I recieved my stereophile mag today. I opened it up an I see a Company right down the road had won an award for their DVD-A recording. They will record on 7-1. they have only done 2 recordings. Does anyone have an opinion of using the dvd format for music?

i have one DVD-A disc that sounds amped and kind of bright in 2-channel mode. i have heard it once in 5.1 and it did sound pretty cool. i think its highly dependent upon the production and mix, as i prefer the standard redbook version when compared to stereo mode on the DVD-A disc.

I bought a Toshiba HD-DVD player last July, and while I now know I should have waited before taking the plunge (and got stuck with an obsolete format), I have to admit that the sound from this player on either DVD's or HD-DVD's is very good indeed, and much, much better than the sound of CD's played on the unit.

I'm not the only one to complain about the lousy manner in which so many DVD players handle the CD format (I've yet to come across one that does a decent job), but I have to say that the audio on the DVD's (not quite "DVD-Audio" but close, I guess) is quite good. Recently, I purchased the DVD, "The Car Man," which is a rather remarkable show choreographed by Matthew Bourne to the music of Carmen, or more specifically, to the music of "The Carmen Ballet" - a wonderful reorchestration of Carmen solely for strings and percussion. The entire story takes place in a dingy garage, and has practically nothing to do with the original Carmen story, but is stunningly original.

The sound from this DVD is exceptional, and I can only wish that CD's played on the Toshiba (or other DVD players) sounded as good.

So, am I listening to "DVD Audio," or just "audio from DVD's?"