John Puccio responds ...

Reader Emmett Byrem makes two good points in his letter in Issue 98. First, he finds the sound of the Rossini Overtures with Marriner on PentaTone Classics' SACD (presumably in the two-channel stereo mode) inferior to his copy of the Overtures on Philips CDR 950. Second, he wonders why I'm reviewing the two-channel-only versions of these Overtures when the PentaTone disc has a layer of four channels in Super Audio. Fair enough.

In the first case, I compared the stereo layer of the Rossini to the latest stereo re-issue on Philips Trio 473 967-2 CD and found the PentaTone superior in almost every way. Two people hearing differing results from CDs is not unusual, especially when the discs being compared to the PentaTone are different (I don't own Philips CDR 950). Even if our comparisons were the same and we heard different results, it would simply mean the two listeners were different people, with different playback systems, and listening for different things. Even in the same room listening to the same disc on the same system, two different listeners will often hear different results. Or perhaps you haven't attended a typical audiophile shootout. I can only report on what I hear, not on what you will hear. I liked the Rossini disc from PentaTone so well (in stereo), in fact, that I included it as one of my favorite releases of 2003. Ironically, I find the PentaTone remasterings "less bright and more dynamic" (Mr. Byrem's observation in reverse) than the latest Philips remastering.

In answer to why I didn't review the Overtures in their multichannel format, it's simply because I don't have an SACD player or five channels in my dedicated music listening room. Despite my explaining this situation to Telarc, they keep sending me their SACD releases, so the least I could do, I felt, was review the two-channel stereo layers. Nor do I plan ever to buy an SACD player for my dedicated music listening room just for the sake of the magazine. I have a five-channel home theater system in a separate room for movies on DVD, but that's an entirely different set of speakers designed to reproduce the best possible movie-theater sound in that particular room.

I'm sure Telarc knows what they're doing. They're investing a great deal of their money, their reputation, and their future in the SACD medium, and I wish them well. It's certainly a fine audio reproduction process. However, SACD has been out and about now for some time, and it has not had much market penetration. Personally, I don't know a single person, except the Editor, who owns an SACD player and equipment, and even the Editor says he hasn't hooked his up yet. Moreover, out of curiosity, I took an informal survey of my high school students today regarding their own knowledge of the subject. I asked about 150 students, many of them tech-savvy juniors and seniors in my film classes, how many of them owned or knew people who owned an SACD player. Zero. Then I asked them if any of them knew what SACD was all about. Again, zilch. Not a single person had ever heard of SACD or had a clue what I was talking about. And these are young people who are fairly knowledgeable, middle-class folks who almost to the person own or whose parents own DVD players and equipment.

The single biggest technological innovation I can see coming is high-definition DVD. That will hit big within a few years, I have no doubt. Therefore, Sony will probably include an SACD feature in their HD players; but, frankly, I'm not willing at this time to gamble on SACD or DVD-Audio technology that may or may not be around in another couple of years. I haven't the money or the space.

In the meantime, I'll try not to annoy too many more people by reviewing the stereo-only layers on SACD discs. Thanks again for your feedback, Mr. Byrem. They're good questions.

John J. Puccio, Classical Music Editor

The Sensible Sound

Let me chime in here with a few quick observations. Actually, contrary to what JJP asserts, I do not currently own either a SACD player or the electronics required for surround-sound music reproduction. I too have been disappointed by the pace of music recording for SACD, and I too expect both SACD and DVD-Audio to be a cult phenomenon at best. Perhaps the real problem is that surround-sound audio was so intimately connected with the development of home theater that it never really took on an impetus of its own. In any event, I too have been accumulating a stack of SACDs, and I am growing more and more eager to get a surround-sound system set up (although the though of mounting speakers on my walls does not fill me with much enthusiasm, to be honest). I believe Sony had the right idea with their one-box system that included a universal disc player, surround electronics, and amplifiers. Now if some company could follow their lead but produce something a bit more robust. (Yamaha, are you listening? Onkyo? Rotel? Anybody?)

One more thing: I have let JJP know that he is welcome to keep submitting reviews of the two-channel CD programs embedded in Telarc SACDs. His reviews serve us all quite admirably.