if agressive eq and multichannel is all sacd has to offer, why not just play a cd, matrix it to 6 channels and agressively eq it? whoever said that is either deaf or a moron. in fact, i believe someone quoted tom nousaine or a wank associate of his somewhere in another thread as having said something to that effect. when i read it, what little respect i had for mr. nousaine instantly evaporated.

jason j is correct. if you redirect the center channel info to the mains, you don't get a 'phantom center'. you simply get an entirely new stereo image from your mains. this is the equivalent to switching a stereo mix to mono and calling it 'phantom' stereo.

sacd does not suffer the brick wall limiter @ 20k like pcm. sacd is low passed @ 70 or 80k. it's a 1-bit system at a super fast sampling rate. it's advantages over 16 bit stereo:

1.) 6 discrete channels. give a speaker and amp less to reproduce and they will reproduce it cleaner.

2.) soundfield. no comparison.

3.) dc to 70k. dynamics and detail that are impossible with 16 bit cd...period. and anyone with a system capable of playing it back and normal hearing can tell the difference... easily.

4.) endlessly more possibilities for new instruments and mixing techniques. the surface hasn't been scratched.

5.) hybrid multichannel scad/stereo cd...2 discs for the price of 1 and 1/2 the shelf space.

i agree with and love the title of this thread...Wow! DVD-A/SACD. i also agree with jason j in that, though it's simple enough to set the center to 'no' in my sony dvp-ns900v, it defeats the purpose and distorts the mix.
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"Time wounds all heels." John Lennon