I still remember the first CD I ever heard: a copy of Pink Floyd's The Wall a cousin of mine owned. Specifically, I remember being thrilled by the incredible sound quality. Granted, I had been a cassette devotee, so it was easy to hear the night-and-day difference in sound quality between the two. Like many, I was able to hear aspects of songs I'd never noticed before. To my relatively untrained ears at the time, it sounded like nothing could top the CD, especially not vinyl.

In the years since, thanks in large part to discussions with many an audiophile, I've come to re-embrace the virtues of vinyl. While CDs certainly sound "clean," nothing tops the warmth of a record. This has everything to do with recording techniques. A vinyl LP is recorded in analog, which captures every single sound of the original source, including ambient noises in the room. CDs are recorded digitally, which means the recording equipment breaks down the original source into a series of ones and zeroes, compresses this series by "squeezing out" some of those ones and zeroes, then burns them onto disc. CDs capture all the notes of a piece of music. Records capture these, plus the conditions of the recording.

It's a wonderful thing, then, that DVD-Audio came along.

What is DVD-Audio?

In short, the designers of DVD-Audio took CD recording technology and improved it dramatically. The key improvement is in the "sampling rate." As I mentioned above, when original (analog) source material is converted to a digital format, the recording equipment breaks the music down into bits of information (in the form of ones and zeroes). Sampling rate refers to the number of bits per second that are taken from a continuous source signal. This basically translates into the amount of information that appears on a disc. When this information is burned onto a CD, the elements of the original source that weren't sampled are left out. These are always "extraneous" bits, such as ambient studio noise and resonant frequencies. What's left is clean and sounds great, but something is missing.

A CD records its source material at a sampling rate of 44 kilohertz (kHz) per second. By contrast, a DVD-Audio disc records its source material at a much higher sampling rate: usually 96 or 192 kHz per second. This means exactly what it implies: a DVD-Audio disc reproduces more of the original recording, by quite a significant factor (up to 100 times more). This results in music that's richer and more nuanced. It's not so much that one can hear more music, but more specific details. The dynamics between individual instruments are more easily discerned, and the tone of each instrument is more distinct in relation to the other instruments in the recording. In spatial terms, I'd call DVD-Audio three dimensional, whereas CDs are only two. In the end, DVD-Audio manages to combine the cleanness of a CD with the warmth and depth of vinyl — without all the cracks and pops, of course.

Is this like DVD-Video?

DVD-Audio discs shouldn't be confused with DVD-Video discs. Some DVD-Audio discs might contain video and graphic features, but on the whole, they're used to create compelling audio presentations. Most DVD-Audio discs can deliver discrete 6-channel playback (also known as 5.1 surround sound); this means that 6 speakers, two front, two rear, a center channel, and a subwoofer, receive individual pieces of musical information, independently of each other. Many performers are beginning to find surround sound a desirable format, and its popularity is increasing. But the DVD-Audio format works just as well for stereo recordings.

What about Super Audio CDs?

SACDs offer similar sound quality to DVD-Audio. Different recording techniques are used to create them, but the fundamental principle is the same: thanks to higher sampling rates, SACDs feature more information than standard CDs. There is little agreement as to whether DVD-Audio or SACD provides better sound; it's largely a matter of individual listener preference.

To read more about the differences, read our guide to high-resolution music.

DVD-Audio in the car

Listening to DVD-Audio tracks requires special equipment — I installed Kenwood's KVT-915DVD in-dash DVD player with built-in monitor in my car. Now, I'd never heard DVD-Audio in the car before; even understanding the technical differences (on paper) between CDs and DVD-Audio discs, I was skeptical as to how much different it would sound from standard CDs in the car. Frankly, I assumed that I certainly wouldn't notice. I popped a disc in, and…

Oh my.

Kenwood Excelon KVT-915DVD DVD/CD/MP3 receiver with 7" touch-screen control monitor and DVD-Audio playback.

In the cozy environment of the car, DVD-Audio sounds absolutely beautiful. It was evident that for the first time, I was experiencing real dynamics in my music while on the road. It wasn't just a matter of louder and quieter: guitars sounded sharper, bass deeper, drums seemed to hit harder. And they all meshed together as a perfect organic whole. Everything I listened to, no matter how old the source material, had fullness and substance to it. The interplay between the highs and lows was immediately noticeable and scintillating.

In fact, I'd say that the difference in sound quality between DVD-Audio and CD is as dramatic as that between CD and cassette. When compared to CDs, cassettes sound noisy, almost muddy. CD signal is clean, clear, and usually quite forceful. Without any other basis of comparison, CD sounds like the perfect format for the car.

DVD-Audio has changed that notion for me. It doesn't necessarily sound any more "clean" than a CD. The information comes through as clearly and forcefully as it does with a CD. The difference is in the depth. DVD-Audio sounds significantly deeper and livelier — it's closer to "real life" sound. Listening to disc after disc, I felt enveloped by the sound in a way I never had before. Again, it's closer to vinyl.

