New Media Metrics The Graphs

The Graphs

DVD-A
Tchaikovsky: Overture 1812
Telarc DVDA-70541
Duration: 15:43
Original recording: DSD
Bit depth/sample rate: 24-bit/44.1kHz
S/PDIF sample rate: 44.1kHz

Stereo track is only 24/44.1 but the rate of change results are not that different to the equivalent SACD, and the power envelope tests the same to within fractions of a dB.

DVD-A
Walton: Portsmouth Point Overture
EMI 7243 4 92402 9 2
Duration: 5:33
Original recording: analog
Bit depth/sample rate: 24-bit/48kHz
S/PDIF sample rate: 48kHz

Presumably the analog master still exists yet EMI gives us only 48kHz sampling rate on the stereo track, perhaps as a result of bit budget issues. Unremarkable otherwise.

DVD-A
Frank Sinatra: Sinatra at the Sands "Fly Me to the Moon"
Reprise 8122 73777-9
Duration: 2:47
Original recording: analog
Bit depth/sample Rate: 24-bit/192kHz
S/PDIF sample Rate: 48kHz

Although the stereo track is 24/192 this historic recording delivers nothing above 20kHz other than spuriae that ought not to be there—did anyone at Reprise check with a spectrum analyser?

DVD-A
The Eagles: Hotel California "Wasted Time"
Elektra 7559-60509-9
Duration: 4:56
Original recording: analog
Bit depth/sample Rate: 24-bit/192kHz
S/PDIF sample Rate: 48kHz

Surprisingly for a 1970s rock recording, there is spectral content above 20kHz, although it tails off fairly rapidly, and the rate of change peaks at around 5kHz.

DVD-A
The Ray Brown Band: Soular Energy "Easy Does It"
Hi-Res Music HRM 2011
Duration: 3:59
Original recording: analog
Bit depth/sample Rate: 24-bit/96kHz
S/PDIF sample Rate: 96kHz

Broadly similar results to the equivalent SACD (see later), notably in the power-envelope test.

DVD-A
The Ultimate DVD Surround Sampler
The Conga Kings: "Tumbao de Tamborito"
Chesky CHDVD221
Duration: 6:24
Original recording: 24-bit/96kHz
Bit depth/sample Rate: 24-bit/96kHz
S/PDIF sample Rate: 48kHz

Clear evidence of music content to above 50kHz, suggesting that Chesky used microphones with unusually wide bandwidth. Challenging power envelope too.

DVD-A

The Latin Jazz Trio: The Latin Jazz Trio "Mujaka"

AIX Records AIX 80011
Duration: 9:39
Original recording: 24-bit/96kHz
Bit depth/sample Rate: 24-bit/96kHz
S/PDIF sample Rate: 96kHz

Again, music content to over 40kHz, primarily as a result of Luis Conte's tinkling percussion, which also results in the short-lived excursion to 6kHz in the rate-of-change graph.

DVD-A
Steely Dan: Everything Must Go "Slang of Ages"
Reprise 9362 48435-9
Duration: 4:14
Original recording: 24-bit/192kHz
Bit depth/sample Rate: 24-bit/192kHz
S/PDIF sample Rate: 48kHz

Evidence of spectral content reaching out to 50kHz or so, and the rate-of-change graph relentlessly reaches around 3kHz, peaking at over 6kHz.

SACD
Tchaikovsky: Overture 1812
Telarc SACD-60541
Duration: 15:44
Original recording: DSD

Broad peak around 40kHz in the envelope spectrum is odd but the cannon are responsible for some champion rate-of-change spikes.

SACD
The Ray Brown Trio: Soular Energy "Easy Does It"
Groove Note GRV1015-3
Duration: 3:59
Original recording: analog

Much the same results as its DVD-A equivalent, as already noted, but the ultrasonic quantisation noise adds to the rate of change.

SACD
Opus 3 Showcase "Blues Opus 3"
Opus 3 CD-21000
Duration: 4:34
Original recording: DSD

Narrow peak at around 55kHz in the envelope- and average spectra is repeated by the Steve Davis and Clark Terry discs, otherwise unexceptional.

SACD
The Steve Davis Project: Quality of Silence "One Two Free"
DMP SACD-04
Duration: 3:46
Original recording: DSD

Davis' percussion sends the envelope spectrum to beyond 40kHz, but how far beyond is impossible to say because it's swallowed up in SACD's shaped quantisation noise.

SACD
Alison Krauss: Forget About It "Forget About It"
Rounder SACD 11661-0465-6
Duration: 3:28
Original recording: PCM

Clearly a 48kHz PCM original, so the spectra plummet above 23kHz—not an obvious candidate for SACD release, I'd have to say.

SACD
Diana Krall: The Look of Love "Dancing in the Dark"
Verve 589 597-2
Duration: 5:48
Original recording: DSD

Plenty of spectral content above 20kHz, probably with an occasional excursion above 40kHz but again it's overwhelmed by quantisation noise, as is the rate of change.

SACD
Clark Terry & Max Roach: Friendship "Simple Waltz"
Eighty-Eight's VRGL 8805
Duration: 3:08
Original recording: DSD

Roll-off in the envelope spectra beginning above 20kHz suggests this was recorded with large-capsule studio microphones, so the ultrasonic content isn't all it might have been.

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