This is a very interesting analysis of CD/DVD--A/SACD by Christine Tham..
It is pragmatic, practical, and technical in nature. About the best I've
seen yet:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/christie/comparo/index.html

Harry Lavo
"It don't mean a thing if it aint got that swing" - Duke Ellington

Harry Lavo wrote:

This is a very interesting analysis of CD/DVD--A/SACD by Christine Tham..
It is pragmatic, practical, and technical in nature. About the best I've
seen yet:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/christie/comparo/index.html

Harry Lavo

The biggest difference that would be audible (Tham's
conclusion, too) involves the "dynamics."

I have problems with this, because I see no reason why any
of these consumer-oriented digital systems operated within
their dynamic-range capabilities (and even the CD tops 90
dB) would compress these signals. Heck, the analog masters
used to create his "reference" disc would have dynamic
capabilities inferior to any of the three formats he
compared. Any of them should have been equally able to deal
with the dynamics of the analog source.

My guess is that the machines that made the three different
discs were very slightly adjusted differently. The
differences may have been totally unintentional.

On top of this, he also may have made measurement errors,
and the various players he used could have skewed the
results. Heck, he possibly had his player downmix the DVD-A
presentation from 5.1 channels to just two channels. This
actually may have compromised any number of attributes. Even
if the disc had 2-channel tracks in DVD-A form, the mixing
at the production end could have skewed things.

Too many wild-card variables in this comparison, even though
he had good intentions.

There is no reason I can see why the per-channel subjective
performance of SACD and DVD-A should be different, or why
they should have a per-channel edge over the CD. Yep, they
do have more channels, and that is an edge in itself.

But a per channel subjective edge that means anything with
typical home playback on even excellent systems? Probably
not.

Heck, my experience has been that Dolby Digital (at least at
448 kbps) and DTS both can sound as good as DVD-A. I have
had numerous chances to do comparisons with duplicate
releases.

Most audio buffs overrate their hearing.

Howard Ferstler