SACD - Dying already?


I just read the industry blurb in this month's TAS which described how it seems the stream of SACDs from Sony has pretty much dried up. I was in the largest local independent record store in my area last week and actually bought a SACD because it was music not available on CD. The SACD/DVD-A section was a bit smaller than a year ago and I asked the manager about it. He laughed and said they only sell 2-3 a month combined and he doesn't order many anymore.

Except for audiophiles, is anyone buying these things? Or, are all hopes and dreams of SACD slowly fading away (for at least Sony)?
tomryan

Showing 3 responses by eldartford

I never think to buy discs anywhere except the net.

DVD-A will survive because it is a very flexible protocol, that can offer something for everyone. The audio quality is obviously better than CD (same PCM code with more bits and higher sampling rate).

With SACD Sony has painted themselves into a corner. Audio quality is about the same as DVD-A, but with none of the extra DVD features.
SACD and DVDA have obvious potential for sonic superiority over CD which, unfortunately is not always realized when discs are mastered. But this sonic improvement, vs a well made CD, will not be obvious unless the playback system is good, if not "high end".

The feature that SACD and DVD offer which is obvious to everyone is multichannel. No only is multichannel given little attention by the press, but it is also subject to a great deal of negative talk by audiophiles who think that their stereo systems are the ultimate. Well, let me tell you that we old guys thought that our monophonic systems were the greatest, and there was a lot of stupid resistance to stereo when it was new. Sure there are some ridiculously mastered multichannel disks. But there are also many good ones.

The future of SACD and DVDA depends on multichannel. There is one big market, autos, where surround speakers, the big stumbling block, already are standard equipment. That's good. If you want SACD to survive don't trash multichannel even if you personally intend to stick with stereo.
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Robm321...Vynil??? I guess you mean Vinyl, aka LPs.
Kings claim to rule by divine right (until deposed). I support the republic of DVDA, the people's choice.