Neither DVD-A OR SACD will gain any sort of marketshare until, Best Buy, Circuit City, Sam Goody, Tower, FYE et al start promoting the software. Instead the aforesaid, hide the DVD-As and SACDs in out of the way corners and have a lousy selection, that never changes. You all have to admit that also once bitten twice shy, remember when CDs first arrived, perfect sound forever. How many of us dumped our turntables and the CD sound was lousy for a decade at least. I am an advocate for whatever sounds best, but to spend 10k to 12k for hardware at this point in time is insane. Just remember all you old time audiophiles, Sony and Panasonic had the El Cassette, which sounded much better than the standard cassette. I bought an El Cassette and in two years time I was using it for a boat anchor. Beware of Sony bearing gifts.
High-end Universal...Why? ?
I don't understand why we're still talking about the "age of uncertainty" and the need for a universal player. After the death of DVD-A, those with high-end universals are going to look upon the vestigal circuitry in their machines with the same obsessive disdain as they would a reptilian tail sticking out of their own rear ends. You know who you are. : ) I humbly suggest using your $4 to $12K and buy an SACD player.
Sure, many people's favorite music isn't out on SACD, but that's a ubiquitous problem whenever formats change. There are many Lp's that never made it to CD. Why will SACD win over DVD-A? Let's take the surround camp: even if 50% bought DVD-A and 50% bought SACD, (it's actually 3 to 1 SACD over DVD-A), you also have 2-channel high-rez camp buying SACD also, swinging the vote even further in latter's favor.
A disclosure: I own an SACD player.
Sure, many people's favorite music isn't out on SACD, but that's a ubiquitous problem whenever formats change. There are many Lp's that never made it to CD. Why will SACD win over DVD-A? Let's take the surround camp: even if 50% bought DVD-A and 50% bought SACD, (it's actually 3 to 1 SACD over DVD-A), you also have 2-channel high-rez camp buying SACD also, swinging the vote even further in latter's favor.
A disclosure: I own an SACD player.