Commercial SACD created from analog > PCM???

[bgalizio]

Our latest yourmusic.com purchase (can't fluff that site enough) was a SACD of the Nutcracker (Mercury Living Presence). Reading the liner notes, I saw that the original 35mm tape was recorded to 24/192 PCM, then to DSD. Is that common? I would have thought recording from analog to DSD would get the most "analog" sound.

Regardless, it sounds pretty nice.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Good catch...  The DSD format can only be as good as what goes into it...

There is the basic question of how much better 24/192 is vs. 24/96 in this specific case.. It would be interesting to see a snippet of the 24/192 data to analyze to what extent that sample rate was actually necessary.

[RebelRebel]

Our latest yourmusic.com purchase (can't fluff that site enough) was a SACD of the Nutcracker (Mercury Living Presence). Reading the liner notes, I saw that the original 35mm tape was recorded to 24/192 PCM, then to DSD. Is that common? I would have thought recording from analog to DSD would get the most "analog" sound.

Regardless, it sounds pretty nice.

It is common to record to the highest SR/Bit Depth possible for projects that are potentially going to be SACD down the road, yes. Maybe the technology was not there at the time of the recording to record to DSD? 24/192 is very common, especially as an archival format. ESPECIALLY for acoustic/classical music.

[bgalizio]

Our latest yourmusic.com purchase (can't fluff that site enough) was a SACD of the Nutcracker (Mercury Living Presence). Reading the liner notes, I saw that the original 35mm tape was recorded to 24/192 PCM, then to DSD. Is that common? I would have thought recording from analog to DSD would get the most "analog" sound.

Regardless, it sounds pretty nice.

It is common to record to the highest SR/Bit Depth possible for projects that are potentially going to be SACD down the road, yes. Maybe the technology was not there at the time of the recording to record to DSD? 24/192 is very common, especially as an archival format. ESPECIALLY for acoustic/classical music.

I find that very interesting, especially considering there are quite a few classical SACDs out there. All the PCM transfers must have happened before the DSD technology was there.

I wish SACDs would have some sort of lineage on the package. I was going to get the fiancee Norah Jones' first album on SACD, until I read that the stereo version was nothing more than the 16/44 converted to DSD. That one makes no sense to me.

[BC]

I wish SACDs would have some sort of lineage on the package. I was going to get the fiancee Norah Jones' first album on SACD, until I read that the stereo version was nothing more than the 16/44 converted to DSD. That one makes no sense to me.

Yeah, I couldn't believe that one. I am sure they would NOT want to be listing that lineage on the SACD!

[BobW]

Charlatans and snake oil, I tell you!