Quote Originally Posted by Quagmire
Thanks for the replies so far guys. I had hoped this topic would generate some interesting discussion and I haven't been dissappointed. I wanted to wait for at least a few replies before I chimed in with my own opinions and preferences... so here goes.

First of all, I think both formats sound awesome, but if I had to choose one over the other based soley on sound quality, I'd have to give the edge to SACD. Of course this is totally a subjective opinion based on a relatively limited exposure to both formats, but again, if I HAD TO choose, I'd choose SACD.
With the DVD-A MLP encoding there is no loss of signal information during playback. Quite litereally it is a perfect clone of the original.

A quote from Robert Stuart of Meridian Audio Ltd., developer of Meridian Lossless Packing;

“When the final master is ready, it is the job of MLP to deliver it exactly. To guarantee this, the MLP workflow includes a proofing step, which establishes bit-accuracy. Furthermore, the player actually checks that the transfer process from master to output is lossless. This ability, to actually deliver the full master quality, is unique to DVD-Audio.”


"And how good is PCM packed with MLP? “The coding space provided in DVD-Audio with 96kHz and 24bits is rectangular, with a dynamic range of 144dB that pertains over the entire 48kHz audio bandwidth. This means that the finest musical nuances can be delivered on the disc without the need to compromise by either chopping off high-frequency information or swamping it in a wash of noise. No other music carrier can approach this. Certainly single bit coding can’t; its range is only 120dB up to 20kHz and less than 60dB up to the player roll-off of 50kHz! This, and jitter sensitivity, are the very reasons the high-end gave up using bitstream conversion ten years ago. So, DVD-Audio’s coding space is huge, and to be able to fit six of these channels onto a disc is a spectacular achievement.”

SACD is very good, but there can only be one "Best"