Multi-channel at the High-End Audio Store
I will start by saying that I still get the majority of my multi-channel music fix through SACD, but I worry for the long term future of the format. For example I got my PS3 in Dec 2006 and it plays SACD beautifully. But the cheaper PS3s that have been released later in 2007 do not play SACD (and of course this is not mentioned anywhere, and it probably makes no difference to 99% of people buying it). So the format seems to have been abandoned by its creator. Smaller independent labels keep the format alive and well and many orchestra recording at their own venue also uses it. So there is still an healthy specialized industry around it, but will it last long if it is used only for classical recordings and a few jazz and audiophile labels?
Now the page can be turned and I think on the movie/video side the picture is clear (sorry for the pun). If you want high-quality you need to go Blu-Ray. But all is not perfect and there is still confusion about the different profile levels. So there is still work to do for the Blu-Ray camp and I am afraid with no direct competition prices will stay high for a while. At least the PS3 is still a good choice because a new software upgrade has just added profile 2.0 support (the highest level) to the PS3.
But what about the high-resolution sound angle? My PS3 can decode Dolby TrueHD but not DTS MA (Master Audio, also lossless). But I have stopped expecting a software upgrade that will support it (SONY has been quiet on this topic). Also the PS3 cannot stream the audio directly to my DTC 9.8 that can decode both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA. For Dolby TrueHD this does not make much of a difference (e.g. decoding can occur in the Blu-Ray player or in the pre-pro/receiver you end up with the same bits). But for DTS MA if the PS3 cannot decode it could at least stream the DTS-MA content and let the next element in the HDMI chain try to decode it.
OK OK, you know how it goes with technological change, it suffice to write something for it to become obsolete. In mid-April 2008, SONY released system update 2.3 and bam! the PS3 supports DTS-MA. I suppose it was less a technical issue but maybe a issue of licensing with DTS. The decoding occurs in the PS3 and the output is PCM high-res. Of course after the upgrade I tried it right away with the extended version of Kingdom of Heaven. Excellent soundtrack with a lot of choral music. It sounds very well with a much better perception of depth and better frequency range. So for a Blu-Ray player I can recommend a PS3 without any reservation.
There are still way too many Blu-Ray in ‘low rez’ sound. For me the worst example is the Blu-Ray of the phantom of the Opera available in ‘gorgeous’ (I mean crappy) dolby digital. What is the use of having 50G of space to get 5.1 channel of sound compressed to something like500Kbs? Totally ridiculous!
What about Blu-Ray music offering? I have bought a sample of some concert videos (of course also in high-resolution audio) and what I got sounds promising. But I am still waiting for my first classical orchestra (or opera) Blu-Ray, Certain small labels (opusArte and euroarts see also this other link on euroarts had started to produce a few HD-DVD of classical music. Update: Opus Arte will release their Magic Flute (available in HD-DVD months ago) in Blu-Ray. Yes! I will review it as soon as possible One interesting thing about this is the price for the full opera is $32. But I just paid over $60 for a 3 SACD set of DonGiovanni with René Jacobs conducting (and no picture, ah! ah!). So I think an opera on Blu-Ray for under $35 is very good value.
Finally what about just some high-rez music Blu-Ray with no video for around $20? I have seen an article on that very subject here.
One of the 6 rooms did contain a nice Plasma TV (Kuro by Pioneer) a Pioneer Blu-Ray player and a Pioneer receiver connected to a nice set of 7.1 speakers including Mains by Vienna Acoustics. It so happened that I had brought with me 2 Blu-Ray recoding (legend of jazz and the TimReynolds and David Matthews Live at Radio City Music Hall). So I figured out how to turn everything on and then put the BD in it. The image was wonderful 10 times better than at home, just the shiny black piano was amazing. But what about the sound? Beurk it was very flat sounding with nothing to do with what could be heard in the other rooms.. To make a long story short after a lot of button pushing and looking at cables I did realized that the HDMI out of the Blu-Ray player was connected directly to the TV and (you guessed it…..) an optical cable was plugged from the BD player to the receiver (which by the way had 3 or 4 HDMI input). After asking for help with one of the attendant we did got a second HDMI cable plugged the First one in the receiver and the second one from the receiver to the TV. Wow what a difference! And I had a pleasure of having a few of my fellow club members listening to my 2 Blu-Rays.
But after the impeccable quality of installation in the other rooms I find it pretty strange that the set-up of the multi-channel room was so bad. So one possibility is of course that this stuff is simply to new for this Boutique and they did not know how to plug things properly. But I also wonder if maybe they do not want the guys ready to pay 10K for a CD player to realize that they can actually get a better sound from a Blu-Ray player at $500.
Finally I have to confess that I actually like my own sound system better than anything I have heard there that evening (although I really liked the big Verity Audio, and the gorgeous Sonus Faber). And for example (even if just in stereo) I would really have liked to listen to one SACD (instead of just CD and LP) on some of these fancy set-up. So I do not know if it was the lack of high-resolution sound or lack of multi-channel but for me something was missing.