The Death Cab for Cutie album, transatlanticism, was released on regular CD format, as well as on Super Audio hybrid CD. Answers to some common questions about the format are listed below.

What is Super Audio? : Super Audio (SA) is a new way of putting music on CDs, resulting in high-resolution, superior fidelity sound. You need an SACD-compatible player to hear the difference between a regular CD and a Super Audio CD.

Why is it called a Super Audio hybrid CD? : The transatlanticism SACD actually has two layers of data, one of which is read by regular CD players, the other by SACD-compatible players. Most regular CD players should have no problem playing the SACD, although the high-fidelity sound will only be heard on SACD-compatible players.

So if I don't own a Super Audio-compatible player, is there any reason for me to spend the extra money on the hybrid SACD disc? : Not really, unless you know that you're going to be getting an SACD player at some point. We didn't press very many of these, because we know that not many people (many of whom are neurotic audiophile freaks) have SACD players, and we didn't expect that many people would want them. But damn, if you have the player, we have to say that the SACD layer sounds really really good.

Is the high-resolution layer in Surround Sound or 5.1 Audio? : No, the SACD layer is not 5.1 multi-channel surround sound audio. It is simply a very high resolution digital remastering of the stereo (2-channel) analog master tapes. And it sounds really really good.