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			{{short description\|Read-only optical disc for high-fidelity audio storage}}
	{{pp-semi-sock}}
	{{~~Infobox~~ media		{{infobox media
			\| logo = ]
	\| name = Super Audio CD
			\| image = Back_of_SACD.png
	\| logo = ]
			\| caption = Reverse side of a hybrid SACD. Unlike a CD, the reflection has a gold hue.
	\| image = ]
			\| type = ]
	\| caption =
			\| encoding = Digital (])
	\| type = ]
			\| capacity = 4.38 ] (4.7 ]) single layer and hybrid<br />7.92 GiB (8.5 GB) dual layer
	\| encoding = Digital (])
			\| read = 650 nm laser (780 nm for the CD layer of a hybrid disc)
	\| capacity = up to 7.95 ]/]
			\| owner = ] and ]
	\| read = 650 nm laser
			\| use = Audio storage
	\| write =
			\| extended from = ]
	\| standard =
			\| released = {{Start date and age\|1999}}
	\| owner = ] & ]
			\| standard = ]
	\| use = Audio storage
	\| extended from =
	\| extended to =
	}}		}}
			{{Optical disc authoring}}
	'''Super Audio CD''' ('''SACD''') is a high-resolution read-only ] ] format designed to provide high-resolution audio in both stereo and surround sound, in contrast to the old ] which cannot provide high-resolution audio, nor any kind of surround sound. Introduced in 1999, SACD was developed by ] and ], the same companies that created the ]. SACD was in a ] with ]. As of May 2009, the number of titles released on SACD is approximately 20 times larger than available in any other high-resolution format.{{Fact\|date=May 2009}}

			'''Super Audio CD''' ('''SACD''') is an ] format for ] introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by ] and ] and intended to be the successor to the ] (CD) format.
	==Overview==
	SACD is a disc of identical physical dimensions to the compact disc but it uses a very different technology from CD and ] to encode its audio data, a 1-bit ] process known as ] at the very high sampling rate of 2822.4 ]. This is 64 times the ] used in ] (CDDA), which specifies 44.1 kHz at a resolution of 16-bit. Because the resolution of SACD is 16 times smaller than CDDA, the bitrate for a given channel is 4 times as large.

			The SACD format allows multiple audio channels (i.e. ] or multichannel sound). It also provides a higher bit rate and longer playing time than a conventional CD.
	<center>
	{\| class="wikitable" border="1"
	\|-
	!
	! CD
	! SACD
	\|-
	\| <Font Color = Brown>Format</Font>
	\| 16 bit ]
	\| 1 bit ]
	\|-
	\| <Font Color = Brown>Sampling frequency</Font>
	\| 44.1 kHz
	\| 2822.4 kHz
	\|-
	\|<Font Color = Brown>Dynamic range</Font>
	\| 96 dB
	\| 120 dB
	\|-
	\| <Font Color = Brown>Frequency range</Font>
	\| 20 Hz - 20 kHz
	\| 20 Hz - 100 kHz
	\|-
	\| <Font Color = Brown>Disc capacity</Font>
	\| 700 MB
	\| 7.95 GB
	\|-
	\| <Font Color = Brown>Stereo</Font>
	\| Yes
	\| Yes
	\|-
	\|<Font Color = Brown> Multi-channel</Font>
	\| No
	\| Yes
	\|}
	</center>

			An SACD is designed to be played on an SACD player. A '''hybrid SACD''' contains a ] (CDDA) layer and can also be played on a standard CD player.
	There are three types of SACDs:
	*Hybrid: The most popular of the three types, hybrid discs include a "]" layer compatible with most legacy Compact Disc players, dubbed the "CD layer," and a 4.7 GB SACD layer, dubbed the "HD layer." It is not uncommon for hybrid discs to carry the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo to show that the disc is CDDA-compliant.
	*Single-layer: Physically a DVD-5 ], a single-layer SACD includes a 4.7 GB HD layer with no CD layer.
	*Dual-layer: Physically a DVD-9 ], a dual-layer SACD includes two HD layers totaling 8.5 GB, with no CD layer. It enables nearly twice as much data to be stored, but eliminates CD player compatibility. This type is rarely used. A notable example is the "Multi-Ch" release of ].

			== History ==
	SACD authoring guidelines suggest that an SACD should always contain a ] mix{{Fact\|date=February 2007}} though not all SACD have it (for example, in 2005 Sony Music Entertainment (Germany) GmbH released ]'s performance of the ] as a hybrid SACD with 16-bit PCM and DSD 5.1 surround but no DSD stereo). They may optionally contain a ] mix — either 5.0 or 5.1 layout. Although the disc always stores all channels, the surround mix does not have to use them all, and some may be mute; for example the 2001 SACD release of ]'s '']'' remains in the ] 4.0 mix made in 1975, and the ] reissue of the 1957 ] recording of ]'s ] marks the first time the original 3.0 (three track) recording is available in a consumer format. The correct designation for the surround part of an SACD is "multi-channel", and usually has either the label "SACD Surround" or its own "Multi-Ch" logo on the back cover.
	{{Optical disc authoring}}

			The Super Audio CD format was introduced in 1999,<ref name="guardian2007"/> and is defined by the ''Scarlet Book'' standard document. ] and ] partnered in May 2002 to develop and install the first SACD hybrid disc production line in the United States, with a production capacity of up to three million discs per year.<ref name="newscenter"/> SACD did not achieve the level of growth that compact discs enjoyed in the 1980s,<ref name="digitaltrends"/> and was not accepted by the mainstream market.<ref name="cnet2009"/><ref name="stereophile2006"/><ref name="avrev2006"/>
	==Market forces==
	The standard redbook ] continues to be the mainstream optical disk format for audio, mainly competing on price and the large installed base of compatible players. As all SACD players can play older CD issues, and since almost all SACD discs are now issued as hybrids (playable on both on older CD players and newer SACD machines), the new SACD format essentially nests the older CD format (rather than competing with it).

			By 2007, SACD had failed to make a significant impact in the marketplace; consumers were increasingly downloading low-resolution music files over the internet rather than buying music on physical disc formats.<ref name="guardian2007"/> A small and niche market for SACD has remained, serving the ] community.<ref name="availability"/>
	Although SACD and the traditional ] record both may have minuscule shares of the total market, SACD has gained significant momentum within certain genres. SACD is strong within classical, jazz and acoustic music, genres that appeal to the ] or ] community. In the more general music market, the dominant market force now appears to be convenience: the rise of digital downloads, in particular lower-quality mp3 files (partly fed by widely-available pirated content), and the decline in older CD format sales. Accordingly, what appears to be emerging is a dichotomous market structure of extremes: the mass market is moving toward a lower-quality convenience model, while the high-end audiophile market has seen a recent resurgence through the SACD format. As of May 2009, there are in excess of 5500 SACD titles on the market.<ref></ref> By contrast, the total number of titles available in all other competing high-resolution formats combined (DVD-Audio, Blu-ray Audio and downloads), total in the low hundreds.

	==~~=DVD-Audio=~~==		== Content ==
			{{Main\|List of SACD artists}}
	] is a format with somewhat similar features as SACD{{Fact\|date=May 2009}}. Sales for DVD-Audio peaked in 2005 at 0.5 million units, and subsequently dropped to approximately 0.2 million units per year,<ref name=RIAA2007>RIAA. Retrieved on May 4, 2009.</ref> with a market share (in dollars, not units) of 1.2 and 1.3% in 2006 and 2007, respectively.<ref name=RIAAprofile>RIAA. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.</ref> Subsequently, sales have fallen below 2001 levels, and the RIAA no longer report DVD-Audio sales at all<ref name=RIAA2008>RIAA. Retrieved on May 18, 2009.</ref>. Nevertheless, it is still possible to purchase some discs from specialist retailers.

			By October 2009, record companies had published more than 6,000 SACD releases, slightly more than half of which were ]. ] and popular music albums, mainly remastered previous releases, were the next two genres most represented.{{citation needed\|date=March 2022}}
	===Blu-ray===
	] is a newer format that uses the ] physical format for high-resolution, ] audio-only playback, but there has yet to be any music industry support for Blu-ray as an audio format.

			Many popular artists have released some or all of their back catalog on SACD. ]'s album '']'' (1973) sold over 800,000 copies by June 2004 in its SACD Surround Sound edition.<ref name="SACDGold"/> ]'s rock opera '']'' (1969), and ]'s '']'' (1982), were released on SACD to take advantage of the format's multi-channel capability. All three albums were remixed in ], and released as hybrid SACDs with a stereo mix on the standard CD layer.
	===Downloads===
	There is no inherent reason why downloads must be of lower quality, other than the longer time to download larger files. For example, sixty minutes of typical CD quality audio contains an average of about 660 MB of uncompressed data or about 350 MB of data processed with ], an mp3 version of it might be 60 to 240 MB depending on compression quality, whereas an SACD disc contains about 5 gigabytes of data (though this may also be compressed losslessly if downloaded). Given the popularity of non-physical media distribution such as ], some<ref></ref> think that physical media will lose market share to downloadable media, even in the high fidelity market. ] media files with data rates equaling that of physical media are available from niche record companies.<ref></ref><ref></ref>. However, there are a number of significant obstacles to be overcome before high-quality downloads can practically be perceived to threaten the market position of SACD. First, almost all computers ship with 44.1/48 kHz D/A converters, and unless special sound cards are purchased, standard computers cannot reproduce 96 kHz or 192 kHz hi-rez recordings. Second, the downloaded tracks cannot currently be played or supported within mainstream media players such as iTunes; the Windows Media Player can support up to 96 kHz provided the computer has a sound card capable of 96 kHz D/A conversion. Third, there are only a tiny number of titles available for download: for example, as of March 2009, there are less than 50 hi-rez classical titles that have been licensed. Fourth, because these downloads exist outside of iTunes and Windows Media Player, there is no widespread DRM management system available to protect the property rights of content owners. This acts as something of a 'catch 22': almost all high-resolution downloads that are available in March 2009 are free of DRM restrictions, and equally, the same freedom may explain the unwillingness of content owners to license their content. Fifth, the SACD format has not been cracked, and SACD recordings are not available as downloads. DSD files are not offered as they are not playable on personal computers.

