Super-audio CDs (SACD) is a new type of media from Sony designed to succeed the Compact Disc. In appearance, it is identical to a CD or DVD. Its primary competitor is the DVD-Audio (DVD-A) which uses a DVD as media for multi-channel high-resolution audio. With good audio engineering, both DVD-As and SACDs can sound signficantly better than a standard CD, and both formats can provide additional "surround sound" channels.

CDs and DVD-As use Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) to digitize music, sampling audio at a fixed rate, using a number with a fixed number of bits. SACDs encode music using a method called Direct Stream Digital (DSD). DSD recordings sample the music 1 bit at a time, but at a very high sample rate (64 times that of a standard CD). The high sample rate gives a DSD recording high resolution, and the end result is immediately apparent.

 

Below is a list of Super-Audio Compact Discs (SACD) available from The Gothic Catalog.

All SACDs we offer are "hybrid SACDs"---they have two layers of data on them. They will play on any CD player, and play the higher-resolution DSD layer when put into an SACD player.