SACD - what gives?


So, I finally purchased a dvd player, which also happens to play SACD's. So, being all excited, I run over the to local Best Buy to grab some SACD,s. Much to my surprise, it seams that every SACD that they had (about 200) was a remaster of an anolog recording. I also checked amusicdirect.com and just about everything they carry ( over 700) is also remastered. So, my questions is: If SACD is such an advanced format then why is everything re-issues of older recordings? You would think that they would be issueing direct digital recordings. Now, I know why this format is not catching on. Let me put this in perspective: I spend about a thousand dollars on a SACD/DVD player so I can listen to re-issues of the complete Rolling stones catalog. No offense to Stones fans, but I aint paying for these recordings for a third time (LP, CD). Any insight or comments?
prpixel

Showing 5 responses by detlof

I feel I have to chime in here as well and feel compelled to add, that apart from being of the same opinion with everything said above, I feel that SACD -even with the "best" players - is a distinct disappointment as far as the upper highs are concerned and considering the financial state of the larger recording companies, we can wait a long time for new issues, which are musically or sonically worth their money. I own about 6 new issue discs and found them mostly lacking artistically and sometimes also sonically (high end of the spectrum). As far as the reissues are concerned, I must bluntly state, that my old LPs sound worlds better on my rig. ( They "breathe", whereas with SACD the highs are "dead" or blotted out by that omnipresent hiss, which you invariably get, if you have tweaters worth writing home about ) A disappointment, because I had put high hopes in this technology. So my SACD players is collecting dust and no Vigggen, no way, nor more SACDs, at least not for the time being.... (-:
Hello Greg, good to hear from you and that you've made the same experience, regarding high-end resolution of the SACD processing. As I remember now-and if I recall right - there was a technical discussion here on these pages about 3 months ago about the very same topic, giving objective reasons for what both of us seem to hear. Sorry, for being a tad off topic, by the way. But I thought we have a point here, interesting enough to be worth mentioning.
P.S. By the way, have not listened to the Meitner DAC6 by the way, which seems to be the latest king of the SACD hill.
I own a Sony SCD XA777ES with the 4k Audience mod. Cheers,
Rcprince, you make a very good point, which Telarc do you suggest I should listen to and thanks, also to Mes, for your kind words.
Cheers,
Eddartfort, although I remain sceptical, I hope that you are right and yes, RCprince, I had hoped that you might come in here, because I wondered how happy you are with your highly modded gear and Mes, glad, that you are back in the game, never to do things at half measures. Wished, I could come over and listen to your Meitner and that goes for RCprince too. Alas, too much water inbetween. I have the same modded player which Mes used to have. Was quite happy at first, but got more and more disappointed, when directly comparing with LP renderings. Had the latest DCS gear at home to try out and still was not convinced, though it bettered my player in overall transparency and sounded wonderful in upsampling normal CDs. Is the Meitner even better than the Brits stuff? Anyone compared directly? Still a doubting Thomas but cheers to all,