Direct Stream Transfer (DST) loss-less coding makes it possible to store 70-80 minutes of both stereo and multi-channel DSD content on a disc. Separate data areas are provided for stereo and multi-channel content, giving artists the flexibility to provide two discrete mixes of the same content on a disc. Moreover, an “extra data” area has been reserved for expansions of the format that will make it possible to include information such as lyrics, credits, and still images in the future.
In general, there are two types of bit rate reduction technologies. One is DST: loss-less coding, and another is “Lossy”. Data reduction actually chooses parts of the signal that can be ignored, for example, based on psychoacoustic models. Examples include MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 for video, ATRAC, Dolby® Digital (AC-3® ) and DTS® for audio.
All Super Audio CDs containing multi-channel DSD content will carry the “Multi-ch” logo to indicate that they are capable of providing multi-channel sound when played on a multi-channel compliant Super Audio CD player.
Super Audio CD Multi-channel audio software applications.
Faithful rendition of concert hall ambience is just one of the many possibilities of Super Audio CD multi-channel sound. The discrete surround channels, which are totally separate from the main front channels, can theoretically be used to record any content the artist or producer desires, whether it be sound effects, choruses located in the rear, or other innovative recording techniques. Moreover, archived 3-channel and 4-channel recordings can be faithfully re-released in the Super Audio CD format, while the future may bring a variety of new multi-channel recording methods yet to be invented.
Speaker placement in a Super Audio CD Multi-channel playback system.
A typical multi-channel Super Audio CD playback system includes a multi-channel capable player, a multi-channel power amplifier, and a corresponding number of speakers. As shown in the chart, five speakers typically surround the listener in circular fashion in accordance with ITU recommendations and the sixth channel is used for low frequency enhancement (sub-woofer).
Speaker placement in accordance with the ITU-R BS.775 recommendation: the sixth channel can be optionally used for low-frequency enhancement.
Super Audio CD content protection is built with five lines of defense. Each line provides different obstacles against piracy. The independency of these lines of defense means that, even if one of the lines is broken, the others still protect the content against piracy.
First line of defense: Existing PC disc drives cannot read data from Super Audio CD disc.
Second line of defense: If Super Audio CD data has been copied, it cannot be used.
Third line of defense: Hacking the scrambling of a title is expensive and must be done for each new title again.
Fourth line of defense: Details of the scrambling system are never exposed.
Fifth line of defense: Sophisticated protection against commercial piracy and counterfeiting.
Downconversion to 16-bit/44.1 kHz digital audio is just one option for the DSD bit stream. The system’s 2.8224 MHz sampling rate is specifically designed for high precision downconversion to all current PCM sampling rates. In all cases, the conversions in sync are performed with simple integer multiplies and divides.
As a result, music companies can use DSD for both archiving and mastering. And DSD masters can be easily downconverted for release at any sampling rate or wordlength. This makes DSD a digital “Rosetta Stone,” able to speak all languages with equal facility. It also means that DSD can support a “hierarchy of quality” for distribution that allows the music company to precisely position different products for different applications.
A single DSD server can perform multiple tasks to support a music company’s production and marketing environments.
The sampling rate of Direct Stream Digital lends itself to simple down conversion to all the standard PCM distribution formats.
Super Audio CD
CD
Diameter (mm)
120
120
Thickness (µm)
1.2
1.2
Track Pitch (µm)
0.74
1.6
Data Capacity (Mbytes)
4700
780
Wavelength (nm)
650
780
Numerical Aperture (NA)
0.6
0.45
Audio Coding
Direct Stream Digital
Linear PCM
Sampling Rate (kHz)
2822.4
44.1
Sampling Bit Length
1
16
Channels
2, 3, 3.1, 4, 4.1, 5, 5.1
2
Tracks
255 (max)
99 (max)
Indexes
255 (max)
99 (max)
Playback time (min.) Stereo
109
74
Multi + Stereo
70 – 80*1
–
Supplementary Data (kbps)
73 – 900
43.2
Frequency Range (Hz)
DC – 100,000 (DSD)
5 – 20,000
Dynamic Range (dB)
over 120 (~20kHz)
96
* 1 : 12cm Single Layer Disc, 2ch and Multi channel with DST
“Overall, the first 10 releases in BMG’s RCA Living Stereo SA-CD series are overwhelming successes. I eagerly await the next 10!” – so commented Stereophile magazine on the launch of the first 10 albums in RCA’s legendary Living Stereo Series as multi-channel re-mastered Super Audio CDs.
