Monday, February 20, 2012

Analog Noise versus signal


Copland: Billy the Kid, Rodeo, Grofé: Grand Canyon Suite
Morton Gould and his Orchestra
Stereo/Multichannel Analog
Living Stereo 82876679042








Here is a plot spectrum of the music.














Here is a plot spectrum of analog and DSD noise in between Buckaroo Holiday and Corral Nocturne from Rodeo.














Transfered it to my computer with Audacity using the analog outs.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Telarc spectrograms and plot spectrums

Britannia 
Elgar: “Pomp and Circumstance” Marches Nos. 1 and 4, Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise, Turnage: Three Screamimg Popes, MacMillan: Britannia, Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem
Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Stereo/Multichannel - Pure DSD
Telarc SACD-60677


























Ballet Favorites 
Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
Stereo/Multichannel - Pure DSD
Telarc SACD-60625

















As one can see from the spectrograms and plot spectrums Britannia is true high resolution, however Ballet Favorites doesn't have much response beyond 20kHz.  Curious how the ultrasonic DSD noise is so much lower.

Both of these sound great, however Britannia is one of the most realistic SACDs I've heard yet.

Transfered it to my computer with Audacity using the analog outs.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

What happened to this DSD recording?

Holst: Orchestral Works Vol. 1
The Morning of the Year, The Lure, The Golden Goose, The Ballet from "The Perfect Fool"
Richard Hickox (conductor) BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Joyful Company of Singers
An original DSD recording
Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid SACD - Chandos CHSA5069

I was reading and looking at pictures of the 24 bit 88.2kHz HDTracks download of this SACD from Computer Audiophile see Holst Orchestral Works Vol 1 (by Chandros) - HDTracks  The charge is that this is a 24/48 recording upsampled to 24/88.2, however since I own the SACD I know it is a DSD recording, this means it was likely transferred to 48kHz at some point or some editing tool only had 48kHz resolution.  Chandos has not responded to the inquiry yet.

I thought I would check the actual SACD so I transfered it to my computer with Audacity using the analog outs and made both a spectrogram and a plot spectrum and they nearly look the same.


The above plot spectrum clearly shows a roll-off at 24kHz and raising DSD noise beyond 50kHz to the end of the plot.  The below spectrogram clearly shows a brick wall filter.


For comparison here is another SACD I copied to my hard-drive using the same procedure that is a true high resolution recording, response up to 48kHz and no brick wall filter.