Any new developments in CD format?

Ok, so a sacd player with five outputs its needed. Got it.
Is the the future? The next best thing?
come on, forget it. take your xa20es and be happy. 🙂

about the sacd /dsd hype: i have a Sony ES... sacd player (from the time, it was "the new dream standard"), now resides in the attic since 15 y . 🙂
that time i ripped the obviously better sounding dsd tracks , convert to 44/16 format and burned this and the standard 44/16 cd tracks from a double layer disc to a cdr-disc. And yes, the former sa/dsd tracks sound still better ! So they just make a very little worse mix on the cd layer, to show listeners the big improvement of the sa/dsd nonsense. Good way for marketing, otherwise you would hear no difference.

i have (also) 2/stereo speakers in front, for listening music. And 5.1 surround receiver (on tv) for movie-sound (with appropriate separate speakers+ 2x 12" woofer).

in general , think about:
1. what music source you have + can get
2. what reproduction is possible
3. what you want/like

ad 1: most music i (you?) have is on cd , 44/16

ad 2: stereo 2ch was and is standard for music; with a good chain , good speakers, you cannot do better here. + but 5.1 or 7.1 is possible, if you get a source for it (mostly on movie sound tracks), but for good quality need big room with perfect position of all speakers ...

ad 3: what will you get with really expensive 5..7 ch setup? i was many years ago, when "new" multichannel was a hype , at a exhibition in iirr Pioneer demo room, big speakers around group of seats in a big room. Sound was good, make you feel like sitting on stage between the musicians.
But do i want this ? not really, i prefer to have the stage in front as in a live concert.
Sitting in the middle of the action is funny , when i watch a movie, but not for my music.
 
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More or less the same about other surround music mixes / formats. Some good, some bad, some indifferent, often down to how good the people behind the desk were. Some (some 😉 ) of the old quadraphonic mixes for e.g. were actually quite good (plenty were terrible), but let down by the contemporary hardware limitations. Bit ironic really -the whole sorry mess that was quadraphonic sound collapsed in its death-throws right at the point a format capable of carrying four discrete channels finally emerged (four channel capability is built into the redbook CD format -it's just that nobody ever implemented it). If I want surround music though, I usually just implement a passive ambient circuit these days a la Hafler or Gerzon, whatever the source format happens to be. Can work surprisingly well on the right material, & if you're in the mood.
 
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^ " If I want surround music though, I usually just implement a passive ambient circuit these days a la Hafler or Gerzon, whatever the source format happens to be. Can work surprisingly well on the right material, & if you're in the mood."

Interesting timing, I just got a Schitt SYN and I'm planning on reconfiguring my home office to 5 channels. Actually, I plan on running four Acoustic Energy AE1s on front ( L, C/C, R ) and two cheapy Elacs as surrounds. For amps, three Parasound Zamps, for the time being. We'll see how that works...

Source will be 2ch.
 
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