Now, with 30 albums in the series available as hybrid surround SA-CDs, SonyBMG has announced the release next February of a further 10 albums. The albums slated for February release include Arthur Fieldler / Boston Pops – Pops Caviar; Virgil Fox – Encores; Morton Gould – Copland “Billy the Kid Suite”; “Billy the Kid Waltz”; “Rodeo Suite” & Grofé “Grand Canyon Suite”; Jascha Heifetz – Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1; Scottish Fantasy & Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto No. 5; Mario Lanza – At His Best / The Vagabond King, Charles Munch / Boston Symphony Orchestra – Mendelssohn Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5; Octet – Scherzo; Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Respighi “Fountains of Rome”; “Pines of Rome”; Debussy “La mer”; Arthur Rubinstein – Beethoven Sonatas (Moonlight; Les Adieux; Pathétique; Appassionata); Charles Munch / Boston Symphony Orchestra – Berlioz “Symphonie Fantastique”; “Romeo and Juliet – Love Scene” and Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Vienna (Johann Strauss; Carl Maria von Weber; Joseph Strauss; Richard Strauss)
Started in the 1950’s the Living Stereo Series represents an anthology of 20th century classical music performance and recording. Living Stereo recordings were made with only two or three microphones, which represented the best recording techniques of that era. Today, with the advent of Super Audio CD multi-channel sound, the listener can hear the left, centre, and right channels exactly as the recording engineers heard them at the original recording sessions.
When remastering the original recordings, John Newton and his engineering team used only three of the available six channels (or two when the original recording was two-track) on the SA-CD because that was the vision of the original producers. What you hear are faithful copies of these historic performances in brilliant DSD resolution. No signal processing was used to “improve” these extraordinary tapes.
“SA-CD is integral to the re-invigoration that Living Stereo is enjoying today,” comments John Newton, President of US-based SoundMirror Inc. “SA-CD is the only practical multi-channel high resolution format available to the consumer. This resolving capability is finally better than the original analogue tape which was used in the original recordings of the living stereo titles.
“The Multi-channel capability of SA-CD allows the consumer for the first time to hear what the artist, producers and engineers created during the original recording sessions,” continues Newton. “Most of these recording were made on three channel tape recorders and the multi-channel SA-CD Layer allows us to deliver these three channels to the consumer. The stereo SA-CD program allows consumers without surround equipment to experience the resolution contained in the original recordings. The CD layer on these hybrid discs is also vastly improved because it is made from a careful down conversion of the stereo SA-CD program. The previous CD’s were created from PCM conversions as apposed to DSD Conversions.
“It appears to us at SoundMirror that SA-CD’s are being gradually accepted by several groups of consumers; classical purchaser appreciate the surround sound capability, the historic market can finally benefit from high-resolution and three channel capability, and the jazz market responds to combinations of the above.”
In a significant move that will allow some of the last century’s most important classical recordings to be heard for the first time as they were recorded, Decca Classics has announced the release of a further five albums from its Mercury Living Presence Collection on Super Audio CD.
This August will see the release of Mussorgsky: Pictures at an exhibition (Byron Janis, piano & orchestral version with Minnesota/Dorati); Schumann & Lalo Cello Concertos (Janos Starker); Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (Detroit Symphony/Paul Paray); Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker & Serenade for Strings (London Symphony/Dorati) and Music of Leroy Anderson (Frederick Fennell/ Eastman-Rochester Orchestra) in their original 3-channel recording format.
These new releases are quite unlike anything heard before, and are the product of a major restoration and conservation project at Universal Music’s Emil Berliner Studios in Hanover, where they were working with the original tapes, and in some cases 35mm film. The project has engaged several leading audio technologists, notably Andrew Wedman. Wilma Cozart Fine has also been involved in the Mercury Living Presence Super Audio CD project.
