# Suzuki Bach cantatas SACD



## Boothvoice (Oct 5, 2015)

I've been looking at this set of complete sacred cantatas for some time. I'm a little confused about the SACD discs. Will they play as normal on a regular CD player? I believe some of the discs in the set are not SACD but I could be mistaken.


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## Guest (Nov 27, 2016)

Boothvoice said:


> I've been looking at this set of complete sacred cantatas for some time. I'm a little confused about the SACD discs. Will they play as normal on a regular CD player? I believe some of the discs in the set are not SACD but I could be mistaken.


All the cd's can be played on a regular cd player ,no worries .Have you discovered the recordings of the Bach Stiftung? :tiphat:

http://www.bachstiftung.com/shop/dvd-cd-mp3/cds/


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Boothvoice said:


> I've been looking at this set of complete sacred cantatas for some time. I'm a little confused about the SACD discs. Will they play as normal on a regular CD player? I believe some of the discs in the set are not SACD but I could be mistaken.


You have to check if your CD player is completable for SCAD, the modern players plays all.


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## Boothvoice (Oct 5, 2015)

I have a Marantz CD-67SE...from maybe 2002?


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

99.9% sure that all these SACds are hybrid, which means they have a CD layer that can be read by a non-SACD player. The only caveat might be less tolerance for imperfections.


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## Guest (Nov 27, 2016)

jegreenwood said:


> 99.9% sure that all these SACds are hybrid, which means they have a CD layer that can be read by a non-SACD player. The only caveat might be less tolerance for imperfections.


I am 100% sure,I have them myselve and no problem with them whatsoever.


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## Boothvoice (Oct 5, 2015)

Boothvoice said:


> I have a Marantz CD-67SE...from maybe 2002?


Haven't heard these before..interesting project...but if it takes a quarter of a century I probably won't make it to completion. I have the Gardiner traversal and the Richter incomplete set. I have really enjoyed Suzuki on Spotify over the last few months...also am fond of Herreweghe..you can never get enough of the Bach cantatas..inexhaustible riches!


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## Boothvoice (Oct 5, 2015)

Oops...reply meant for Traverso...


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## Guest (Nov 27, 2016)

Boothvoice said:


> Haven't heard these before..interesting project...but if it takes a quarter of a century I probably won't make it to completion. I have the Gardiner traversal and the Richter incomplete set. I have really enjoyed Suzuki on Spotify over the last few months...also am fond of Herreweghe..you can never get enough of the Bach cantatas..inexhaustible riches!


I have three cd's at the moment with the Bach Stiftung and how beautiful they may be I am still in favor for the Harnoncourt / Leonhardt edition.
I am afraid that at the time the BachStiftung edition has completed their Bach recordings it will be too late for me too.


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## grasprelease (Nov 2, 2016)

Just ordered the collected box of the Suzuki recordings _yesterday_...quite excited to hear them on decent speakers and in (stereo) SACD sound* for the first time, after hearing many of these recordings for years now.

I was amused to hear Yoshikazu Mera singing a Japanese pop song at the end of a Studio Ghibli movie recently.

All of the discs in the big Suzuki cantatas box are definitely hybrid SACD, and will play in stereo on a regular CD player; though "discs 1-27, originally released on CDs, have been upsampled and surround sound has been added", so I don't know how what this means for the quality of the recordings compared to those originally made in DSD.

* My excitement has been dulled a little by some reading I've done that suggests that "real" (bear with me, it's voodoo to me) DSD audio is unattainable by basically any consumer player/DAC. I'm very much a latecomer to this, in fact I just stumbled across some of Paul McGowan's arguments at his PSAudio website. Apparently the pure glories of DSD are reserved for those with the scratch to guy one of Mr. McGowan's $6000 Platonic players. Hosannah! But this is a bit OT.


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## grasprelease (Nov 2, 2016)

** And there is the argument that the real benefits of SACD, outside multichannel playback, are not for human beings at all, but for bats. (Cave-dwellers!) That seems proper to audiophilia.
I swallowed the red Kool-Aid placebo, though.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

jegreenwood said:


> 99.9% sure that all these SACds are hybrid, which means they have a CD layer that can be read by a non-SACD player. The only caveat might be less tolerance for imperfections.


I own many of these discs and have played them on both SACD players and CD players, including some quite ancient. The OP should have no fears


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

grasprelease said:


> Just ordered the collected box of the Suzuki recordings _yesterday_...quite excited to hear them on decent speakers and in (stereo) SACD sound* for the first time, after hearing many of these recordings for years now.
> 
> I was amused to hear Yoshikazu Mera singing a Japanese pop song at the end of a Studio Ghibli movie recently.
> 
> ...


There are two DACs that I am aware of that will play DSD through HDMI. This is 2 channel only. One is the NAD M51 which is about $2K but goes for half that on the resale market. The other is the Bryston DAC 3 which is $3500.00 new and must have a lot of satisfied owners because I have yet to see one for resale.
The PS Audio Transport takes a part of the HDMI of feed through an interface called I2S. One then needs a DAC that will accept I2S and yes, that combo gets pricey. The company Wired 4 Sound, which developed the technology for PS Audio, offers these at a reduced price point compared to PS Audio, but it still may set you back around 4 K.
The good news is that stand alone DACs that play DSD go for under a thousand. The Suzuki discs are available as DSD downloads and so can be played from a PC to said DAC via USB.
The better news is that these discs sound very good in plain vanilla CD . They sound a bit better through SACD players ( either PCM or DSD, I can't hear any difference) but not enough better to be a deal breaker. Buy the CDs or the downloads, enjoy the music, and don't suffer from Audiophilia Nervosa


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## grasprelease (Nov 2, 2016)

Triplets said:


> [....]The better news is that these discs sound very good in plain vanilla CD . They sound a bit better through SACD players ( either PCM or DSD, I can't hear any difference) but not enough better to be a deal breaker. Buy the CDs or the downloads, enjoy the music, and don't suffer from Audiophilia Nervosa


Sage advice. And surely you're right about the quality of the recordings....fretting aside, the sound is fantastic, as seems to be a norm for Bis. Thanks for that DAC info.

I still need to do some homework to see how the <$1000 DACs that you mention are different from me choosing "DSD/Stereo" as the output on my Oppo 103, then running analog outs right into my power amp. I just have no background in the tech behind DSD, so even reading through some of the McGowan posts and discussions, I only vaguely understand that the "DSD" that the Oppo pipes out of its internal DAC isn't really DSD, even if it's not converted to PCM before becoming analog. I think I got rooked!

Anyway, there is probably an old thread on this topic at this very forum. I'm asking for an itch if I persist. I went six years without buying any audio tech at all, then I got some fairly nice speakers, and now I look like someone from an R. Crumb comic.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Triplets said:


> I own many of these discs and have played them on both SACD players and CD players, including some quite ancient. The OP should have no fears


FWIW - I added the caveat, because my computer based DVD/CD drive will sometimes choke on the red book layer of my SACDs. Of course those units are worth about $5.00.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

jegreenwood said:


> FWIW - I added the caveat, because my computer based DVD/CD drive will sometimes choke on the red book layer of my SACDs. Of course those units are worth about $5.00.


and the newest computers don't even have them


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