Yesterday I've been in a big electronic super market and looked what's there on the “New CDs” rack. And I saw there two versions of depeche mode's “playing the angel”. The normal CD and an special edition with an included DVD. The special edition was quite more expensive but what caught my eye was that on the special edition the big copy protection sign was missing. So I had a closer look and the unexpected result was, that the CD was an hybrid SACD in fact! So I couldn'd refrain from buying it. ;-)
The SACD mix is quite interesting. The additional channels are not too much pronounced. What's a bit unusual, though, is that the centre speaker isn't used for the vocals, but these are replayed using the left and right speaker almost completely. On almost all other SACD the vocals are replayed on the centre speaker almost completely (if the vocals are not supposed to emerge from the side), but I think that's OK for the type of pop music played by depeche mode—it sounds more “airy”. Instead they use the centre speaker for some pronounced ”special“ sounds. The playback on the rear speaker is pleasantly reserved, so you don't feel like someone is standing behind you ;-). I think it's worth to buy the SACD. I'm just listening to the CD rip on my PC and it just doesn't sound as interesting…
The music itself is very interesting itself. The songs are quite varying and if you've listened to “precious” most of the other songs sound quite different. I like “precious”, but I think this song was included to become a single. ;-)
The included DVD itself has an interesting “make of” video and the CD as PCM stereo, 5.1 dts, and 5.1 dolby digitial. So the only thing they missed, is to include a DVD-Audio layer. ;-)
But I should have waited with buying. This time it's cheaper at Amazon.de. :-(