“These are not surround mixes in the modern sense,” explains Universal Music’s Raymond McGill. “They are 3-channel recordings and the significance of their Super Audio CD release is that, for the first time, they are being heard as they were originally recorded. Until the appearance of Super Audio CD these recordings were heard simply as stereo.”
These five new releases will be numbers 15 to 20 in the Mercury Living Presence Series on Super Audio CD, which Decca has re-mastered to Super Audio CD. The first 10 titles were released in August 2004 and a further five were added last month. “Critical reaction has been pretty unanimous in praise of these Super Audio CD releases from both consumers and press reviews,” commented McGill. “The significance and a major advantage of Super Audio CD in this case is the ability to release music as 3-channel, as it was originally intended to be heard.”
Coinciding with the launch of the new version of The War of The Worlds comes new market research into the future of surround sound for music, which was commissioned by the Super Audio CD Project Team, a collaborative venture between consumer equipment manufacturers, pro-audio production tool developers and record companies seeking to establish the new high-resolution surround sound music format.
The Market Research, carried out by Scribe Technical Public Relations Limited, questioned more than 2600 key opinion formers within the music industry, including record company executives, studio and mastering facility management, equipment manufacturers, disc replicators, retailers, journalists and industry analysts.
Of the respondents, over 71 per cent believe that CD is not obsolete and still offers the main business platform for the provision of recorded music. However, the majority of respondents could see a time, within the next five years or so, when alternative music carriers will supersede CD. Looking at current market drivers, electronic music distribution systems are seen as growing strongly and are attractive particularly to younger music consumers, who are motivated by factors such as low cost, ease of access and portability.
In this environment, the majority of respondents believe that surround sound will play a very important role in the future development of the ‘high-end’ recorded music market. Over 79 per cent of respondents believe that surround sound for music is an important evolutionary development in home entertainment systems.
Whilst surround sound is seen as being key in the future development of the music industry, it is believed by most respondents that there is a low level of general consumer understanding regarding surround sound (particularly surround sound for music). It is thought that few consumers understand the nature and potential of surround sound and that many consumers believe that all surround sound is similar to that experienced on DVD-Video movie soundtracks.
Against this background, 64 per cent of respondents believe that the evolution of high resolution music formats, such as Super Audio CD are an important development in the audio industry due to the superior surround sound quality it offers music lovers. They believe that this quality, in terms of its specialist multi-channel audio abilities is something that will be valued more and more as people’s understanding of the technology and its capabilities are more fully understood.
The majority of respondents believe consensus should be sought amongst the music industry as to the best way ahead; more music should be made available as good quality surround sound and equipment manufacturers should develop ranges of affordable surround sound systems, especially for the in-car entertainment environment.
With respect to electronic music distribution systems, over 73 per cent of respondents believe that these systems should not be regarded as a competitor to surround sound music. In fact, many believe that, in several ways, they are complimentary to each other.
The consensus is that formats such as MP3 should be made more available and – if positioned correctly – can be used to promote the existence of superior quality surround sound versions of the same music. A number of respondents advocate the bundling of MP3 files on a surround sound music disc along with the surround sound mixes.
Quotes from market research respondents:
Question 1: How important is surround sound to the future of the music industry and why?
Simon Foster, Director, Avie Records, UK “Very important. At last, computer, video, home entertainment and ‘record players’ come together in one room for the family. The basic set up will be 5.1 + plasma screen + wireless PC and Internet.”
Bob Ludwig, President, Gateway Mastering & DVD, USA “I believe it is very important. In spite of the iPod’s portability, ease of use, being extremely cheap (sometimes free!) and ability to carry a very large record collection around with you, ultimately the enjoyment of music comes down the visceral thrill and goose bumps on the skin it can impart. While one can get a musical thrill from an iPod whilst listening at the top of a mountain, nothing can give you the much bigger thrill of hearing well-done surround music. The “you-are-there” quality good surround music can impart is as close to the absolute sound (as represented by a real orchestra) that we can achieve commercially today.”
Jan-Eric Persson, Founder and Recording Engineer, Opus 3 Records, Sweden “For music only it is becoming more and more important all the time, while we now are getting more and more used to DVD-Video and more and more people already have a 5.1 system set up in their homes.”