			Some popular artists have released new recordings on SACD. Sales figures for ]'s '']'' (2003) album reached number one on SACD sales charts in four European countries in June 2004.<ref name=SACDGold/>
	==Content==
	As of May 2009, there have been over 5500 SACD releases, slightly more than 50% of which appear to be ]. ] and popular music albums, mainly remastered previous releases, are the next two most common genres released to date.<ref>http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/index.asp</ref><ref>http://www.amazon.com/s?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=SACD</ref>

			Between 2007 and 2008, the rock band ] re-released all of their studio albums across three SACD box sets. Each album in these sets contains both new stereo and 5.1 mixes. The original stereo mixes were not included. The US & Canada versions do not use SACD but CD instead.
	Today, most SACDs are issued as SACD hybrid discs. This means they can be played in hi-resolution audio on a SACD player, AND the same disc can also be played on all existing ] CD or DVD video players (albeit just in standard CD quality). The SACD format is thus forward and backward compatible. Equally, all SACD machines can play all SACD discs and all old CDs. This compatibility/nesting of both the past and the future is considered to be a major advantage of the SACD format.

			By August 2009 443 labels<ref name="faq13"/> had released one or more SACDs. Instead of depending on major label support, some orchestras and artists have released SACDs on their own. For instance, the ] started the Chicago Resound label to provide full and burgeoning support for high-resolution SACD hybrid discs, and the ] established their own ''LSO Live'' label.{{citation needed\|date=March 2022}}
	===Popular artists===
	Notable popular artists who have released some or all of their back catalog include ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. ]'s seminal album '']'' (the 30th anniversary edition of 2003), ]'s seminal album '']'' (the 34th anniversary edition of 2003), and ]'s '']'' (the 21st anniversary edition, 2003) were released on SACD to take advantage of the format's multi-channel capability. Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon sold over 800,000 copies in its SACD Surround Sound edition <ref>http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=17610285</ref>. All three albums were remixed in 5.1 surround, and released as Hybrid SACDs with a stereo mix on the standard CD layer.

			Many SACD discs that were released from 2000 to 2005 are now out of print and available only on the used market.<ref name="availability" /><ref name="availability_2"/> By 2009, the major record companies were no longer regularly releasing discs in the format, with new releases confined to the smaller labels.<ref name="availability_3"/>
	===Jazz artists===
	Notable jazz artists on SACD include: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] ...

			== Technology ==
	===Classical artists===
	Famous artists who have released ''new'' hi-resolution SACD recordings include:

			{\| class="wikitable" style="float: right"
	'''Piano''': ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], Igor Tchetuev, ], ], ], ] ...
			\|+ SA-CD characteristics
			! Characteristic
			! CD layer (optional)
			! SACD layer
			\|-
			\| Disc capacity
			\| 700{{nbsp}}MB<ref name="Middleton, Zak"/>
			\| 4.7{{nbsp}}GB<ref name=extremetech2001/>
			\|-
			\| Audio encoding
			\| 16-bit ]
			\| 1-bit ]
			\|-
			\| Sampling frequency
			\| 44.1{{nbsp}}kHz
			\| 2,822.4{{nbsp}}kHz (2.8224{{nbsp}}MHz)
			\|-
			\| Audio channels
			\| 2 (])
			\| Up to 6 (])
			\|-
			\| Playback time if stereo
			\| 80 minutes<ref name="Clifford"/>
			\| 110 minutes without DST compression<ref name=extremetech2001/>
			\|}

			SACD discs have identical physical dimensions as standard compact discs. The ] of the disc is the same as a ]. There are three types of disc:<ref name=extremetech2001/>
	'''Violin''': ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] ...

			*'''Hybrid''': Hybrid SACDs have a 4.7 GB SACD layer (the ''HD layer''), as well as a CD (Red Book) audio layer readable by most conventional compact disc players.<ref name="Hybrid+SACD"/>
	'''Cello''': ], ], ], ], ], Anne Gastinel, Michal Kanka ...
			*'''Single-layer''': A disc with one 4.7 GB SACD layer.
			*'''Dual-layer''': A disc with two SACD layers, totaling 8.5 GB, and no CD layer. Dual-layer SACDs can store nearly twice as much data as a single-layer SACD. Like most dual-layer DVDs, the data spiral for the first layer is encoded from the inside out, and the second layer is encoded starting from the point where the first layer ends and ending at the innermost part of the disc.{{citation needed\|date=March 2022}} Unlike hybrid discs, both single- and dual-layer SACDs are incompatible with conventional CD players and cannot be played on them.

			A stereo SACD recording has an uncompressed rate of 5.6 ], four times the rate for ] CD stereo audio.<ref name="extremetech2001"/>
	'''Conductors''' such as:
	], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] ...

			Commercial releases commonly include both surround sound (five full-range plus ] multi-channel) and stereo (dual-channel) mixes on the SACD layer.{{citation needed\|date=October 2013}} Some reissues retain the mixes of earlier multi-channel formats (examples include the 1973 ] mix of ]'s '']'' and the 1957 three-channel stereo recording by the ] of ]'s '']'', reissued on SACD in 2001 and 2004 respectively).
	'''Baroque''' and pre-Baroque specialists such as:
	], ], ], ], ], Diego Fasolis, ], ], Hidemi Suzuki, ], ], ] ...

			=== Disc reading ===
	'''Singers''' such as: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], Peter Harvey, Simone Kermes, ], ], ], ], ] and countless others ...
			] of conventional CD players to enable both types of player to read the data]]

			Objective lenses in conventional CD players have a longer working distance, or ], than lenses designed for SACD players. In SACD-capable DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray players, the red DVD laser is used for reading SACDs.{{citation needed\|date=March 2022}} This means that when a hybrid SACD is placed into a conventional CD player, the infrared laser beam passes through the SACD layer and is reflected by the CD layer at the standard 1.2 mm distance, and the SACD layer is out of focus. When the same disc is placed into an SACD player, the red laser is reflected by the SACD layer (at 0.6 mm distance) before it can reach the CD layer. Conversely, if a conventional CD is placed into an SACD player, the laser will read the disc as a CD since there is no SACD layer.<ref name=extremetech2001/><ref name="muszeroldal"/>

			=== Direct Stream Digital ===
	In addition to ''new'' hi-resolution recordings generally recorded post-2000, there are separately hundreds of famous old analog recordings, now re-mastered to DSD and issued on SACD, providing the closest thing to the original studio analog master tapes that has ever been released.
			{{Main\|Direct Stream Digital}}
	Artists available include ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] etc. These SACD releases offer by far the highest quality that these recordings have ever been available in.

			SACD audio is stored in ] (DSD) format using ] (PDM) where audio amplitude is determined by the varying proportion of 1s and 0s. This contrasts with ] and conventional computer audio systems using ] (PCM) where audio amplitude is determined by numbers encoded in the bit stream. Both modulations require neighboring samples to reconstruct the original waveform; the more neighboring samples, the lower the frequency that can be encoded.
	Despite relatively wide consumer availability to SACD players, high definition audio formats continue to attract few major record labels. This is, in part, because, in the mid-2000s, the major labels such as Universal adopted a downmarket marketing strategy of (a) seeking mega-sales from a tiny number of releases (typically crossover discs such as a classical star performing tangos), and (b) increased their marketing of low-cost compressed audio formats. With the major labels vacating the high-end long tails of the market and failing to address market niches, dozens of smaller companies have entered the market in the last few years to cater for audiophile and classical enthusiasts. As of May 2009, over 440 labels<ref></ref> have released one or more SACDs, giving the classical marketplace a dynamic and youthful energy that is probably unprecedented since the launch of the CD itself. Indeed, the latest trend is for major league orchestras / groups to release their own in-house labels (e.g. the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's highly regarded and multi-award winning new Chicago Resound label provides full support for hi-resolution SACD hybrid disks, as does the London Symphony Orchestra's 'LSO Live' label <ref>http://lso.co.uk/buyrecordings/</ref>).

			DSD is ], has a sampling rate of 2.8224 ], and makes use of ] ] techniques in order to push 1-bit quantization noise up to inaudible ultrasonic frequencies. This gives the format a greater ] and wider frequency response than the CD. The SACD format is capable of delivering a dynamic range of 120 ] from 20 Hz to 20 kHz and an extended frequency response up to 100 kHz, although most available players list an upper limit of 70–90 kHz,<ref name="Reefman"/> and practical limits reduce this to 50 kHz.<ref name=extremetech2001/> Because of the nature of ], DSD and PCM cannot be directly compared. DSD's frequency response can be as high as 100 kHz, but frequencies that high compete with high levels of ultrasonic ].<ref name="ambisonic2001"/> With appropriate ]ing, a ] of 20 kHz can be achieved along with a dynamic range of nearly 120 dB, which is about the same dynamic range as PCM audio with a resolution of 20 bits.{{citation needed\|date=August 2013}}
	==Disc reading==
	]
	Objective lenses in conventional CD players have a longer working distance, or ], than lenses designed for SACD players. This means that when a hybrid SACD is placed into a conventional CD player, the laser beam passes the high-resolution layer and is reflected by the conventional layer at the standard 1.2 mm distance, and the high-density layer is out of focus. When the disc is placed into an SACD player, the laser is reflected by the high-resolution layer (at 600 µm distance) before it can reach the conventional layer. Conversely, if a conventional CD is placed into an SACD player, the laser will read the disc without difficulty since there is no high-resolution layer.

	== ~~Playback~~ ~~hardware~~ ==		=== Direct Stream Transfer ===
	Hybrid Super Audio CDs (which include both a Stereo CD and a Super Audio CD layer) can be played back on CD players. To hear the Super Audio CD Stereo, and on many discs the Super Audio CD Multichannel layer, requires a Super Audio CD player.

