The future of high-fidelity audio is here. The only questions are: which is better and which is here to stay? Two new digital audio formats, DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD, square off.
Twenty years have come and gone since compact discs vastly improved the quality of audio we listen to, but sweeter sounds are on the horizon. Two emerging technologies are competing for your ears: DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD (SACD). Is one of these the heir apparent to the beloved CD?
Just as the CD format surpassed those of vinyl, 8-track, and cassette, there have been attempts by others to unseat the CD technology--MiniDisc, digital audio tape, and MP3s. What makes DVD-Audio and SACD so much better? Both of these disc-based formats have been around a couple of years, offer superior multichannel sound, and allow for much greater storage capacity. But if they've been around for so long, why hasn't either of these technologies taken off yet?
Billy Pidgeon, an analyst with Jupiter Research, sees that consumers have little incentive now to upgrade their CD collections to a more expensive format.
"There aren't enough player models or content discs yet for SACD, most DVD players are not fully DVD-Audio compatible, and all the players and the discs are too expensive," maintains Pidgeon. Most important, Pidgeon believes, is that consumers aren't aware of the benefits of either format.
Will these new technologies set standards or be Betamaxed into obscurity? Only time will tell. Let's check out both and hear what they have to say for themselves.
DVD-Audio
Take the crisp 5.1-channel audio you get from DVD-Videos, and turn it up a notch.
Super Audio CD
Unfiltered, high-quality sound from a disc that works everywhere a CD does.
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