Dan Waite, Label Director, MTV Networks Europe, London “It’s important as it makes music come alive more than you know. It’s difficult as people rarely experience it outside of their DVD home cinemas and DVD-Video is not the best quality sound but it still really excites them in the film context. So high quality surround sound would make peoples ears prick up like a q-tip in the ear.”
Junzo Sano, Executive Deputy President, Sony Broadcasting Media, Japan “Surround sound (for Music) is important. I feel the music is more alive with surround sound.”
Erik Nordström, Sound Engineering Program/Studio Musician Program Luleå University of Technology/School of Music, Sweden “Surround sound is very important for the music industry. Surround sound will spread and get more space as soon as people learn how to deal with their home cinema systems. It will spread even more when equipment manufacturers learn how to make systems for the non-music industry people. When it gets very easy to use it will spread very fast. Many will get into surround sound because of their love for movies, others for their love of music. Most important for me personally, surround sound makes the walls of a room disappear.”
QUESTION 2: IS THE HIGH-RESOLUTION SURROUND SOUND QUALITY OF SUPER AUDIO CD, WITH ITS STUDIO-LIKE QUALITY, A VALUABLE CONSUMER OFFER OR ARE LISTENERS HAPPY WITH LESSER QUALITY SUCH AS THE COMPRESSED SURROUND SOUND SYSTEMS OFFERED ON DVD-VIDEO?
Xavier Sastre, Technical Advisor to Spanish magazines CD-Compact and DVD-Actualidad “To my taste, Super Audio CD allows to far better reproduce the music than DVD-Video and the sound is more natural than DVD-Audio.”
Ian Hooper, Partner/General Manager, Rockian Trading, Australia “Super Audio CD will succeed rather than DVD in any format because of the marketing of DVD movies. Almost all Super Audio CD owners also buy DVD-Videos and they are aware of the DVD discount conventions. No one pays full price for a DVD-Video that is more than two or three months old. New release videos sell for full price, then, as the publicity for the new release movie dies off the video is discounted until it is sold out. Then it is not re-stocked, or only if it is supplied for a very deep discount. This means the shelf life for DVDs is very short. This applies to all DVD formats because it seems the retail client doesn’t differentiate between DVD-Video and DVD-Audio formats.
”Because DVDs in all formats that are more than three months old can not be sold for a profit we stopped importing and distributing them. In comparison, good Super Audio CD recordings like most of those produced by the quality labels we represent, continue to sell through years after their first release.”
Jan-Eric Persson, Founder and Recording Engineer, Opus 3 Records, Sweden “Well, for most people the DVD-Video surround sound quality is enough, but the demand for better sound quality is growing all the time and Super Audio CD definitely fills that need!”
QUESTION 3: WHAT SHOULD THE MUSIC INDUSTRY DO TO ENCOURAGE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SURROUND SOUND?
Scott Gordon, Viva Disc Replication, Canada “The music industry should promote the medium. Nothing is being done!”
Simon Heyworth, Founder, Super Audio Mastering, UK “What we need is imagination and people that are brave enough to embrace new technologies. Funnily enough, it’s the smaller companies taking the plunge because they have little to lose and everything to gain.”
Mikael Vest, MD, Digital Audio Denmark “The primary activity is to promote the surround music production already made, especially in the music shops, enabling customers to listen to the music and indeed just inform and promote the music on Super Audio CD (and DVD-A). Many players are now compatible with both formats, and not very expensive, so actually there is no longer the risk of a VHS/Betamax situation seen from the end customer, and thereby the music shops point of view.”
QUESTION 4: DO YOU REGARD DOWNLOADABLE MUSIC (MP3, ETC.) AS A COMPETITOR TO SURROUND SOUND OR CAN THEY CO-EXIST AND COMPLIMENT EACH OTHER?
Marcel van den Broek, Product Development, Challenge Records, Netherlands “MP3 is fast food, easy to consume. Super Audio CD is an expensive restaurant with food that you experience instead of just eating.”
Chris Jenkins, Editor, totalDVD, UK “Put low-resolution downloadable music out to be a free taster for commercially available high-quality recordings. It’s up to the industry to work out a workable market model.”