			To reduce the space and bandwidth requirements of DSD, a ] method called '''Direct Stream Transfer''' ('''DST''') is used. DST compression is compulsory for multi-channel regions and optional for stereo regions. It typically compresses by a factor of between two and three, allowing a disc to contain 80 minutes of both 2-channel and 5.1-channel sound.<ref name="direct-stream-digital"/>
	As would be expected, ] and ] – designers of the CD and SACD formats – have the most players on the market in many guises such as standalone players, combined DVD/SACD players, in-car players,<ref>{{cite web \| url=http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=10972765 \| title=Sony Announces Three Super Audio CD Car Stereo Players \| publisher=HighFidelityReview.com \| accessdate=2007-01-18}}</ref>.

			Direct Stream Transfer compression was standardized as an amendment to the ] standard, ] 14496-3:2001/Amd 6:2005 (Lossless coding of oversampled audio), in 2005.<ref name="dst-iso"/><ref name="dst-iso2"/> It contains the DSD and DST definitions as described in the Super Audio CD Specification.<ref name="dst-iso-ipsj"/> The MPEG-4 DST provides lossless coding of oversampled audio signals. Target applications of DST are archiving and storage of ] oversampled audio signals and SA-CD.<ref name="dst-chiariglione"/><ref name="dst-chiariglione-old"/><ref name="mpeg4audio-version4-2009"/>
	The Sony SCD-1 was a player which was introduced concurrently with the SACD format in 1999 for a price of approximately US$5,000.<ref>{{cite web \| url=http://www.audiophilia.com/hardware/sacd.htm \| title=The Sony SCD-1 SACD Player \| publisher=@udiophilia \| accessdate=2006-05-18}}</ref> It weighs over 26 ] (57 ]). The SCD-1, no longer produced, was introduced before multi-channel SACDs existed and plays two channel SACDs and Red Book CDs only.

			A ] of MPEG-4 DST was published as ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007 in 2007.<ref name="dst-reference-implementation"/><ref name="dst-reference-implementation-iso"/>
	Many other electronics manufacturers, including Denon/Marantz, Pioneer and Yamaha offer SACD playback capabilities throughout their product lines. None, however, has offered a portable SACD player capable of playing the high-definition layer of an SACD. Most portable CD players will play the conventional CD layer of a Hybrid SACD.

			=== Copy protection ===
	SACD players are not permitted to digitally output an unencrypted stream of ]. Players initially supported only analog output; later some proprietary digital interfaces such as ] Link permitted encrypted transmission of DSD. There are now two standard digital connection methods capable of carrying DSD in encrypted form: ] and ] (version 1.2 or later, standardised in August 2005).

			SACD has several ] features at the physical level, which made the digital content of SACD discs difficult to copy until the ]. The content may be copyable without SACD quality by resorting to the ], or ripping the conventional 700 MB layer on hybrid discs. Copy protection schemes include physical pit modulation and 80-bit ] of the audio data, with a key encoded on a special area of the disc that is only readable by a licensed SACD device. The HD layer of an SACD disc cannot be played back on computer CD/DVD drives, and SACDs can only be manufactured at the disc replication facilities in ] and ].<ref name="sa-cd-net-news"/><ref name="dvddemystified"/>
	The older ] interface is generally found on older mid- to high-end equipment and some current top of the line units from the Japanese manufacturers. HDMI is more common, being the standard digital connection method for high-definition video with audio. Most new mid-level and higher 2007 model year and later A/V processors support the HDMI 1.2 specification's DSD over HDMI feature. Most ] still do not support DSD. Some HDMI 1.1 spec DVD players convert DSD to LPCM and then pass it to an HDMI 1.1 spec or later processor. Lower end processors usually convert the DSD to LPCM, higher end ones usually convert it to LPCM for bass management or DSP but can also process it natively at the expense of DSP and bass management. Some new DVD players from Oppo Digital, Pioneer, Onkyo, etc. now support HDMI 1.2 or 1.3 and will pass DSD over HDMI as well as LPCM. Be aware that some players, for instance, Onkyo DV-SP504, will not support DSD or LPCM over HDMI without ] it to 48 kHz. SACD or DVD-A will be played through analog outputs instead. The older ] interface has been dropped from all but high-end A/V processors and DVD players.

			Nonetheless, very early versions of the ] with an SACD-compatible drive and appropriate firmware<ref>{{Cite web \|title=How Sony's PlayStation 3 could save your SACD collection \|url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/how-sony-s-playstation-3-could-save-your-sacd-collection \|access-date=2024-11-28 \|website=Gramophone \|language=en}}</ref> and certain Blu-ray players<ref>{{Cite web \|date=2016-07-20 \|title=SACD Ripping using an Oppo or Pioneer? Yes, it's true! \|url=https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/28569-sacd-ripping-using-an-oppo-or-pioneer-yes-its-true/ \|access-date=2024-11-28 \|website=Audiophile Style \|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web \|date=2018-09-06 \|title=Music in the Round #93: miniDSP & Ripping SACDs Page 2 \|url=https://www.stereophile.com/content/music-round-93-minidsp-ripping-sacds-page-2 \|access-date=2024-11-28 \|website=Stereophile.com \|language=en}}</ref> can use specialized software to extract a ] copy of the HD stream.
	Some players, such as the ] (not the 40GB version), do not output DSD over HDMI, but instead convert it to PCM.

			== Sound quality ==
	=== PlayStation 3 and SACD playback ===
			{{see also\|High-resolution audio#Controversy}}
	The first two generations of Sony's ] game console are capable of reading SACD discs. Starting with the third generation (introduced October/November 2007), SACD playback was removed altogether. <ref>{{cite web \|url=http://www.ps3sacd.com/faq.html#_Toc180147568 \|title=Why did Sony take SA-CD out of PS3 again? \|accessdate=2009-01-04}}</ref>

			Sound quality parameters achievable by the Red Book ] and SACD formats compared with the limits of human hearing are as follows:
	For models that are capable of reading SACD, three output options exists.
	*Using the AV output will give an analog stereo sound for SACDs that include a stereo track.
	*Using HDMI will give access to multichannel high-resolution PCM audio (converted from DSD).
	*Using S/PDIF will give digital stereo sound{{ref label\|dts\|A\|A}} (of either the stereo track, or a down-mix of the surround track)

			; CD: Dynamic range: 90 dB;<ref name="Fries2005"/> 120 dB (with shaped ]);<ref name="xiph"/> frequency range: 20 Hz—20 kHz<ref name="Middleton, Zak"/>
	:{{note label\|dts\|A\|A}}PS3 was capable of converting surround DSD to lossy 1.5 Mbit/s DTS for playback over S/PDIF using the 2.00 software. The immediate revision after that removed the feature.<ref>{{cite web \|url=http://www.ps3sacd.com/ \|title=PS3SACD.com News, November 22, 2007}}</ref>
			; SACD: Dynamic range: 105 dB;<ref name="Middleton, Zak"/> frequency range: 20 Hz— 50 kHz<ref name=extremetech2001/>
			; Human hearing: Dynamic range: 120 dB;<ref name="springer"/> frequency range: 20 Hz—20 kHz (young person); 20 Hz—8–15 kHz (middle-aged adult)<ref name="springer" />

			In September 2007, the Audio Engineering Society published the results of a year-long trial, in which a range of subjects—including professional recording engineers—were asked to discern the difference between ] sources (including SACD and ]) and a compact disc audio (44.1 kHz/16 bit) conversion of the same source material under ] test conditions. Out of 554 trials, there were 276 correct answers, a 49.8% success rate corresponding almost exactly to the 50% that would have been expected by ] alone.<ref name="Galo"/> When the level of the signal was elevated by 14 dB or more, the test subjects were able to detect the higher ] of the CD-quality loop easily. The authors commented:<ref name="AES"/>
	==DSD==
	]
	{{Main\|Direct Stream Digital}}
	SACD audio is stored in a format called ] (DSD), which differs from the conventional ] used by the ] or conventional computer audio systems.

			{{ blockquote
	DSD is 1-], has a sampling rate of 2.8224 ], and makes use of ] ] techniques in order to push 1-bit quantization noise up to inaudible ultrasonic frequencies. This gives the format a greater ] and wider ] than the CD. The SACD format is capable of delivering a ] of 120 ] from 20 Hz to 20 kHz and an extended ] up to 100 ], although most currently available players list an upper limit of 80–90 kHz.
			\| Now, it is very difficult to use negative results to prove the inaudibility of any given phenomenon or process. There is always the remote possibility that a different system or more finely attuned pair of ears would reveal a difference. But we have gathered enough data, using sufficiently varied and capable systems and listeners, to state that the burden of proof has now shifted. Further claims that careful 16/44.1 encoding audibly degrades high resolution signals must be supported by properly controlled double-blind tests.
			}}

			Following criticism that the original published results of the study were not sufficiently detailed, the AES published a list of the audio equipment and recordings used during the tests.<ref name="mixonline"/> Since the Meyer–Moran study in 2007,<ref name="drew"/> approximately 80 studies have been published on high-resolution audio, about half of which included blind tests. ] performed a meta-analysis on 20 of the published tests that included sufficient experimental detail and data. In a paper published in the July 2016 issue of the AES Journal,<ref name="reiss"/> Reiss says that, although the individual tests had mixed results, and that the effect was "small and difficult to detect," the overall result was that trained listeners could distinguish between high-resolution recordings and their CD equivalents under blind conditions: "Overall, there was a small but statistically significant ability to discriminate between standard-quality audio (44.1 or 48 kHz, 16 bit) and high-resolution audio (beyond standard quality). When subjects were trained, the ability to discriminate was far more significant." Hiroshi Nittono pointed out that the results in Reiss's paper showed that the ability to distinguish high-resolution audio from CD-quality audio was "only slightly better than chance."<ref name="Nittono"/>
	Because of the nature of sigma-delta converters, one cannot make a direct comparison between DSD and PCM. An approximation is possible, though, and would place DSD in some aspects comparable to a PCM format that has a bit depth of 20 bits and a sampling frequency of 192 kHz.

