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Region 4 Winners and Losers

Region 4 Winners and Losers

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Explanatory Notes
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Title Best
Krall, Diana-The Look of Love (DVD-Audio)=

     The Diana Krall - The Look Of Love DVD-Audio album appears identical worldwide right down to the NTSC formatting. Having said that there is also a Hybrid SACD version with DSD 2.0 and DSD 5.1 (DSD = Direct Stream Digital) available which is also released under the Verve label - hence the actual mixes are the same. At the risk of igniting an SACD versus DVD-A debate I will keep my comments here brief, but I must say it has been a pleasure to finally be able to compare the two formats head to head with the same album. For those who aren't familiar with SACD it is essentially the competing (although now it's more like co-existing) format to DVD-A. Like DVD-A, SACD features high resolution multi-channel audio except with a much higher sampling rate and frequency response. For comparison here are the sampling rates:

DVD-A - 96 KHz (maximum for 5.1 channel audio)

SACD - 2822 KHz (standard for 5.1 channel audio)

     Being a Hybrid SACD, the SACD version will also play on regular CD players (in PCM 2.0 44.1/16) as well as SACD players (in DSD 2.0 and DSD 5.1). For this review I compared the 5.1 tracks on both versions, paying attention to not only particular tracks but particular elements of the music within the track including the vocals and pianos. Surprisingly I found little to differentiate the two. Indeed the huge increase in the sampling rate of the SACD is not accompanied by a huge increase in sound quality. Having said that, I found Diana's vocals to be slightly richer with a more depth on the SACD, but not by much. Furthermore, the LFE channel is a little more accurate with more distinct note changes. The DVD-A mix on the other hand is slightly louder than the SACD. In the end I guess it's up to what your hardware compatibility is - if you're SACD compatible then go with the SACD.