In the early 80s the arrival of the Compact Disc (CD) caused a revolution in our homes and day-to-day lives. Quality, portability and ease of use – all in one small silver disc. Now, some 20 years later, digital technology has progressed making a new revolution possible. In the search for the perfect audio quality and answering the demand for surround sound music, Sony and Philips have developed an exciting new format called Super Audio CD.
With her remixed SA-CD album ‘Dangerously in Love’, Beyoncé explains: “I put this music on and I’m overwhelmed with emotion. Super Audio CD offers a new, more personal experience.”
A Super Audio CD looks and operates just like a normal CD. Put the disc into any player with SA-CD functionality, select the track number on the player or remote control and press play. But that is where the similarity ends. Super Audio CD opens up an entirely new and unique listening experience – as if you have been transported into the middle of the musical performance, in the recording studio or concert hall.
This huge advance in listening capabilities is enabled by new and radically different recording techniques used for Super Audio CD.
Fifteen of Bob Dylan’s most celebrated titles have been released on hybrid Super Audio CD. From among his very first albums to his most recent, these remasterings take the listener closer to the master tape sound than has ever before been possible.
Each of us has our favourite musical experience. It could be one album or one live performance. The performance when you felt electricity in the air and the vibe generated by gifted musicians. Every time you play it – or even just think about it – you get goose-bumps on your body and stop to reflect for a couple of heartbeats.
The same kind of emotional reaction is created by the best Super Audio CD releases. It makes the listener stop, sit down, listen and enjoy the creativity of the artist. You hear the whole performance – every instrument, every note, every detail of the performance.
The 2000th Super Audio CD (SA-CD) has been released – a major breakthrough in the acceptance of this music format. Jamie Cullum’s highly acclaimed album “Twentysomething” is out now on SA-CD!
Apart from its unbeatable audio quality, Super Audio CD provides a common sense approach for the music lover. First, you don’t need to restart your music collection.
Sony and Philips have built strong bridges between their two formats: SA-CD and CD. Thanks to an additional CD Layer on a hybrid SA-CD disc, it will play on any CD and DVD-Video player (at CD resolution) as well as the new SA-CD players in high quality surround sound. So you can take your new SA-CD disc and play it in the car, on the train – wherever you go.
Old Stones albums just keep on rolling! Super Audio CD’s of 22 re-mastered titles have satisfied new generations
Music makes formats and with 2000 albums available on Super Audio CD music lovers are spoilt for choice. From Beethoven to Beyonce, a broad range of artists and producers is using the format. From Norah Jones and Aerosmith to Pink Floyd, Groove Armada and Sting, you’ll find a rich diversity of musical tastes released on this new format and the number of titles is growing fast, month by month.
The future of audio is right here. Presented to you by Super Audio CD!
On the remastered Super Audio CDs of The Police you can hear every note they make and with every breath you take you will love listening to them.
Super Audio CD uses a new and radically different technology called Direct Stream Digital (DSD) to convert music into a digital signal that can be stored on a disc. Compared to the traditional PCM method (the technology used for CD), DSD offers a much higher resolution by following more closely the original wave form of music. With a frequency response of over 100kHz and a dynamic range over 120dB across the audible frequency range – some 64 times higher resolution then CD – Super Audio CD offers music reproduction that reveals details you just can’t hear on a normal CD.
The Direct Stream Digital™ pulse train “looks” remarkably like the analog waveform it represents. More pulses point up as the wave goes positive and down as the wave goes negative.
Simon Heyworth, Super Audio Mastering in Devon (United Kingdom):
“For producers hearing a DSD master for the first time, I believe it’s important that they hear a distinct difference – a master that has more space. DSD is just so much better than PCM. Some producers are completely shocked and blown away. DSD is not like other digital formats. It has a musicality, which portrays in a real sense musicians playing together.”
1 Bit Technology
In audio, simpler is better. And the Direct Stream Digital™ process (bottom) is far simpler than the PCM digital process (top).
DSD uses 1-bit delta-sigma modulation and a sampling frequency 64x higher than CD. Super Audio CD recordings don’t have to subject the original sound waves to the decimation and interpolation stages associated with PCM. Hence DSD sound reproduction is much more natural and accurate in staging, and is often favourably compared with the best analogue recordings, but without the hiss and other artefacts that are also associated with analogue recordings.