			Contradictory results have been found when comparing DSD and high-resolution PCM formats. ] in 2004 between DSD and 24-bit, 176.4 kHz PCM recordings reported that among test subjects no significant differences could be heard.<ref name="Blech"/> DSD advocates and equipment manufacturers continue to assert an improvement in sound quality above PCM 24-bit 176.4 kHz.<ref name="korg"/> A 2003 study found that despite both formats' extended frequency responses, people could not distinguish audio with information above 21 kHz from audio without such high-frequency content.<ref name="NHK"/> In a 2014 study, however, Marui et al. found that under double-blind conditions, listeners were able to distinguish between PCM (192 kHz/24 bits) and DSD (2.8 MHz) or DSD (5.6 MHz) recording formats, preferring the qualitative features of DSD, but could not discriminate between the two DSD formats.<ref name="Marui"/>
	==DST==
	To reduce the space and bandwidth requirements of DSD (2.8 Mbit/s per channel), a ] method called ] (DST) is used — DST compression is compulsory for multi-channel regions and optional for stereo regions. This typically compresses by a factor of between two and three, allowing a disc to contain 80 minutes of both 2-channel and 5.1-channel sound.

			== Playback hardware ==
	==Pit Signal Processing==
	<!-- Deleted image removed: ] -->
	SACD includes various ] measures of which the most prominent is Pit Signal Processing (PSP), a physical watermarking feature that contains a ] modulated in the width of pits on the disc (data is stored in the pit length). The optical pickup must contain special circuitry to read the PSP watermark, which is then compared to information on the disc to make sure it's legitimate. Because the majority of DVD players and all DVD-ROM drives use an optical pickup that lacks this specialized watermark detection circuitry they cannot read the data on the SACD layer of a protected SACD disc.<ref>{{cite web \| url=http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.6.1 \|title=Details of DVD-Audio and SACD \|publisher=DVDdemystified.com \|accessdate=2007-07-12}}</ref>

			The Sony SCD-1 player was introduced concurrently with the SACD format in 1999, at a price of approximately US$5,000.<ref name="audiophilia"/> It weighed over {{Convert\|26\|kg}} and played two-channel SACDs and ] CDs only. Electronics manufacturers, including ],<ref name="Onkyo"/> ],<ref name="Denon"/> ],<ref name="Marantz1"/><ref name="Marantz2"/> ]<ref name="Pioneer1"/><ref name="Pioneer2"/> and ]<ref name="Yamaha"/> offer or offered SACD players. ] has made in-car SACD players.<ref name="highfidelityreview"/>
	On hybrid SACD discs, PSP is only applied to the SACD layer — not to the CD layer.

			In order to play back SACD content digitally without any conversion, some players are able to offer an output carrying encrypted streams of DSD, either via ]<ref>{{cite web \|title=Sony SCD-XA9000ES Operating Instructions \|url=https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W000/W0009494M.pdf \|publisher=Sony Electronics Inc. \|page=32 \|quote=i.LINK section, Format (output)}}</ref> or more commonly, ].<ref>{{cite web \|last1=Harley \|first1=Robert \|title=New Information on Oppo Blu-ray Player \|url=https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/new-information-on-oppo-blu-ray-player-1/ \|website=The Absolute Sound \|date=11 December 2008}}</ref>
	== Sound quality of SACD vs CD==
	In the audiophile community, SACD is generally considered to provide substantially higher quality compared to older format redbook CD recordings.
	=== Getting "High resolution" sound reproduction ===
	SACD has a superior bandwidth compared to CD, SACD has a superior ] compared to CD, and the increased media ] in itself is an argument for increased sound quality. The DSD technology behind SACD enables reproduction of sound in a way that is essentially identical to the studio master. Proponents argue that the medium offers greater clarity, depth and warmth than CD, with less harshness.

			SACD players are not permitted to offer an output carrying an unencrypted stream of DSD.<ref name="sacd-playback"/>
	=== Surround sound vs stereo ===
	SACD allows for 5.1 channels of ], high-quality surround sound. This is impossible to achieve on a regular CD, and there is general agreement that surround sound has the potential for a different, and often better, subjective experience.

			The first two generations of Sony's PlayStation 3 game console were capable of reading SACD discs. Starting with the third generation (introduced October 2007), SACD playback was removed.<ref name="ps3sacd-faq"/> All PlayStation 3 models, however, will play DSD Disc format. The PlayStation 3 was capable of converting multi-channel DSD to ] 1.5 Mbit/s ] for playback over ] using the 2.00 ]. The subsequent revision removed the feature.<ref name="ps3sacd-news-2007-11-22"/>
	==Copy protection==
	SACD has several ] features at the physical level which, for the moment, appear to make SACD discs impossible to copy without resorting to the ], or ripping of the conventional 700MB layer on hybrid discs. These include physical pit modulation and 80-bit ] of the audio data, with a key encoded on a special area of the disk that is only readable by a licensed SACD device. The HD layer of an SACD disc cannot be played back on computer CD/DVD drives, nor can SACDs be created except by the licensed disc replication facilities in ] and ].<ref>{{cite web \|url=http://www.sa-cd.net/shownews.php?news=6 \| title=Sony Starts Hybrid Super Audio CD Production Facilities in Europe \|publisher=SA-CD.net \|accessdate=2007-07-12 \|date=2003-01-22}}</ref>

			Several brands have introduced (mostly ]) ] and ] players that can play SACD discs.<ref name="ps3sacd-players"/>
	It is possible to capture the DSD digital audio signal after the decryption stage right before the digital to analog converters of an SACD player, but since there is no practical way for the public to make their own SACDs, this does not pose a major threat.

			Unofficial playback of SACD ]s on a PC is possible through ] ] ] for ] using an ] plug-in extension called ].<ref>{{Cite web \|last=Korzunov \|first=Yuri \|date=November 1, 2018 \|title=Foobar2000 {{!}} How to play DSD: DSF DFF SACD ISO? \|url=https://samplerateconverter.com/educational/play-dsf-foobar2000 \|access-date=2023-10-31 \|website=samplerateconverter.com \|language=en}}</ref> ] music software ] also supports playback of SACD disc images.<ref>{{Cite web \|date=2021-03-14 \|title=Is it possible to play SACD .ISO files directly in AUdirvana \|url=https://community.audirvana.com/t/is-it-possible-to-play-sacd-iso-files-directly-in-audirvana/23276 \|access-date=2023-10-31 \|website=Audirvana \|language=en}}</ref>
	The hacking of protection methods used on ] and ], when they accounted for only 4% of digital movie sales in 2007, shows either that the latter formats are relatively insecure, or that market share creates not only the demand for technologies that enable consumers to bypass the protection but also the supply of same, or that the content on SACDs (predominantly audiophile Classical and Jazz) is simply inconsistent with the interests of hackers.

			== See also ==
	A number of new SACD players have encrypted IEEE 1394 (also called ] or i.Link) or ] digital outputs carrying DSD data, and it may be possible to get the raw DSD data from these links. The protection mechanism used is ] (DTCP), which can be used in "Copy Once" or "Copy Never" modes. It is unlikely, however, that the SACD license agreement rules permit anything but the "Copy Never" mode to be used.

			* ]
	There seems to be one solution for obtaining digital non-DRM output on SACD as well as DVD-A players. A Switzerland-based company is offering a modified output-board that taps into the digital datastream prior to D/A conversion as well as converting DSD to PCM that the ] port can transfer.<ref></ref>
			* ]
			* ] (XRCD)
			* ] (HDCD)
			* ]

	== ~~See also~~ ==		== References ==
	*]
	*]
	*]
	*Earlier attempts at higher fidelity that stayed within the CDDA standard: ] and ].
	*Later attempts at higher fidelity that stayed within the CDDA standard: ] and ].

			{{reflist\|refs=
	==References==
			<ref name="guardian2007">{{cite news \|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/aug/02/guardianweeklytechnologysection.digitalmusic \|newspaper=The Guardian \|date=2 August 2007 \|title=No taste for high-quality audio \|author=Jack Schofield \|access-date=May 29, 2009}}</ref>
	{{reflist\|2}}
			<ref name="newscenter">{{cite web\|url=http://www.newscenter.philips.com/main/standard/about/news/press/archive/2002/article-2217.wpd \|title=Crest National and Philips Partner to Bring SACD Hybrid Disc Manufacturing to the USA \|publisher=Newscenter.philips.com \|date=2002-05-30 \|access-date=2011-12-31}}</ref>
			<ref name=digitaltrends></ref>
			<ref name=cnet2009></ref>
			<ref name=stereophile2006></ref>
			<ref name=avrev2006></ref>
			<ref name="availability">{{cite web \|url=http://audiophilereview.com/sacddvd-audio/the-10-best-audiophile-sacds-ever---many-are-out-of-print.html \|title=The 10 Best Audiophile SACDs Ever — Many Are Out Of Print \|date=27 November 2010 \|publisher=Audiophilereview.com \|access-date=2013-03-06}}</ref>
			<ref name=SACDGold></ref>
			<ref name="faq13">{{Cite web\|url=http://sa-cd.net/faq#playback13\|title=SA-CD.net – Super Audio CD – FAQ\|website=sa-cd.net}}</ref>
			<ref name="availability_2">{{cite web\|url=http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/feature/top-10-sacds-you-can-afford-to-buy/ \|title=Top 10: SACDs you can afford to buy \|first=Paul\|last=Sinclair\|date=January 30, 2013\|access-date=2013-03-11}}</ref>
			<ref name="availability_3">{{cite web\|url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-10287419-47.html \|title=Are SACD and DVD-Audio dead yet? \|first=Steve\|last=Guttenberg\|website=CNET\|date=July 16, 2009\|access-date=2013-03-11}}</ref>
			<ref name="Middleton, Zak">{{cite book \|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dUw8oha56zwC&pg=PA54 \|page=54 \|last1=Middleton \|first1=Chris \|last2=Zuk \|first2=Allen \|title=The Complete Guide to Digital Audio: A Comprehensive Introduction to Digital Sound and Music-Making \|publisher=Cengage Learning \|year=2003 \|isbn=978-1592001026 }}</ref>
			<ref name=extremetech2001></ref>
			<ref name="Clifford">Clifford, Martin (1987). "The Complete Compact Disc Player." Prentice Hall. p. 57. {{ISBN\|0-13-159294-7}}.</ref>
			<ref name="Hybrid+SACD"> Retrieved June 16, 2009</ref>
			<ref name=muszeroldal></ref>
			<ref name="Reefman">{{Cite web\|url=http://tech.juaneda.com/en/articles/dsd.pdf\|title=Reefman, Derk; Nuijten, Peter. "Why Direct Stream Digital is the best choice as a digital audio format." (PDF) Audio Engineering Society Convention Paper 5396, May 2001.}}</ref>
			<ref name=ambisonic2001></ref>
			<ref name="direct-stream-digital"></ref>
			<ref name="dst-iso">{{cite web\| url=http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=41811 \| title=ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/Amd 6:2005 – Lossless coding of oversampled audio \| author=] \| publisher=ISO \| date=2006-03-14 \| access-date=2009-10-09}}</ref>
			<ref name="dst-iso2">{{cite web\| url=http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=44357 \| title=ISO/IEC 14496-4:2004/Amd 15:2007 – Lossless coding of oversampled audio \| author=] \| publisher=ISO \| date=2007-08-06 \| access-date=2009-10-09}}</ref>
			<ref name="dst-iso-ipsj">{{citation \| url=http://kikaku.itscj.ipsj.or.jp/sc29/open/29view/29n6213t.doc \| title=ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/FPDAM6 (Lossless coding of oversampled audio). \| format=DOC \| author=ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11/N6674 \| date=July 2004 \| access-date=2009-10-09}}</ref>
			<ref name="dst-chiariglione">{{cite web\| url=http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/technologies/mpeg-4/mp04-1bl/index.htm \| title=Description Lossless coding of oversampled audio \| author= ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 N7465 \| publisher=chiariglione.org \| date=July 2005 \| access-date=2009-10-09}}</ref>
			<ref name="dst-chiariglione-old">{{cite web\|url=http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/technologies/mp04-1bl/index.htm \|title=Description Lossless coding of oversampled audio \|author=ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 N7465 \|date=July 2005 \|access-date=2009-12-28 \|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070203031201/http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/technologies/mp04-1bl/index.htm \|archive-date = 2007-02-03}}</ref>
			<ref name="mpeg4audio-version4-2009">{{citation \| url=http://webstore.iec.ch/preview/info_isoiec14496-3%7Bed4.0%7Den.pdf \| title=ISO/IEC 14496-3:2009 – Information technology – Coding of audio-visual objects – Part 3: Audio \| author=] \| publisher=IEC \| date=2009-09-01 \| access-date=2009-10-07}}</ref>
			<ref name="dst-reference-implementation">{{citation \| url=http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/c043465_ISO_IEC_14496-5_2001_Amd_10_2007_Reference_Software.zip \| title=ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007 – Information technology – Coding of audio-visual objects – Part 5: Reference software – Amendment 10: SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software \| format=ZIP \| author=] \| publisher=ISO \| year=2007 \| access-date=2009-10-07}}</ref>
			<ref name="dst-reference-implementation-iso">{{citation \| url=http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=43465 \| title=ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007 – SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software \| author=] \| publisher=ISO \| date=2007-03-01 \| access-date=2009-10-09}}</ref>
			<ref name="sa-cd-net-news">{{cite web\|url=http://www.sa-cd.net/shownews.php?news=6 \| title=Sony Starts Hybrid Super Audio CD Production Facilities in Europe \|publisher=SA-CD.net \|access-date=2007-07-12 \|date=2003-01-22}}</ref>
			<ref name="dvddemystified">{{cite web\| url=http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.6.1 \|title=Details of DVD-Audio and SACD \|publisher=DVDdemystified.com \|access-date=2007-07-12}}</ref>
			<ref name="Fries2005">{{cite book \|title=Digital Audio Essentials \|last=Fries \|first=Bruce \|author2=Marty Fries \|year=2005 \|publisher=O'Reilly Media \|isbn=978-0-596-00856-7 \|page= \|url=https://archive.org/details/digitalaudioesse0000frie\|url-access=registration }}</ref>
			<ref name="xiph">{{Cite web \| url=https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html \| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200426202431/https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html \|date=25 March 2012\|archive-date=26 April 2020 \|title=24/192 Music Downloads ...and why they make no sense\|website=Xiph.org}}</ref>
			<ref name=springer>{{cite book\|last=Rossing\|first=Thomas\|title=Springer Handbook of Acoustics\|url=https://archive.org/details/springerhandbook00tdro\|url-access=limited\|date=2007\|publisher=Springer\|isbn=978-0387304465\|pages=, 748}}</ref>
			<ref name="Galo">{{cite web \|url=http://www.audioxpress.com/assets/upload/files/galo2941.pdf \|title=Is SACD doomed? \|last=Galo \|first=Gary \|year=2008 \|publisher=Audioxpress.com \|access-date=February 11, 2017}}</ref>
			<ref name="AES">{{Cite journal \|author1=E. Brad Meyer \|author2=David R. Moran \|name-list-style=amp \|title=Audibility of a CD-Standard A/D/A Loop Inserted into High-Resolution Audio Playback \|url=http://drewdaniels.com/audible.pdf \|journal=J. Audio Eng. Soc. \|volume=55 \|issue=9 \|pages=775–779 \|publisher=] \|date=September 2007 \|via=drewdaniels.com }}</ref>
			<ref name=mixonline>Paul D. Lehrman: '']'' online, April 2008.</ref>
			<ref name=drew>{{cite web\|title=Audibility of a CD-Standard A/D/A Loop Inserted into High-Resolution Audio Playback\|url=http://drewdaniels.com/audible.pdf\|publisher=J. Audio Eng. Soc.\|access-date= 24 March 2015}}</ref>
			<ref name=reiss>{{cite journal\|title=A Meta-Analysis of High Resolution Audio Perceptual Evaluation\|journal = Journal of the Audio Engineering Society\|volume = 64\|issue = 6\|pages = 364–379\|publisher=J. Audio Eng. Soc.\|date =27 June 2016\|last1 = Reiss\|first1 = Joshua D.\|doi = 10.17743/jaes.2016.0015\|doi-access = free}}</ref>
			<ref name="Nittono">{{cite journal\|publisher=]\|author=Hiroshi Nittono\|title=High-frequency sound components of high-resolution audio are not detected in auditory sensory memory\|journal=Scientific Reports\|date=10 December 2020\|volume=10\|issue=1\|page=21740\|doi=10.1038/s41598-020-78889-9\|pmid=33303915\|pmc=7730382\|bibcode=2020NatSR..1021740N}}</ref>
			<ref name="Blech">{{cite journal \|last1=Blech \|first1=Dominikp \|last2=Yang \|first2=Min-Chi \|url=http://old.hfm-detmold.de/eti/projekte/diplomarbeiten/dsdvspcm/aes_paper_6086.pdf \|title=DVD-Audio versus SACD: Perceptual Discrimination of Digital Audio Coding Formats \|publisher=Audio Engineering Society \|journal=Convention Paper \|date=May 2004 \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618221321/http://old.hfm-detmold.de/eti/projekte/diplomarbeiten/dsdvspcm/aes_paper_6086.pdf \|archive-date=2015-06-18}}</ref>
			<ref name="korg">{{cite web\|url=http://www.korg.com/services/products/mr/Future_Proof_Recording_Explained.pdf \|title=The 1-Bit Advantage – Future Proof Recording \|publisher=Korg \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120518051142/http://www.korg.com/services/products/mr/Future_Proof_Recording_Explained.pdf \|archive-date=2012-05-18}}</ref>
			<ref name=NHK>Toshiyuki Nishiguchi, Kimio Hamasaki, Masakazu Iwaki, and Akio Ando, Published by NHK Laboratories in 2004</ref>
			<ref name="Marui">Marui, A., Kamekawa, T., Endo, K., & Sato, E. (2014, April). Subjective evaluation of high resolution recordings in PCM and DSD audio formats. In Audio Engineering Society Convention 136. Audio Engineering Society.</ref>
			<ref name="audiophilia">{{cite web\| url=http://www.audiophilia.com/hardware/sacd.htm \| title=The Sony SCD-1 SACD Player \| publisher=@udiophilia \| access-date=2006-05-18}}</ref>
			<ref name=Onkyo></ref>
			<ref name=Denon></ref>
			<ref name=Marantz1></ref>
			<ref name=Marantz2></ref>
			<ref name=Pioneer1></ref>
			<ref name=Pioneer2></ref>
			<ref name=Yamaha></ref>
			<ref name="highfidelityreview">{{cite web\| url=http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=10972765 \| title=Sony Announces Three Super Audio CD Car Stereo Players \| publisher=High Fidelity Review \| access-date=2007-01-18 \|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070302182707/http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=10972765 \|archive-date = 2007-03-02}}</ref>
			<ref name="sacd-playback"></ref>
			<ref name="ps3sacd-faq">{{cite web\|url=http://www.ps3sacd.com/faq.html#_Toc180147568 \|title=Why did Sony take SA-CD out of PS3 again? \|publisher=PS3 SACD FAQ \|access-date=2009-01-04}}</ref>
			<ref name="ps3sacd-news-2007-11-22">{{cite web\|url=http://www.ps3sacd.com/news.html#_20071122 \|title=Firmware v2.01 \|publisher=PS3SACD.com \| date=November 22, 2007 \|access-date=August 11, 2010}}</ref>
			<ref name="ps3sacd-players">{{cite web\| url=http://www.ps3sacd.com/sacd_bd_players.html \| title=Super Audio CD-compatible Blu-ray Disc players \| access-date=2009-10-21}}</ref>
			}}

	==Bibliography==		== Bibliography ==
	* Janssen, E.; Reefman, D. "Super-audio CD: an introduction". ''Signal Processing Magazine, IEEE'' Volume 20, Issue 4, July 2003 Page(s): 83 - 90

			* Janssen, E.; Reefman, D. ''Signal Processing Magazine, IEEE'' Volume 20, Issue 4, July 2003, pp. 83–90.
	==External links==
	* (full listing of available albums and comprehensive FAQ)
	*
	* (Super Audio CD spec ad on youtube)
	* (All about SACD and DSD)
	*: album guide for surround-sound lovers.
	*: a dedicated FAQ about SACD functionality on ]
	* (PDF), Sony.
	*
	* (PDF) Audio Engineering Society Convention Paper 4357 on "HD" audio.
	* (PDF) Audio Engineering Society Convention Paper 4719 on the 1st DSD commercial editor.
	* (PDF) Audio Engineering Society Convention Paper 5396.
	* (PDF) Audio Engineering Society Convention Paper 5395.
	* (PDF) Audio Engineering Society Convention Paper 6086.

			== External links ==
	{{Audio format}}

			* , Sony (archived PDF)
			* Reviews of SACD releases and a discussion forum.

			{{Audio formats}}
	{{High-definition}}		{{High-definition}}
			{{Rainbow Books}}
			{{DVD}}

	]		]
	]		]
	]
	]		]
			]

	]		]
			]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]

Latest revision as of 23:33, 25 December 2024

Read-only optical disc for high-fidelity audio storage

Super Audio CD

Reverse side of a hybrid SACD. Unlike a CD, the reflection has a gold hue.
Media type	Optical disc
Encoding	Digital (DSD)
Capacity	4.38 GiB (4.7 GB) single layer and hybrid 7.92 GiB (8.5 GB) dual layer
Read mechanism	650 nm laser (780 nm for the CD layer of a hybrid disc)
Standard	Scarlet Book
Developed by	Sony and Philips
Usage	Audio storage
Extended from	Compact Disc Digital Audio
Released	1999; 26 years ago (1999)

Optical discs

General Optical disc Optical disc drive Optical disc authoring Authoring software Recording technologies Recording modes Packet writing Burst cutting area
Optical media types Compact disc (CD): CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, 5.1 Music Disc, Super Audio CD (SACD), Photo CD, CD Video (CDV), Video CD (VCD), Super Video CD (SVCD), CD+G, CD-Text, CD-ROM XA, CD-i, MIL-CD, Mini CD Digital Versatile Disc (DVD): DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DS, DVD+R DS, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-D, DVD-A, DVD-Video, HVD, EcoDisc, MiniDVD Blu-ray Disc (BD): BD-R & BD-RE, Blu-ray 3D, Mini Blu-ray Disc, 4K Blu-ray (Ultra HD Blu-ray) M-DISC Universal Media Disc (UMD) Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD) Forward Versatile Disc (FVD) Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD) HD DVD: HD DVD-R, HD DVD-RW, HD DVD-RAM High-Definition Versatile Multilayer Disc (HD VMD) VCDHD GD-ROM Personal Video Disc (PVD) MiniDisc (MD): MD Data, MD Data2 Hi-MD LaserDisc (LD): LD-ROM, LV-ROM Video Single Disc (VSD) Magneto-optical discs Ultra Density Optical (UDO) 3D optical data storage Stacked Volumetric Optical Disk (SVOD) Fluorescent Multilayer Disc Hyper CD-ROM Nintendo optical disc (NOD) Archival Disc (AD) Professional Disc DataPlay
Standards SFF ATAPI/MMC Mount Rainier (packet writing) Mount Fuji (layer jump recording) Rainbow Books File systems ISO 9660 Joliet Romeo Rock Ridge / SUSP El Torito Apple ISO 9660 Extensions Universal Disk Format (UDF) ISO 13490
See also History of optical storage media High-definition optical disc format war
v t e

Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the compact disc (CD) format.

The SACD format allows multiple audio channels (i.e. surround sound or multichannel sound). It also provides a higher bit rate and longer playing time than a conventional CD.

An SACD is designed to be played on an SACD player. A hybrid SACD contains a Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA) layer and can also be played on a standard CD player.

History

The Super Audio CD format was introduced in 1999, and is defined by the Scarlet Book standard document. Philips and Crest Digital partnered in May 2002 to develop and install the first SACD hybrid disc production line in the United States, with a production capacity of up to three million discs per year. SACD did not achieve the level of growth that compact discs enjoyed in the 1980s, and was not accepted by the mainstream market.

By 2007, SACD had failed to make a significant impact in the marketplace; consumers were increasingly downloading low-resolution music files over the internet rather than buying music on physical disc formats. A small and niche market for SACD has remained, serving the audiophile community.

Content

Main article: List of SACD artists

By October 2009, record companies had published more than 6,000 SACD releases, slightly more than half of which were classical music. Jazz and popular music albums, mainly remastered previous releases, were the next two genres most represented.

Many popular artists have released some or all of their back catalog on SACD. Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) sold over 800,000 copies by June 2004 in its SACD Surround Sound edition. The Who's rock opera Tommy (1969), and Roxy Music's Avalon (1982), were released on SACD to take advantage of the format's multi-channel capability. All three albums were remixed in 5.1 surround, and released as hybrid SACDs with a stereo mix on the standard CD layer.

Some popular artists have released new recordings on SACD. Sales figures for Sting's Sacred Love (2003) album reached number one on SACD sales charts in four European countries in June 2004.

Between 2007 and 2008, the rock band Genesis re-released all of their studio albums across three SACD box sets. Each album in these sets contains both new stereo and 5.1 mixes. The original stereo mixes were not included. The US & Canada versions do not use SACD but CD instead.

By August 2009 443 labels had released one or more SACDs. Instead of depending on major label support, some orchestras and artists have released SACDs on their own. For instance, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra started the Chicago Resound label to provide full and burgeoning support for high-resolution SACD hybrid discs, and the London Symphony Orchestra established their own LSO Live label.

Many SACD discs that were released from 2000 to 2005 are now out of print and available only on the used market. By 2009, the major record companies were no longer regularly releasing discs in the format, with new releases confined to the smaller labels.

Technology

SA-CD characteristics
Characteristic	CD layer (optional)	SACD layer
Disc capacity	700 MB	4.7 GB
Audio encoding	16-bit pulse-code modulation	1-bit Direct Stream Digital
Sampling frequency	44.1 kHz	2,822.4 kHz (2.8224 MHz)
Audio channels	2 (stereo)	Up to 6 (discrete surround)
Playback time if stereo	80 minutes	110 minutes without DST compression

SACD discs have identical physical dimensions as standard compact discs. The areal density of the disc is the same as a DVD. There are three types of disc:

Hybrid: Hybrid SACDs have a 4.7 GB SACD layer (the HD layer), as well as a CD (Red Book) audio layer readable by most conventional compact disc players.
Single-layer: A disc with one 4.7 GB SACD layer.
Dual-layer: A disc with two SACD layers, totaling 8.5 GB, and no CD layer. Dual-layer SACDs can store nearly twice as much data as a single-layer SACD. Like most dual-layer DVDs, the data spiral for the first layer is encoded from the inside out, and the second layer is encoded starting from the point where the first layer ends and ending at the innermost part of the disc. Unlike hybrid discs, both single- and dual-layer SACDs are incompatible with conventional CD players and cannot be played on them.

A stereo SACD recording has an uncompressed rate of 5.6 Mbit/s, four times the rate for Red Book CD stereo audio.

Commercial releases commonly include both surround sound (five full-range plus LFE multi-channel) and stereo (dual-channel) mixes on the SACD layer. Some reissues retain the mixes of earlier multi-channel formats (examples include the 1973 quadraphonic mix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and the 1957 three-channel stereo recording by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, reissued on SACD in 2001 and 2004 respectively).

Disc reading

A Super Audio CD uses two layers and the standardized focal length of conventional CD players to enable both types of player to read the data

Objective lenses in conventional CD players have a longer working distance, or focal length, than lenses designed for SACD players. In SACD-capable DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray players, the red DVD laser is used for reading SACDs. This means that when a hybrid SACD is placed into a conventional CD player, the infrared laser beam passes through the SACD layer and is reflected by the CD layer at the standard 1.2 mm distance, and the SACD layer is out of focus. When the same disc is placed into an SACD player, the red laser is reflected by the SACD layer (at 0.6 mm distance) before it can reach the CD layer. Conversely, if a conventional CD is placed into an SACD player, the laser will read the disc as a CD since there is no SACD layer.

Direct Stream Digital

Main article: Direct Stream Digital

SACD audio is stored in Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format using pulse-density modulation (PDM) where audio amplitude is determined by the varying proportion of 1s and 0s. This contrasts with compact disc and conventional computer audio systems using pulse-code modulation (PCM) where audio amplitude is determined by numbers encoded in the bit stream. Both modulations require neighboring samples to reconstruct the original waveform; the more neighboring samples, the lower the frequency that can be encoded.

DSD is 1-bit, has a sampling rate of 2.8224 MHz, and makes use of noise shaping quantization techniques in order to push 1-bit quantization noise up to inaudible ultrasonic frequencies. This gives the format a greater dynamic range and wider frequency response than the CD. The SACD format is capable of delivering a dynamic range of 120 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz and an extended frequency response up to 100 kHz, although most available players list an upper limit of 70–90 kHz, and practical limits reduce this to 50 kHz. Because of the nature of sigma-delta converters, DSD and PCM cannot be directly compared. DSD's frequency response can be as high as 100 kHz, but frequencies that high compete with high levels of ultrasonic quantization noise. With appropriate low-pass filtering, a frequency response of 20 kHz can be achieved along with a dynamic range of nearly 120 dB, which is about the same dynamic range as PCM audio with a resolution of 20 bits.

Direct Stream Transfer

To reduce the space and bandwidth requirements of DSD, a lossless data compression method called Direct Stream Transfer (DST) is used. DST compression is compulsory for multi-channel regions and optional for stereo regions. It typically compresses by a factor of between two and three, allowing a disc to contain 80 minutes of both 2-channel and 5.1-channel sound.

Direct Stream Transfer compression was standardized as an amendment to the MPEG-4 Audio standard, ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/Amd 6:2005 (Lossless coding of oversampled audio), in 2005. It contains the DSD and DST definitions as described in the Super Audio CD Specification. The MPEG-4 DST provides lossless coding of oversampled audio signals. Target applications of DST are archiving and storage of 1-bit oversampled audio signals and SA-CD.

A reference implementation of MPEG-4 DST was published as ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007 in 2007.

Copy protection

SACD has several copy protection features at the physical level, which made the digital content of SACD discs difficult to copy until the jailbreak of the PlayStation 3. The content may be copyable without SACD quality by resorting to the analog hole, or ripping the conventional 700 MB layer on hybrid discs. Copy protection schemes include physical pit modulation and 80-bit encryption of the audio data, with a key encoded on a special area of the disc that is only readable by a licensed SACD device. The HD layer of an SACD disc cannot be played back on computer CD/DVD drives, and SACDs can only be manufactured at the disc replication facilities in Shizuoka and Salzburg.

Nonetheless, very early versions of the PlayStation 3 with an SACD-compatible drive and appropriate firmware and certain Blu-ray players can use specialized software to extract a DSD copy of the HD stream.

Sound quality

Sound quality parameters achievable by the Red Book CD-DA and SACD formats compared with the limits of human hearing are as follows:

CD: Dynamic range: 90 dB; 120 dB (with shaped dither); frequency range: 20 Hz—20 kHz
SACD: Dynamic range: 105 dB; frequency range: 20 Hz— 50 kHz
Human hearing: Dynamic range: 120 dB; frequency range: 20 Hz—20 kHz (young person); 20 Hz—8–15 kHz (middle-aged adult)

In September 2007, the Audio Engineering Society published the results of a year-long trial, in which a range of subjects—including professional recording engineers—were asked to discern the difference between high-resolution audio sources (including SACD and DVD-Audio) and a compact disc audio (44.1 kHz/16 bit) conversion of the same source material under double-blind test conditions. Out of 554 trials, there were 276 correct answers, a 49.8% success rate corresponding almost exactly to the 50% that would have been expected by chance guessing alone. When the level of the signal was elevated by 14 dB or more, the test subjects were able to detect the higher noise floor of the CD-quality loop easily. The authors commented:

Now, it is very difficult to use negative results to prove the inaudibility of any given phenomenon or process. There is always the remote possibility that a different system or more finely attuned pair of ears would reveal a difference. But we have gathered enough data, using sufficiently varied and capable systems and listeners, to state that the burden of proof has now shifted. Further claims that careful 16/44.1 encoding audibly degrades high resolution signals must be supported by properly controlled double-blind tests.

Following criticism that the original published results of the study were not sufficiently detailed, the AES published a list of the audio equipment and recordings used during the tests. Since the Meyer–Moran study in 2007, approximately 80 studies have been published on high-resolution audio, about half of which included blind tests. Joshua Reiss performed a meta-analysis on 20 of the published tests that included sufficient experimental detail and data. In a paper published in the July 2016 issue of the AES Journal, Reiss says that, although the individual tests had mixed results, and that the effect was "small and difficult to detect," the overall result was that trained listeners could distinguish between high-resolution recordings and their CD equivalents under blind conditions: "Overall, there was a small but statistically significant ability to discriminate between standard-quality audio (44.1 or 48 kHz, 16 bit) and high-resolution audio (beyond standard quality). When subjects were trained, the ability to discriminate was far more significant." Hiroshi Nittono pointed out that the results in Reiss's paper showed that the ability to distinguish high-resolution audio from CD-quality audio was "only slightly better than chance."

Contradictory results have been found when comparing DSD and high-resolution PCM formats. Double-blind listening tests in 2004 between DSD and 24-bit, 176.4 kHz PCM recordings reported that among test subjects no significant differences could be heard. DSD advocates and equipment manufacturers continue to assert an improvement in sound quality above PCM 24-bit 176.4 kHz. A 2003 study found that despite both formats' extended frequency responses, people could not distinguish audio with information above 21 kHz from audio without such high-frequency content. In a 2014 study, however, Marui et al. found that under double-blind conditions, listeners were able to distinguish between PCM (192 kHz/24 bits) and DSD (2.8 MHz) or DSD (5.6 MHz) recording formats, preferring the qualitative features of DSD, but could not discriminate between the two DSD formats.

Playback hardware

The Sony SCD-1 player was introduced concurrently with the SACD format in 1999, at a price of approximately US$5,000. It weighed over 26 kilograms (57 lb) and played two-channel SACDs and Red Book CDs only. Electronics manufacturers, including Onkyo, Denon, Marantz, Pioneer and Yamaha offer or offered SACD players. Sony has made in-car SACD players.

In order to play back SACD content digitally without any conversion, some players are able to offer an output carrying encrypted streams of DSD, either via IEEE 1394 or more commonly, HDMI.

SACD players are not permitted to offer an output carrying an unencrypted stream of DSD.

The first two generations of Sony's PlayStation 3 game console were capable of reading SACD discs. Starting with the third generation (introduced October 2007), SACD playback was removed. All PlayStation 3 models, however, will play DSD Disc format. The PlayStation 3 was capable of converting multi-channel DSD to lossy 1.5 Mbit/s DTS for playback over S/PDIF using the 2.00 system software. The subsequent revision removed the feature.

Several brands have introduced (mostly high-end) Blu-ray Disc and Ultra HD Blu-ray players that can play SACD discs.

Unofficial playback of SACD disc images on a PC is possible through freeware audio player foobar2000 for Windows using an open source plug-in extension called SACDDecoder. macOS music software Audirvana also supports playback of SACD disc images.

References

^ Jack Schofield (2 August 2007). "No taste for high-quality audio". The Guardian. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
"Crest National and Philips Partner to Bring SACD Hybrid Disc Manufacturing to the USA". Newscenter.philips.com. 2002-05-30. Retrieved 2011-12-31.
Mark Fleischmann. Are DVD-Audio and SACD DOA? April 2, 2004. Retrieved on January 16, 2010
C|Net News, March 26, 2009, Betamax to Blu-ray: Sony format winners, losers by Steve Guttenberg. Retrieved on May 29, 2009
Stereofile eNewsletter, January 10, 2006. Io Saturnalia! by Wes Phillips. Retrieved on May 28, 2009
Audio Video Revolution, October 19, 2006. The Symbolism Of Losing Tower Records. Jerry Del Colliano. Retrieved on May 28, 2009
^ "The 10 Best Audiophile SACDs Ever — Many Are Out Of Print". Audiophilereview.com. 27 November 2010. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
^ High Fidelity Review. Universal Music Artists Hit SACD Gold and Silver in Europe. Retrieved on May 18, 2009
"SA-CD.net – Super Audio CD – FAQ". sa-cd.net.
Sinclair, Paul (January 30, 2013). "Top 10: SACDs you can afford to buy". Retrieved 2013-03-11.
Guttenberg, Steve (July 16, 2009). "Are SACD and DVD-Audio dead yet?". CNET. Retrieved 2013-03-11.
^ Middleton, Chris; Zuk, Allen (2003). The Complete Guide to Digital Audio: A Comprehensive Introduction to Digital Sound and Music-Making. Cengage Learning. p. 54. ISBN 978-1592001026.
^ Extremetech.com, Leslie Shapiro, July 2, 2001. Surround Sound: The High-End: SACD and DVD-Audio. Retrieved on May 20, 2009
Clifford, Martin (1987). "The Complete Compact Disc Player." Prentice Hall. p. 57. ISBN 0-13-159294-7.
PC Magazine Encyclopedia Definition of Hybrid SACD Retrieved June 16, 2009
How A Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) Works. Retrieved June 16, 2009
"Reefman, Derk; Nuijten, Peter. "Why Direct Stream Digital is the best choice as a digital audio format." (PDF) Audio Engineering Society Convention Paper 5396, May 2001" (PDF).
Ambisonic.net. Richard Elen, August 2001. Battle of the Discs. Retrieved on May 20, 2009
Direct Stream Digital Technology. Retrieved June 3, 2009
ISO/IEC (2006-03-14). "ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/Amd 6:2005 – Lossless coding of oversampled audio". ISO. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
ISO/IEC (2007-08-06). "ISO/IEC 14496-4:2004/Amd 15:2007 – Lossless coding of oversampled audio". ISO. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11/N6674 (July 2004), ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/FPDAM6 (Lossless coding of oversampled audio). (DOC), retrieved 2009-10-09{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 N7465 (July 2005). "Description Lossless coding of oversampled audio". chiariglione.org. Retrieved 2009-10-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 N7465 (July 2005). "Description Lossless coding of oversampled audio". Archived from the original on 2007-02-03. Retrieved 2009-12-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
ISO/IEC (2009-09-01), ISO/IEC 14496-3:2009 – Information technology – Coding of audio-visual objects – Part 3: Audio (PDF), IEC, retrieved 2009-10-07
ISO/IEC (2007), ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007 – Information technology – Coding of audio-visual objects – Part 5: Reference software – Amendment 10: SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software (ZIP), ISO, retrieved 2009-10-07
ISO/IEC (2007-03-01), ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007 – SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software, ISO, retrieved 2009-10-09
"Sony Starts Hybrid Super Audio CD Production Facilities in Europe". SA-CD.net. 2003-01-22. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
"Details of DVD-Audio and SACD". DVDdemystified.com. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
"How Sony's PlayStation 3 could save your SACD collection". Gramophone. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
"SACD Ripping using an Oppo or Pioneer? Yes, it's true!". Audiophile Style. 2016-07-20. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
"Music in the Round #93: miniDSP & Ripping SACDs Page 2". Stereophile.com. 2018-09-06. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
Fries, Bruce; Marty Fries (2005). Digital Audio Essentials. O'Reilly Media. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-596-00856-7.
"24/192 Music Downloads ...and why they make no sense". Xiph.org. 25 March 2012. Archived from the original on 26 April 2020.
^ Rossing, Thomas (2007). Springer Handbook of Acoustics. Springer. pp. 747, 748. ISBN 978-0387304465.
Galo, Gary (2008). "Is SACD doomed?" (PDF). Audioxpress.com. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
E. Brad Meyer & David R. Moran (September 2007). "Audibility of a CD-Standard A/D/A Loop Inserted into High-Resolution Audio Playback" (PDF). J. Audio Eng. Soc. 55 (9). Audio Engineering Society: 775–779 – via drewdaniels.com.
Paul D. Lehrman: The Emperor's New Sampling Rate Mix online, April 2008.
"Audibility of a CD-Standard A/D/A Loop Inserted into High-Resolution Audio Playback" (PDF). J. Audio Eng. Soc. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
Reiss, Joshua D. (27 June 2016). "A Meta-Analysis of High Resolution Audio Perceptual Evaluation". Journal of the Audio Engineering Society. 64 (6). J. Audio Eng. Soc.: 364–379. doi:10.17743/jaes.2016.0015.
Hiroshi Nittono (10 December 2020). "High-frequency sound components of high-resolution audio are not detected in auditory sensory memory". Scientific Reports. 10 (1). Nature: 21740. Bibcode:2020NatSR..1021740N. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-78889-9. PMC 7730382. PMID 33303915.
Blech, Dominikp; Yang, Min-Chi (May 2004). "DVD-Audio versus SACD: Perceptual Discrimination of Digital Audio Coding Formats" (PDF). Convention Paper. Audio Engineering Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-18.
"The 1-Bit Advantage – Future Proof Recording" (PDF). Korg. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-05-18.
Toshiyuki Nishiguchi, Kimio Hamasaki, Masakazu Iwaki, and Akio Ando, Perceptual Discrimination between Musical Sounds with and without Very High Frequency Components Published by NHK Laboratories in 2004
Marui, A., Kamekawa, T., Endo, K., & Sato, E. (2014, April). Subjective evaluation of high resolution recordings in PCM and DSD audio formats. In Audio Engineering Society Convention 136. Audio Engineering Society.
"The Sony SCD-1 SACD Player". @udiophilia. Retrieved 2006-05-18.
C-S5VL. Retrieved March 21, 2012
DCD-SA1. Retrieved June 3, 2009
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Marantz's "Reference series". Retrieved June 3, 2009
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"Sony SCD-XA9000ES Operating Instructions" (PDF). Sony Electronics Inc. p. 32. i.LINK section, Format (output)
Harley, Robert (11 December 2008). "New Information on Oppo Blu-ray Player". The Absolute Sound.
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"Firmware v2.01". PS3SACD.com. November 22, 2007. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
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Bibliography

