"Harry Lavo" wrote in message
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"Norman Schwartz" wrote in message
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"Kalman Rubinson" wrote in message
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On 9 Aug 2004 15:09:38 GMT, Mike Prager wrote:

My impression is that all SACDs, including multichannel ones,
include a stereo mix. Is that correct?

Gee, Mike, how can you still ask this question? It has been asked
and answered innumerable times on the Internet and embedded in
every SACD announcement since the idea was born.


Easy, he never cared (nor do) I. If I bother acquiring any SACDs they
will
most often be heard in my stereo set-up. I bought a "universal" player
over
a month ago, took it out its box but haven't plugged it into the wall
outlet
yet. Perhaps I'm waiting for dual layer SACDs prices to come down to
standard CD prices. I remember early Telarc CDs with about 30 minutes of
music retailing for $18.98. Lately the material from two Telarc discs
combined onto a single disc can often be found for $2.99 at the
Berkshire
Record Outlet. There are so many great sounding performances in the
various
2 channel formats (including LPs!), I can't see any real necessity for
MC
material, all the more if your 2 channel rig offers better sound than a
MC
system which shares room space with a big screen TV.

All this is true. That's why there are still a lot of 2-channel SACD
aficionados. However, if you can assemble a good five (or more) channel
system around your stereo rig, you are in for a whole new dimension in
reproduction of music

Putting high-end MC around a pair of Tympanis which dominate the room
already, would be nuts. Putting high-end MC around a 60" rear projection TV
would also be nuts.

.....especially of classical symphony and live
concerts..but equally applicable to small ensembles, just not as dramatic.
Once you've experienced it, it is hard to go back.

I sat near the rear of Tanglewood's shed recently, with my eyes closed (as
I
have almost always done at concerts, finding the visual distracting) and
listened to the BSO play Shostakovich's First Symphony and Emmanuel Ax
play
one of Mozart's piano concertos (number 23 or 27, I believe). I was
struck
how closely my Thiel-Audionics-ARC-Sony C222ES SACD system comes to
delivering that same "symphonic" sound on a well recorded multi-channel
disk
in my own living room As good as many stereo disks sound, none can come
close to capturing that same "you are there" verisimilitude.

Been there done all that. IMO listening at home vs. listening live will (and
should) never be the same and it's not my goal to make them sound the same.
I know where my favorite hall seats are and at home I want my music to sound
just as the recording engineers got it down on the tape, and I know my
favorite engineers. When in the hall I expect and want my music to sound
differently than it does at home and vice versa. At home, I do not what any
diluting and distracting of the music quality provided by hall ambiance, I
simply prefer my room ambiance. (I really do not prefer sitting at the rear
anywhere.)