Ronald Prent, Galaxy Studio’s at Mol (Belgium):
“DSD gives the engineer unlimited dynamic range, so you can be really wild with the sound images that you create. Also, in acoustic recordings, you are afforded so much more freedom, experimenting with multi-channel set-ups.”
Multi-channel Surround Music
The introduction of DVD video has spawned huge interest in the surround sound experience. With Super Audio CD, music too can be mixed to 5.1 multi-channel surround sound (instead of just stereo left and right).
The DSD signal can be delivered in up to 6 separate channels (front left, center, front right, left rear, right rear + subwoofer) making it possible to maintain extremely high resolution across all speakers without even the slightest sacrifice in sound quality.
Jens Kuphal, Nucleus studio in Berlin (Germany):
“Obviously, the much higher sound quality gives you a much better feeling over CD productions. Being able to put down and replay 5.1 mixes of such high standard invites us to push our creative boundaries on a daily basis. From a creative point of view, Super Audio CD provides the possibility to join the artist in the studio. The whole mood is captured and preserved on a sound-carrier.”
Not all SA-CD’s contain a multi-channel mix.
The decision to mix or remix recordings for 5.1 surround is based on the choice of the artist/ record label and the kind of original source material that is available. In some cases, for instance with the Rolling Stones Remastered series, the music will benefit from the higher resolution in Stereo DSD, but not allow for the creation of the full Surround Sound reproduction.
The Super Audio CD Disc
Super Audio CD data is stored on the same physical carrier as DVD-Video. Making use of this highly successful consumer product brings many advantages, such as the use of mass produced components and making combination players which play both SA-CD and DVD-V.
This silver disc can store more than seven times the information of the standard CD, providing up to 74 minutes of full resolution surround music – the same duration as a stereo CD. A Super Audio CD has two distinct mixes, one for stereo and one for multi-channel.
Hybrid Disc
Furthermore, there is an option to add a separate CD layer to the DVD disc: the so called ‘Hybrid Super Audio CD. Hybrid SA-CD’s can be played back on virtually all CD drives and players as well as all standard DVD-Video systems. This makes Super Audio CD’s compatible with all 11 billion CD and DVD players used around the world.
4 types of Discs
There are four different SA-CD configurations commercially available to record companies:
Hybrid Discs
The vast majority of SA-CD’s introduced to the market today are hybrid type, containing the CD layer. This disc plays on a CD and DVD player, at CD quality.
Single Layer Discs
There are also SA-CDs without the CD layer, so-called single layer discs. These can not be played on a standard CD player. The advantage is that this is an entirely secure digital carrier.
Both the hybrid and single layer SA-CD can be released as a stereo-only album, or as a stereo plus surround album.
4 types of Discs
So to recap: stereo or surround is entirely a choice of the releasing company, as is the choice to produce hybrid or single layer discs.
Note: it is strongly recommended not to release surround only SA-CDs (i.e. there is no stereo DSD mix), as a large population of SA-CD enthusiasts still listen in stereo only. Releasing an album on SA-CD surround only would deny access to this market, which can only play back the album in stereo DSD.
The sleeve artwork of any SA-CD will explain the disc’s contents.
Content Protection
Super Audio CD offers the world’s most secure digital carrier, utilising a combination of physical and electronic protection barriers. These are layered around the audio content in five independent layers, including a combination of mechanical and encryption-based protection systems that cannot be broken using any current hacking technique.
The end result is that when you buy a Super Audio CD in a music store, you can be confident that it’s the genuine article and not an illegal, inferior quality copy.
The CD layer on the hybrid disc is similar to a conventional CD in that it’s open to copying onto other carriers for home use.
Just push Play
A hybrid Super Audio CD will play in all CD and DVD players, at CD quality. So if you want to be ready for the future but don’t have a SA-CD player yet, just start buying your albums as hybrid SA-CDs. Go ahead and buy the new Sting ‘Sacred Love’ album on SA-CD: enjoy the CD now and the SA-CD later.
To listen to the album in highest resolution and surround sound, you need a player with SA-CD functionality and a compatible surround sound speaker set up. To find out more about SA-CD hardware, please check out our ‘player’ section.