CDs, by comparison, sound a bit flat and lifeless. While their sound may be clean, and while each part of the music is clearly discernable, it all seems to operate on the same dynamic plane; individual parts are translated in nearly equal measure. One doesn't get the illusion of a live performance that a DVD-Audio disc delivers. To put it in real-life terms, it's competent, but it lacks a certain amount of soul.

A word on surround sound

As I mentioned, many DVD-Audio discs will deliver surround-sound playback. The encoding is discrete, too, meaning that individual sets of information are sent to each of the system's speakers independently of each other. Right now, not many vehicles are equipped with the necessary speaker setup (center, front stereo, rear surround, and subwoofer) to reproduce true surround sound. Such setups, however, are growing in popularity (the 2005 Acura 2005 TL and RL and the Cadillac STS, for example, are outfitted with surround sound).

A typical 5.1 set-up in a car. See our article on Multichannel Music in Your Car for more information on how to get surround sound in your vehicle.

To experience surround sound, I popped in the DVD-Audio version of The Flaming Lips' modern classic Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which was specifically remastered in 5.1 surround by legendary engineer Elliot Scheiner. The experience was sublime. There's nothing like the very first experience of the swirling sensation of hearing different instruments and phrases in a song coming at you from different directions. Even more impressively, this didn't seem like a gimmick; the engineering was such that it sounded like a perfect, organic whole, despite its novelty.

Surround sound isn't the only reason to get into DVD-Audio, though. As I learned from listening to older albums converted to DVD-Audio, stereo recordings sound just as spectacular. In fact, with older recordings, stereo playback is preferable, as that's the mode for which the musical imaging was originally created. Stereo DVD-Audio discs still churn out incredible depth and richness.

So how do I play them and where do I get them?

Sadly, DVD-Audio hasn't hit the mainstream yet. And most often, it's used with home systems. The equipment necessary to play it in the car isn't widely available (or budget friendly, for that matter), and, while several hundred titles have been transferred to the format, only a fraction of all available music can be found on DVD-Audio. Format changes are always difficult for the general public, especially in cases like this, where DVD-Audio discs look just like CDs; people don't feel motivated to make the change. Factor in digital formats like MP3, and the popularity of the iPod™, and DVD-Audio tends to get lost in the shuffle.

But anyone interested in the best sound available should seriously consider DVD-Audio. Even over factory speakers (which is how I heard it), it sounds spectacular. Want the wide-eyed experience of hearing music the way it was meant to be heard? DVD-Audio. Trust me.

Of the DVD-Audio discs I sampled, I picked three finalists as my favorites. So, in no particular order:

Buena Vista Social Club

This is exactly the type of music for which DVD-Audio was designed. The disc let me hear clearly even the most subtle nuances of each of the instruments used, which is essential when the instruments used are all acoustic (including percussion instruments, of course). The vocals and the instrumentation flourish in perfect harmony, neither drowning out the other. It sounds exactly like a live show. Even at 55 miles per hour, the recording is lush and dynamic. And currently still in heavy rotation.

The Ray Brown Trio: Soular Energy

Right off the bat, I'll admit an unfamiliarity with upright bassist Ray Brown (who I learned later is legendary in jazz circles). Jazz, by and large, isn't quite my thing, so I had absolutely no expectations when I sampled this disc. I was simply blown away. Ray Brown's bass is obviously the focus of the recording, and what a focus it is. Every note rumbled deep in my chest, while every detail, even the clack of the strings, made it to my ears. The soundstage it established was also noteworthy: it was easy to imagine the exact positions of the piano and the drums; nothing was lost. And not only was the recording three-dimensional, it was downright tactile. I felt as though I could snatch individual notes right out of the air. The opening cut, "Exactly Like You," and the great cover of "Sweet Georgia Brown" stand out as particularly good examples of the beauty of the recording's depth and dynamics.

R.E.M.: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2005

This is the material with which I'm most familiar. I've heard most of the songs roughly a few million times each, and they've never sounded better. The dynamic interplay between the band members is more evident than ever. I could finally appreciate not only each instrument distinctly, but the ways in which each player complements the others, and how it's all brought together by Michael Stipe's vocals (and lyrics, for that matter). The disc also demonstrates quite nicely how DVD-Audio benefits both older and newer source material. Songs like "Orange Crush" sound livelier than ever before, while new cuts like "Imitation of Life" come off with impressive fullness. My personal favorite, "Nightswimming," has never sounded more delicate and fragile, which is exactly why the song has so much strength.

My runners up

Leon Russell's self-titled disc and Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On both beautifully illustrate the depth DVD-Audio highlights from older source tapes. It doesn't sound so much like they've simply been cleaned up for the digital recording, but that they've been completely resuscitated. I didn't think it was possible, but the fullness and vitality of DVD-Audio actually makes Marvin Gaye sound more soulful than ever.

DVD-Audio hasn't fully caught on yet, but I certainly hope it does. It doesn't have to be a medium for audiophiles only. Anyone who wants to hear music at its fullest and finest needs to treat themselves to this incredible format.