stereo-only system with no TV connected.

    But just as many disks default to multichannel, or some other less-desirable format like DTS. And this does NOT work when running these with a stereo-only system which does not have a TV connected to it. Nor is it possible to select between stereo and multichannel content on a bluray disk at the simple press of a button. This can only be accomplished by navigating through the menus on a bluray player.
     
  15. scobb

    scobb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    That was a given and not really relevant to DRM so I didn't mention it.
    Yes, but it was only the first generation Sony PS3 that were only available in Japan and America as I stated (the rest of the world never had a Playstation capable of SACD ripping, or playing them for that matter), hence I made the distinction.
    If you buy a download it isn't an SACD or Blu ray audio which was the topic.
    Good for you :D!
    That's news to me and surprising from Sony, does it play Blu ray audio, DVD-Audio and SACD in hi rez PCM through optical and coaxial (I ask as I may well buy one of these if it does). Either way my point is 99.9% true.
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2018
  16. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    Hence the scramble to buy remaining Oppo models.
     
  17. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Oppo was one of the few players worth buying, too. The best multiformat player available for the money.
     
  18. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    On that point we are in full agreement.
     
    McLover likes this.
  19. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Ah! I did not take note of your location until now. We enjoy a wider array of options.

    Literally, yes, these are not physical discs but, effectively, they offer the same audio to the DAC.
     
  20. dobyblue

    dobyblue Forum Resident

    “likely would have sold more copies on SACD”

    Haha, that was a good one!
     
  21. Bill Mac

    Bill Mac Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I can switch between stereo and multichannel with SACDs on the fly with Oppo players. Using the Audio button will do that with my 103, 203 and 205. There's a slight audio pause then the selected version (stereo or multichannel) will play just fine. I've been doing this for years with Oppo players :).
     
  22. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Right now, the defacto medium for multi-channel music is 5.1 multi-channel SACD. It is not dead. In fact, the first three pages of Amazon multi-channel SACD listings indicate 32 offerings produced in 2017 and 2018. I believe that BD is not quite as compelling since it involves some video display manipulation in contrast to CD and SACD, which require no video manipulation to access content.
     
  23. Ephi82

    Ephi82 Still have two ears working

    Location:
    S FL
    Very cool tip Bill! Thanks that will save some time for me.
     
  24. I love SACD, it's my prefered Hi Res audio format mostly because I love the sound of DSD but it's a tricky format. First, it's not easy to rip, second, DSD is a hard digital format to work with natively up to the point that many many (I wouldn't dare to say most :hide:) releases are sourced from Hi Res (or not Hi Res) PCM masters and converted to DSD at the last stage for authoring and third because there are only three plants able of pressing them. With BD-Audio on the other hand sound engineers can work with plain Hi Res PCM on ProTools or whatever platform they use, discs are easy to author and there are plenty of places where they can be pressed inexpensively.
     
    Sterling1 likes this.
  25. Rycherocker634

    Rycherocker634 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minneapolis
    What was the last blu-Ray audio or SACD released at the same time as an album's initial release?
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine