Able to rip SACD to mp3s

What you were ripping was NOT the SACD portition of the disk. That would be impossible as there are no SACD CD-ROMs.

What you ripped was the CD-Audio layer of the disk. The same information you would rip from any 2-Ch PCM Audio CD.

SACDs most often are Hybrid Disks meaning that the lower layer of the disk is the SACD information and the layer on top being the CD-Audio (PCM) information, readible by most all standard CD-Players.

Layer technolagy can be most seen in DVDs where a movie can fit 8GBs on one side of the disk using 2 layers.

I just ripped my new Tito Puente SACD with iTunes without a problem. It was a "hybrid" CD and like jc! said, it was ripping the CD layer of the disc. It sounds just fine.

Am guessing for these high resolution formats to be worthwhile, the artists would have to re-record the sessions using high-res equipment and mixing. Too expensive or too much work or not enuff sales.

I would love to see some evidence of anybody being able to pick the difference between SACD and a normal CD in a blind listening test.

h

Please tell me you're kidding! :shake:

I take it that mnhnhyouh is talking about the general audio community of which cannot distinguish between 128kbps AAC and the source CD. Then yes, SACD and DVD audio are just not needed. I have a couple of DVD audio discs (they were free as part of being on a street team) and they are nice but I just don't see what the big deal is especially since they seem to be mastered above what the human ear can perceive anyway. I have yet to sit down and conduct a blind test using my headphones (as speakers just aren't good unless your room is acoustically tuned) but I already know that I would fail it. First off, my PC's soundcard is limited to a 48KHz output at 128-bit which would mean that my soundcard would have to re-encode the music on-the-fly while sending it out to my headphones. Secondly, I don't have any headphones which could properly handle anything above 44.1KHz as the higher frequencies aren't needed since audio CDs are mastered to the limits of the human ear. Now, an audio CD can sound crappy when compared to a SACD/DVD-audio disc if the audio CD was badly mastered. Normally, SACD/DVD-audio discs contain the final mastered copy of the music before the engineer makes it fit audio CD specs. Technically speaking, there shouldn't be an audible difference when going down from 96KHz to 44.1KHz as modern day lossless/lossy encoders can do this better than expensive software. However, many audio engineers think they know better so they like to do it manually and not let the encoder do its job. That is when you can observe clipping or other audio defects on the audio CD that aren't there on higher resolution versions.

Hence, if a CD is mastered by a good audio engineer, there shouldn't technically be a difference other than the audio CD is standard stereo while the other versions are 5.1 audio.

Listen to Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" on SACD and then get back to me.

Ehh, that is alright, I can just take your word. Though I take it you want me to conduct a blind test, right?