Is SACD a dead format?

The catalogs of the audiophile centric record/disc sellers I get seem to point in the direction that SACD is gaining some traction with the smaller audiophile labels. A good thing, I think, as a grassroots movement that turns out music that is looked to by audiophiles will keep at least a trickle of things coming for us.

Whatever happened to Sony and some others I have heard converting their CD stamping facilities to hybrid CD/SACD processing?

On the sad note, I noticed in Stereophile that Sony Music went to a conference with the intention of throwing their support behind DVD-A. Someone at Sony intervened at the last moment, and the music divsion backed off. If I were the head of Sony, my head honcho at Sony Music would be called into the office and read the riot act (including the proviso that a bloodletting would result the next time I heard even an inkling of such a thing).

The catalogs of the audiophile centric record/disc sellers I get seem to point in the direction that SACD is gaining some traction with the smaller audiophile labels. A good thing, I think, as a grassroots movement that turns out music that is looked to by audiophiles will keep at least a trickle of things coming for us.

Whatever happened to Sony and some others I have heard converting their CD stamping facilities to hybrid CD/SACD processing?

On the sad note, I noticed in Stereophile that Sony Music went to a conference with the intention of throwing their support behind DVD-A. If I were the head of Sony, my head honcho at Sony Music would be called into the office and read the riot act (including the proviso that a bloodletting would result the next time I heard even an inkling of such a thing).

If you picked up 50 SACDs that you loved, would it not be worth it considering Sean's post that the very highly regarded Samsung HD841 is now selling at BestBuy for $99? Theoretically, you could have these 50 discs to listen to for 10 or 20 years. That's more than enough reason for me to invest in things.

Interestingly enough, there was a recent post here where the Toshiba 4960 (as Sean pointed out, same player as the Samsung - different cosmetics/badge) modded by Reference Audio Mods with a total investment of $700 equalled the $11K Linn Unidisk. A good sounding universal player will allow one to throw just about any silver disc into it and sit back and enjoy. Does it make ANY sense whatsoever for an audiophile running digital who can't lay down for a DCS rig NOT to go this route?!?

Long term, the future will probably not be on disk, but are many of us going to throw away the music that we have collected and loved over the years if it provides us enjoyment? I think not. So, why worry that the sky is falling?

And, again, I see a lot of evidence of smaller labels embracing DSD/SACD. Just pick up any catalog from the audiophile oriented sellers. And, in the pro audio magazines that get sent to me in the mail, more and more studios are recording in DSD.

Just because Sony does their usual trick of walking away from something they poured millions upon millions of dollars into doesn't necessarily mean the format will die. Remember when the prevailing thought was that since smaller outfits couldn't produce CDs they would be out of business? Well, eventually we all got the capability of being able to burn CDs, and it became a boon to everyone. So long as these smaller labels are having audiophiles buy their SACDs, they will keep making them - not to mention expanding their catalogs.

Thank you for the kind words, Pardales.

This has become a pretty heated thread, and while I often enjoy those, this one doesn't need to be.

In the "put your money where your mouth is", I just returned from Best Buy with one of the $99 Samsung HD841 players which Sean described above as a closeout. I have been thinking about it for a few weeks now, since the thread was active regarding how the modded Toshiba 4960 ($700 for player and mods) equalled the $11K Linn Unidisk. I saw one last week in Tweeter, and was quite impressed with the look and build. While I have seen them on ebay in the $89 - $130 area, Sean's news put me over the top. The 30 day return policy appealed to me should the unit be defective.

I am going to give it a listen, break it in, and then compare it to my Granite 657 CD player. At some point, I will be shipping it out to a modder for the royal treatment. At that point, look for me to initiate a thread here on Audiogon on how the machine compares to what I consider a top drawer audiophile CD player.

Again, I like the flexibility of being able to run CD, DVD-A, SACD, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, MP3, ABC, 123, whatever in the machine. Hopefully, after this plays out, I can sit back and enjoy the music until if/when whatever the whiz bang thing downloaded, hard disk, BluRay, whoever takes serious root as something better.