Editorial for January 2007

by | Jan 1, 2007 | Editorial | 0 comments






Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6

Our monthly drawing for January 2007 is a new high-grade multichannel power preamp/amp from Dussun, which we will also review this month. The D9 has five 130w amps on one chassis and weighs in at over 70 lbs. It is designed for AV enthusiasts who care for the highest quality sound in music playback as well as video, and is especially suitable for SACD and DVD-A. The D9 operates completely in the analog domain for both audio and video, without 5.1 decoders or HDMI, thereby ensuring highest quality music playback. It has the usual audio and video inputs and outputs, including component video, and retails for $1300.

On Feb. 1 we will draw the name of the lucky AUDIOPHILE AUDITION reader who has Registered Here on our site and ship the D9 amp to him or her.

 
The winner of the Complete Works of Mozart Boxed Set of CDs from Brilliant Classics – last month’s drawing – is Steve Neu of Green Bay, WI. Congratulations!


 Guest EditorialAudite Stays with the SACD Format


Ludger Böckenhoff of Audite remains firmly convinced by the SACD. After years of being disgruntled, the classic labels are now looking into the future somewhat more optimistically. Not only did sales of their products not continue to decrease in 2005, but they even rose slightly. One of the great hopes of the field was the Super Audio Disc, SACD, with Surround Sound, which guarantees an improved listening comfort. The major labels have now unfortunately abandoned this direction because they are waiting for a new format with yet more storage capacity, the Blu-ray Disc. Others stand firmly by the SACD, and one of these label heads is Ludger Böckenhoff of Audite. Rémy Franck had the following conversation with him:

SACD is still in the picture and you are one of the defenders of this format. On the other hand, one hears that other labels are already abandoning ship. Do you still believe in the SACD format?

It is the so-called major labels that are now slowly but surely dropping their original support of this format, probably because the next sound-carrier format – the Blu-ray Disc – is already out. That is without doubt a business interest, of course, an interest which applies to the much larger video market. For video, a new format with a much higher data quantity could really be a necessity; for me, as the person responsible for a purely audio music publishing company, everything that goes beyond the SACD is, at the moment, a step backwards.

The SACD is easy to use, it allows for reproduction of six audio channels at an unbelievably high standard where nothing is lost – you surely can’t beat that with still denser formats! When new formats are forced into the music field, consumers will look back onto the period of the SACD with wistful nostalgia, a time of plug and play in the best sense of the words. But things haven’t gone that far yet, and even if the majors are no longer making SACDs, there are nonetheless very heavyweight labels that stand by it firmly. Besides all this, the reception of a CD is considerably worse than that of an SACD. The cliché of a throwaway medium is associated with the CD, and that is fortunately not true of the SACD!

Is the success of the SACD as such, then, already visible on the market, are your sales higher because you produce SACDs?

That varies widely from market to market, from region to region. In America, for example, the SACD is quite successful. The clients in Europe react in very different ways. Germany is certainly also a positive market for this kind of sound carrier, whereas other countries take to it less enthusiastically.

Have you been able to find out on what kind of system people listen to classical SACDs? Are they usually copied onto home cinema systems or do many people already have high quality Surround systems?

I don’t have any verifiable statistics! Let’s be realistic: probably most of our SACDs are played on normal CD players, with a number of these on the player in the bedroom or the kitchen and the rest on the stereo system. But that can’t keep me, as a producer, from offering a medium that is capable of delivering maximum quality. And that is the SACD!

And the Surround effect is for you, as always, a clear advantage: many people probably don’t know what they’re missing when they haven’t heard Surround, do they?

Well, I remain convinced by Surround, as much as ever! But you mustn’t view it in isolation from the content, from the programme and its interpretation. Surround by itself is of no use if the music itself is not of high quality.

[Reprinted with permission from Pizzicato magazine 6/2006.]



General Editorial 

 
Welcome to the web publication for audio, music and home theater, emphasizing hi-res and surround sound for music! AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, which aired for 13 1/2 years on up to 200 public radio and commercial stations coast to coast.
 
January 07 is our 95th issue and we’re in our eighth year! All reviews – about 100 a month – are added throughout the month as they are written and received. We have reorganized the web site to make it easier to navigate and find content. The most recent reviews appear at the top of each Section Index. To read the full review, click on the headline and you will be taken directly to that review. The Home Page lists the five latest published reviews, the Section Index lists the past two months of reviews, the Archive goes back to June 1, 2005, and for all reviews by month prior to that you need to click on the Old Archive, which goes back to 2001. The Disc Index also lists past reviews in every section.
 
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We welcome your feedback, and we have a “Reader Feedback” section. Please send us your comments, and we will review and possibly post them to that section. Check back with us frequently for more reviews and news, and be sure to register for our monthly giveaway! When you do, please give us the few requested facts, including a working email and street address – otherwise we can’t send you your winning item!  We don’t share your information with anyone else.

 — The AUDIOPHILE AUDITION staff


 
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STAFF WRITERS:
Dalia
Geffen, Donna Dorsett, Patricia Rimmer, Ann Stahmer, Laurence Vittes, Tom Gibbs,
Gary
Lemco, Brian Bloom, Clay Swartz, John Henry, Peter Bates, Ron
Legum, Paul Pelon IV, Jeff Dorgay, James A. Fasulo, Calvin Harding Jr.,
Birney Brown, Jeff Krow, Dan Krow,  Hermon Joyner, William Sommerwerck, Bob Moon, Steven Ritter, Randy Haldeman, Max Dudious, John Sunier.


  © John Sunier 2007 


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