Janssen, E.; Reefman, D. "Super-audio CD: an introduction". Signal Processing Magazine, IEEE Volume 20, Issue 4, July 2003, pp. 83–90.

External links

Super Audio Compact Disc: A Technical Proposal, Sony (archived PDF)
SA-CD.net Reviews of SACD releases and a discussion forum.

Physical audio recording formats

Mechanical

Music box cylinder or disc (9th century)
Mechanical cuckoo (early 17th century)
Punched card (1881)
Music roll (1883)

Analog

Grooved surface	Phonautogram (1857)
Grooved cylinder	Phonograph cylinder (1877) Graphophone/Dictaphone cylinder (1887) Perfected phonograph/Ediphone (1888) Salon cylinder (1890s) Stentor cylinder (1890s) Le Céleste cylinder (1890s) Gold moulded record (1902) Indestructible record (1907) Amberol record (1908) Blue Amberol record (1912) Paradis cylinder (1913)
Grooved disc	Phonograph record (1889) Pathé disc (1905) Diamond disc (1912) Pathé Actuelle (1920) Edison Voicewriter (late 1940s) SoundScriber (1945) Audograph (1945) Long play (1948) Highway Hi-Fi (1956) Bandai 8ban (2004)
Grooved tape	Tefiphon/Teficord (early 1930s), Tefifon Dictabelt (1947)
Sound-on-film	Phonofilm (1919) Tri-Ergon (1922) Movietone (1926) Photophone (1929) Fantasound (1940)
Loose magnetic wire	Wire recording (1898)
Magnetic wire cartridge	Lorenz Textophon (1942) US Army RD-11B/GNQ-1 (1944) Cosmos Industries MX-303A/ANQ-1 (1944) RCA MI-12875 (1947) RCA MI-12877 (1947) Peirce 265B (1951) Peirce 330/360 (1951) Protona Minifon P51 (1951) Protona Minifon P55 (1955) Protona Minifon special (1961) Crouzet-Jaeger cartridge (1962)
Magnetic surface	Magnetic stripe card (1900)
Telefunken magnetic disc (1945) Thermionic Products Recordon (1948) Record Maker Pye (1953) Synchrofax (1959) Audio High Density (1978)
Loose (reel-to-reel) magnetic tape	Blattnerphone (1928) Magnetophon (1935) 1/4" tape (1949) 1/2" tape (1953) Fullcoat magfilm (1953) Stripe magfilm (1953) 1" tape (1957) 2" tape (1967) 3/4" tape (1969) 3" tape (1978)
Magnetic tape cartridge	Optaphon (1951) Cousino Echo-matic (1952) Mohawk Message repeater cartridge (1953) Stenorette (1954) Mohawk Midgetape RL (1955) Dictaphone Dictet (1957) Rediffusion Reditune (1957) Saba Sabafon (1958) RCA tape cartridge (1958) Philips EL 3581 (1958) Protona Attaché (1959) Fidelipac (1959) Cousino MR-9000 (1960) IBM Magnabelt (1961) Dictaphone Travel master (1961) Nippon Electronic Vity cassette (1961) Grundig Cassette LFH 0084 (1962) Orrtronic Tapette (1962) 3M Scotch (1962) Cousino Echo-matic II (1962) Stereo-Pak (1962) Philips EL 3583 (1963) Compact cassette (1963) Grundig En3 (1964) Sabamobil (1964) 8-track (1964) Micro pack 35 (1964) Assmann-Stuzzi Memocord (1965) Cantata 700 (1965) DC-International (1965) Nippon Electronic Memo-call (1965) PlayTape (1966) Muntz Stereo Mini-twin (1967) Grundig DeJ614 (1968) Microcassette (1969) Sanyo Tape cartridge (1969) HiPac (1971) Steno-Cassette (1971) Stenorette DL (1972) Capitol Records Audiopak (1972) Elcaset (1976) Bandai micro cartridge (late 1980s) Picocassette (1985) Pocket Rockers (1988)

Analog-to-digital converter

Soundstream (1976)
X80/ProDigi (1980)
DASH (1982)
PCM adaptor (1982)
DA-88/DTRS (1993)

Digital

Magnetic tape cartridge	Digital Audio Tape (1987) NT (1992) Digital Compact Cassette (1992)
Sound-on-film	DD (1986) CDS (1990) SDDS (1993)
Optical disc	Compact Disc Digital Audio (1982) Philips CD-BGM (1989) MiniDisc (1992) DTS (1993) HDCD (1995) Super Audio CD (1999) DVD-Audio (2000) DataPlay (2002) Hi-MD (2004) DualDisc (2004) BD-Audio (2008) HFPA (2013) MQA-CD (2014)
Electronic circuit	Sound chip (late 1970s) MP3 player (1996) HitClips (2000) Yaboom Box (1999) Takara E-kara (2001) Toymax VJ Starz (2002) USB flash drive (2004) MicroSD (2007)

Hybrid

Mini-cassette (1967)
U-matic (1971)
Pioneer Artists Compact LaserDisc (1986)
CD Video (1987)
ADAT (1991)
Timecode vinyl (2001)
VinylDisc (2007)

v t e High-definition (HD)
Concepts	High-definition television High-definition video Ultra-high-definition television
Resolutions	720p (HD) 1080i (Full HD) 1080p (Full HD) 1440p (Quad HD) 2160p (4K Ultra HD) 4320p (8K Ultra HD) 8640p (16K Ultra HD)
Analog broadcast (All defunct)	819 line system HD MAC MUSE (Hi-Vision)
Digital broadcast	ATSC DMB-T/H DVB ISDB SBTVD
Audio	Dolby Digital Surround sound DSD DXD DTS
Filming and storage	DCI HDV
HD media and compression	Archival Disc AV1 Blu-ray CBHD D-VHS DVD-Audio H.264 H.265 H.266 HD DVD HD VMD MPEG-2 MUSE LaserDisc MVC Super Audio CD Ultra HD Blu-ray Uncompressed VC-1 W-VHS
Connectors	Component DisplayPort DVI HDMI VGA
Deployments	List of digital television deployments by country

v t e Rainbow Books
Red Book CD-DA CD-Text CD+G CD+EG Green Book CD-i CD-i Ready Yellow Book CD-ROM CD-ROM XA Mixed Mode CD Orange Book CD-MO CD-R CD-RW White Book VCD SVCD CD-i Bridge Blue Book E-CD/CD+ Beige Book PCD Scarlet Book SACD Purple Book DDCD

v t e DVD
Discs	DVD MiniDVD DVD card DVD-ROM DVD-RAM DVD-Audio DVD-Video DVD-R DVD-R DS DVD-R DL DVD-RW DVD+R DVD+R DS DVD+R DL DVD+RW Inkjet printable DVD
Technology	UDF DVD region code DVD copy protection CSS HDCP AACS DVD authoring DVD burning DVD ripping DVD recordable Anamorphic DVD DVD Video OBject DVD-VR DVD+VR DVD±R DVD Multi DVD writing speed DVD emulation DVD rot
Groups	DVD Forum DVD Copy Control Association DVD+RW Alliance
Hardware/ Software/ Content	DVD case VCR/DVD combo DVD player Portable DVD player DVD recorder DVD drive External DVD DVD remote DVD ripper DVD game DVD single DVD magazine DVD documentary Straight to DVD
Court cases	DVD CCA v Bunner DVD CCA v Kaleidescape Real vs DVD CCA DeCSS
Lists	DVD manufacturers DVD recordable manufacturers DVD authoring software DVD copy protection schemes
Variants	cDVD SACD DualDisc EVD HVD FVD ML DVD HD/DVD 3× DVD BD5 BD9 Nintendo discs Digital Video Express (DIVX) DVD-D
See also	HD DVD Blu-ray LaserDisc CD Video Compact disc VCD SVCD CD-DA CD-ROM
Category

Categories: