It's really no different that reel-to-reel tapes. It's mostly a high-end niche. I imagine SACD and may DVD-A (dualdisc?) will remain audiophile niche products for the forseeable future. This means players as well as audiophile media (software). If it really bothers you, invest in vinyl instead (unless you prefer newly recorded classical music, then stay with CD and SACD). And given the two titles you selected, and fact that they aren't classical music (IMO), you may be better served by the vinyl format.
If everyone had a crystal ball there wouldn't be these sorts of debates twice a week over ont he hirez board on the audio asylum forums. |
Yeah, I had been holding off on either format to see where they would go ... and my CD sound was actually pretty decent overall, so there was little motivation.
I recently bought a cheap universal and modded the hell out of it (Toshiba SD4960). Amazingly it replaced my aging CD rig and gave me the benefit of SACD and DVD-A playback as well.
Now this Toshiba is a cheap transport and player overall, so I don't expect that it will last forever (engineered obsolescence through mechanical breakdown will undeniably be its post-mortem). So when I buy an SACD I make sure it is a hybrid, so I can play the CD portion in the future if SACD goes the way of the Betamax. I'm sure Redbook CD will still be around for a long time.
As for DVD-A, haven't delved into that due to the many, many incompatibility problems. Had a couple of loaner disks from friends and some play, some don't.
Enjoy,
Bob |
DVD-A incompatibility problems? I too have an inexpensive all-DVDs player, a Pioneer ...563. It plays every DVD-A and SACD I've purchased and sounds good enough for now. The classical stuff I buy sounds great.
I prefer DVD-A over SACD slightly but I can't tell you exactly why...maybe I have a slight aversion to the monster company $ony.
. |
SACD and DVD-A obviously didn't catch on and take over. It still has a small slot in record stores. And it isn't new anymore. A lot of audiophiles predicted it was going to take the world by storm - It didn't. They were wrong.
I think the reason they were wrong was that there is a small percentage of people that appreciate quality music. So, where is the compelling event for the general public to get into "hi-rez". Not only that but a lack of a marketing push pretty much sealed its fate.
That being said I don't think it will go away any time soon, and as mentioned above, it will fill a niche for audiophiles for years to come.
I prefer LPs. Hi-rez sounds better than CD but not as good as LPs. There’s really no disputing that (although some foolish people will try). LPs cover the best sound (if properly recorded of course), and CDs cover just about all recorded music available. And I'm not about to add another format and software – two formats are enough for me.
Rob |
It's still not that grin Bob. Going to your analogy you could likely still find a used (ormaybe new) serivable Betamax player if you wanted to. So you wouldn't totally be up $%!# creek. sony long supported betamax long after the public dismissed it as a mass market format. I imagine the same will be true of SACD (and DVD-A to a point with Toshiba and Panasonic) between Sony and a few of the audiophile equipment companies. Granted you might not be able to find $99 players everywhere, but I don't feel it will be a grim of a picture as you paint it to be. My $0.02.
Aaron |
meant to say NOT THAT GRIM BOB. Typo. |
True, I don't see many SACD or DVDA in record stores, but who buys from record stores anyway? They never have much in the way of classical music on any media. Check out the web sources (such as elusivedisc.com or acousticsounds.com) and you will see many discs available. |
well - consider me foolish, then, rob and i'll return the favor! |
I agree that both SACD/DVD-A will basically remain audiophile formats, although I do see SACD lasting longer than either DVD-A or DualDisc. DVD-A suffered bad software support from its main supporter, Warner Music. And DualDisc is slipped out of the gates with compatibility issues. While SACD software is slow in coming in the US, I do see the support from labels like Universal and Telarc helping the format to gain a foothold. |
In my opinion (we all have them )
If there was more SACD discs avaialable there would be much more interest.The list is still paultry.
Look at the Stones, Dylans, CCR, Pink Floyd discs they seem to sell well.
But, there is NO new music coming out in Hybrid SACD, Why ???
If it ever had a chance I thought the Hybrid dics were the answer to get this thing a Rolling. |
If there is any irony in this thread, it would be listening to people talk about what how SACD's are an audiophile niche product and then go on to say that's why they're sticking with vinyl.
They have a small slot at RECORD STORES?
Hello?
It has been years since I have seen a RECORD STORE.
I've seen USED record stores.
Virtually everything promoted here on this forum is an audiophile niche product. You won't see much of what we purchase at your local Best Buy.
(Although, they actually do carry SACD's at Best Buy.)
Most of what we buy is found in little boutique audio stores, places that scare the bejeezus out of the average mass market consumer. Then, we trade it back and forth here on Audiogon, a niche marketplace.
I'm also not sure who it was that predicted High Rez digital was going to "take the world by storm." I never saw that prediction. I wouldn't have believed it if I had. There is always an adoption cycle for any new technology. The assumption that High Rez digital would be adopted by the mass MP3 buying market in just a few short years was either way too optimistic, delusional, or a red herring for a flawed argument.
If the worst case scenario is that High Rez will "only" survive as an audiophile niche product, then it will be in good company -- along with vinyl, tube gear, monoblocks, two-channel pre-amps....virtually everything we pursue here. |
Well, I'm as skeptical as they come and I think there still may be hope for SACD to catch on in a (somewhat) big way. My reasoning? SACD sections in the few remaining record stores are starting to grow in size. Does anybody remember 1982-1986 when your RECORD store had about 10 square feet dedicated to compact discs? Oh, and try ordering the RCA Living Stereo SACDs from anybody (Amazon, Music Direct). They are all sold out and back-ordered in the thousands. Whoever it was RCA/BMG who estimated the demand for these discs must have quite a Christmas bonus coming! (If I were his boss I'd give him an IOU for the 10 discs.). Another reason: non-audiophiles are more frequently asking me what I know about this format. Inevitably I tell them that the sound quality is noticably superior to anyone with a working set of ears and decent gear. You don't need audiophile gear to hear the difference, but you need something better than plastic computer speakers. I don't even bother telling them that redbook play can be as good if you want to go visit your Mark Levinson dealer. That's why I'm still hopeful. It's a hi-rez format that can easily be appreciated by non-audiophiles.
Then somebody asks me "Can I rip them to my computer?". That's where my pitch begins to fall apart. sigh...
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Tom |
Redbook? I keep hearing all of yall talking about redbook cd's where do you get these? And also where do yall get your sa-cd's? |
Redbook CD's are standard CD's. I get most of my SACD's from either http://store.acousticsounds.com/ or Amazon.com, but I have also bought them from Tower Records and Best Buy. |
can yall tell me about the diffrent cd formats? Like on these sites i see HD-CD,Gold CD,DTS CD, XRCD,SRCD-2, XRCD24? |
any one? bump on this format quesetion please. |
OK Accorddude, I'll give it a shot...Anyone, feel free to correct if I state something incorrectly.
First of all,
Redbook - Standard CD format
HDCD - a higher res redbook format that requires the end player to contain a special chipset (Pacific Microsonics, or something like that) to decode the high def information. However, it will still play fine on regular run of the mill redbook players without the decoder, thus no sonic enhancements.
Gold CD - mostly a recording media, not a process or standard.
DTS - a surround sound format
XRCD, XRCD2, XRCD24 - JVCs answer to a higher res redbook format that does not require a special decoder chipset to retrieve high def info. Any CD player can play these and reap the benefits, if any.
Does this help? |
Yeah and i dident mean to have dts on that list. |
IMHO you can buy hybrid sacd without fear. For those who don't know, they have a redbook cd layer and a sacd layer. You don't need a sacd player to play the redbook layer. The redbook layer, for me so far anyway, has been the best sounding cd version out there. Even if sacd fails, you still can play the redbook layer. You also have the start of a sacd library. Sacd only disc's, however, can only be played on a sacd player. i won't buy them. |
How many of you SACD guys listen to SACD in multi chanel? I have some SACD's, but I prefer the 2 chanel version anyway. Just curious. |
Me, too. Two channel only. |
On the ones that I have I so far like the 2ch better. But I do like the mutli ch on the first track of a crow left of murder but ohter than that its two ch. |
