Wow, that's a tuff one. In my experience it's hit and miss with both formats, so much so that I've just about come to the conclusion to just forgetaboutit, based on the genre of music I prefer and its limited availability in the Hi-Rez formats.

I certianly understand the attraction to the medium by classical music affecianados, where there is a wealth of product and the engineering seems more consistantly top notch.

A fairly recent upgrade in my CDP has closed the quality gap between redbook vs Hi-Rez considerably as well.

Sorry for the rant....no, I have not noticed a particular problem with the DVD audio format.

Hopefully Dr. Kal will chime in.

RG

Much of the sound of ANY recording has to do with the engineering that went into it in the first place. I have many regular CD's that sound fabulous, and some SACDs that are not so great (and others that ARE very very good). My experience has been that about 50% of classical recordings are pretty well engineered, about 30% of jazz, and maybe 10% of pop recordings. Garbage in; garbage out! If its not a good recording to start with, it is impossible to make meaningful comparisons between formats. Certain labels, such as DELOS and OPUS 3, almost always have excellent engineering on their recordings; you can depend on it. TELARC has some really awful engineering on some recordings.

One thing that SACD does have going for it is that most of the SACDs on the market WERE chosen because they were really well engineered recordings in the first place, such as the early Mercury and RCA recordings.

But If you want any serious comparison of formats, the only way to do it is get the exact same recording in both formats and do the comparison (re-engineering when transferring to a new format is something to watch for also...check the fine print on the packaging/notes).

I can mention you some things that I use as references in their respective formats; they help me immensely to evaluate changes in my system as well as to compare format quality:

1) SACD/CD-

CANTATE DOMINO ON PROPRIUS LABEL

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION; CHICAGO SYM.-REINER (ALSO ON VINYL)-RCA

BEETHOVEN SYM. #7- BERLIN PHIL.-VON KARJAN (1962 RECORDING ON DG; BEWARE OF LATER RECORDINGS)

TAKE FIVE; DAVE BRUBECK (VINYL ALSO)

LA4; JUST FRIENDS (VINYL ALSO)

2) VINYL TO CD COMPARISONS:

TOMAS ORNBERGS BLUE 5 (ONE OF THE GREATEST EVER JAZZ RECORDINGS!)-OPUS 3

JAZZ AT THE PAWNSHOP (ANOTHER TRULY GREAT ONE)-PROPRIUS LABEL

BEETHOVEN VIOLIN CONCERTO; MILSTEIN/PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA/LEINSDORF (NEARLY SUBSONIC RUMBLING IN SEVERAL PLACES IS LONDON SUBWAY TRAINS UNDER BUILDING; NOT A DEFECT IN THE RECORDING)

TCHAIKOVSKY; SWAN LAKE EXCERPTS; MOSCOW RADIO SYM/ROZHDESTVENSKY-QUINTESSENCE

PAGANINI MUSIC FOR VIOLIN AND GUITAR; GEORGI TEREBISI AND SONJA PRUNNBAUER - TELEFUNKEN (VOLUMES 1-2-3 ON LP; 2CD SET)

IF THESE ARE NOT LISTED AS RECORDS TO DIE FOR, BY THE WAY...SHAME ON SOMEBODY...THEY WOULD BE SOME OF MY FIRST CHOICES!

DVD-AUDIO VS SACD; ??-I DO NOT KNOW OF A SINGLE DECENT RECORDING AVAILABLE ON BOTH...ANY SUGGESTIONS?