A Super Audio CD looks like a normal CD. And almost all of our SACD releases will contain a CD layer (making them a so-called “hybrid” disc). This allows you to play the disc on any existing CD player (hi-fi, walkman, in-car system, etc.), while being able to enjoy the superior SACD quality via your new SACD player. Similarly, you can buy and play the SACD disc now, with the intention of acquiring an SACD player in the future.

There are currently more than 400 SACD titles available, ranging from rock to jazz to classical, from such major labels as Sony, EMI, Virgin, Telarc and BMG. Now Decca and Philips, and our sister Universal company Deutsche Grammophon, will be regularly adding major new SACD titles to the growing classical catalogue.

In addition to ordinary SACD players, a rapidly increasing number of DVD Video players now offer SACD replay. So anybody interested in enjoying the highest quality stereo reproduction, or experiencing the new world of surround sound, no longer need hesitate before investing in this “format of the future”.

• SACD stands for “Super Audio CD”, developed jointly by Sony and Philips as the successor to the CD (also a Sony/Philips invention).

• The disc uses a new digital recording technology called DSD, standing for “Direct Stream Digital”. This technology offers superior sound quality to CD via a frequency response almost five times greater than CD and with a dynamic range of 120dB, compared to CD’s 96dB.

• The increased density of the disc allows for the inclusion of a high-resolution stereo recording, plus up to six channels of uncompressed surround sound. (‘Uncompressed’ means that the complete audio signal is retained, as opposed to Dolby Digital or DTS surround tracks on DVD video, which are compressed to fit on the disc.)

• An SACD can also contain two different layers of information, making it a so-called ‘hybrid’ disc. The first layer contains the SACD stereo and surround audio, while the second layer contains the conventional CD recording, allowing the disc to be played in any existing CD player (though, of course, only the CD audio will be heard).

• SACD is as easy to use as normal CD, allowing you simply to insert the disc and press ‘play’. It does not feature video menus nor does it require a sequence of commands before you reach the track you want. The only choice your player may require you to make is to choose between SACD stereo and SACD surround sound.

• SACD is able to include titles and track descriptions, which can be called up and displayed on the front panel of your SACD player. All Decca and Philips discs will carry this information.

• All SACD players are able to play existing CD’s.

• Although SACD uses DSD technology for storing the sound on the disc, this does not mean that the original recording has to be a DSD recording. High-quality PCM recordings (PCM is the name for CD recording technology) can be transferred without loss of quality to the DSD domain, and thus released on SACD. Typically, these PCM recordings will be 48 or 96 kHz/24 bit recordings (as opposed to the 44.1 kHz/16 bit limit for CD). The Decca and Philips SACD release schedule will include both DSD and PCM recordings.