to buy Space Tech Lab or not to buy?

The question seems to be, are you willing to sacrifice every single one of your most favorite Artist save one, in order to benefit from the improved sound quality of a new Format. Even after the Format Wars are over and the improved sound quality of the victorious Format can be assessed, what's going to be left to listen to. Are you going to be willing to throw the BEATLES, THE WHO, FLEETWOOD MAC, and JEFFERSON STARSHIP under a bus for the sake of improved sound quality? It doesn't benefit a Man to sell his soul for the whole World! I've spent years and tens of thousands of dollars trying to become an Audiophile, only to wake up and realize what I truly am, the anti-thesis of an Audiophile, a MUSIC LOVER! I lived in a dream world where these two weren't mutually exclusive, where one could have ones cake and eat it too! Now I wake up and realize who I really am, and where my soul really resides! It resides with the Music, not the Equipment! Perhaps its time to say NO to SACD, NO to DVD-Audio, NO to High Res. Downloading, and NO to Blue Ray Audio! Perhaps its time to say "NO" untill we get our Music back! LET THE SLEEPERS AWAKEN!

Pettyofficer, I for one have NOT TAKEN the plunge into the SACD format as I too also share interests in many of the same (so called) more obscure interests that you have in music. I have faithfully stuck to my Red book releases and yes, I too would like the experience of Hi Rez but...I also beleive in the practicality of waiting for the wars to end and then investing in the format that was triumphant but only after evaluating the book that is being offered. With the situation being as is is today I find it to be much more cost consious to wait it out as opposed to investing and changing as the trend wind blows but then again this is mho too.

I suppose that it is up to me to answer my own question, perhaps it always was? It has been my experience that when a new Format first comes out, It is the most popular Music that first gets released. It usually takes 5 to 10 years for less popular Music to finally get released on the new Format. I believe that most people listen to less popular forms of Music and it is the diversity of less popular that dilutes it from ever becoming the most popular. Less popular forms of Music never made it with SACD or DVD-Audio do to the Format Wars. This War created a log jam of new releases, this made worse by the potential of Blue Ray Audio and High Resolution downloading off of the Internet. Will one be able to eventually download High Res. recordings of popular Music off of the internet, perhaps, but will one be able to download a larger variety of Archived Music based on High Res. digital versions of Master Analog Tape? I suggest that you will not see the Beatles White Album available for High Res. download anytime soon. Nor will you see most Archived Music available for download in High Res. for at least another 5 years. I base this on the fact of the severely limited variety of Music available today on SACD and DVD-Audio, and just how long has SACD and DVD-Audio been around? I believe that it is misleading to give people the impression that everyone's favorite Music is just around the corner from being available for High Res. download. I believe that it was just as wrong to mislead people that everyone's favorite Music was just around the corner for SACD and DVD-Audio. How many times can one be misled before one loses confidence in any new Format? Simply put, my Music is not available on Record, SACD, DVD-Audio, Blue Ray Audio, or High Res. download no matter how superior these formats might sound. If I am forced to listen to the Artists that I choose on the worst sounding Format compared to all of the rest, so be it! At least I have the opportunity to listen to what I want to listen to. I am not going to give up my favorite artists simply because they may never be available on the latest and greatest sounding Format. I am stuck with listening to the God- awfull sound of CD because that is where the Music is! It is pointless to hope for absolution from a new Format because none will be forthcoming! If you are probably wondering what bizzare and irrelevant Music that I listen to, that will never be released on a New Format, here is a list:
JOHN BARRY
BERNARD HERMAN
THE CARPENTERS
ENYA
ABBA
ENNIO MORRICIONE
NANCY SINATRA
HEART
BANGLES ( one album available on SACD )
WILSON PHILLIPS
JETHRO TULL
EMERSON, LAKE, AND PALMER
BEATLES
BLUE OYSTER CULT
JAMES BOND THEMES ( more John Barry )
MOODY BLUES
THE WHO
THE PRETENDERS
FLEETWOOD MAC
JEFFERSON STARSHIP
JERRY GOLDSMITH
JOHN WILLIAMS
GERRY RAFFERTY
MAMAS AND THE PAPAS
THE CARS
HERB ALBERT
As you can see, this is some pretty old, bizzare, and irrelevant stuff that doesn't deserve to be re-released on a better sounding Format. None of it was ever available on SACD with the exception of one Bangles Recording. Perhaps you have your own list of your favorite Artists that never have or never will be available on SACD or any new Format. Then you are in the same boat cursed to listening to your favorite Artists on the worst Format ever created, the Compact Disk. If you are not willing to give up your favorite Artists in order to listen to, whatever, in the High Fidelity of a new Format; then good for you, but welcome to HELL never-the-less! You will be shaking hands with so many friends that you wont have time to worry about it!

To buy or not to buy:
I think that everyone is missing the point. Can anyone
remember when SACD players first came out? Can anyone
remember when, just a couple years ago, the production of
New SACD disks was halted? In the interim period ,how many
New releases on SACD became available? I was able to locate
30 to 40 female vocalists SACD disks available on the
Internet. I was also able to find 30 to 40 popular groups
available on SACD. I did find over 2000 classical releases
currently available on SACD. I love Classical Music, especially Gustov Holtz "The Planets". Man does not live by
bread or Classical Music alone. If you love the Bangles or
Genesis, your in luck. If you are like Tommy Lee Jones
character in M.I.B. thinking you are going to get the
Beatles White Album in High Rez. from its original Master
Analog tape, here's the skinny. NOT AVAILABLE in SACD, NOT
AVAILABLE in DVD-Audio, NOT AVAILABLE in Blue Ray Audio
whatever that standard might be, and NOT AVAILABLE for
download High Rez. wise via the Internet. Now just
substitute two dozen or more of your favorite Artists for
the Beatles or include the Beatles if you like. Just
concider SACD alone and you will see a vacuum of some of
the most popular music in the last half of the 20th
Century alone. These disks aren't even the highlights of
this time period. Simply put, there is no Musical content
available on SACD and there never was! Somehow a Musical
Format is supposed to flourish in a vacuum of Musical
content, and Manufacturers of SACD disks are SHOCKED that
no-one chose to pay for a vacuum. This is better known as
a self defeating prophecy with Manufacturers convincing
themselves that the only lesson to be learned is that the
American Public is not interested in sound quality. Now if
we can just do the same with DVD-Audio ( whoops- too late ), Blue Ray Audio, and Downloading of high rez.
recordings, we will be in business ( read OUT OF
BUSINESS ). Not one of these Formats offers any indication
of providing the Musical Content in high rez. necessary to
sustain it and THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE! No Musical Content
= No Sale, no matter what the Format. One could assume, in
a vacuum, that the Musical Content for high rez. will
magically appear for downloading. The only thing you have
to do is spend thousands of dollars for the equipment
( much like your SACD bretheren ) and I am sure you are
ONLY going to love the Bangles and Genesis. What guarantee
do you have that it will be different? The same guarantee
that thousands of SACD disks were just around the corner
for those spending thousands of dollars on SACD players?
Where are those people now after ( much like you )
putting all of their eggs in one basket? After all, I am
sure that we will eventually be downloading all of our high
rez. recordings off of the Internet, even if the only thing
to listen to is high rez. static. It doesn't have to be
this way. If you want Musical Content in a high quality
Format, you are going to have to fight for it! Music
lovers are passionate about their Music, its all up to
you.

Well I don't have one of his DACs, but I do have a few pieces of Space Tech gear. I have heard a few of the different Space Tech DACs many times.
The DACs are very, very, good, I hope to get one in the future, very refined, incredible detail in retrieving information, a very detailed sound stage, wide deep,with different layers.

If your going to bet on a format, I'll say that Redbook with stay around longer than the other ones, and if you move to a Hard Drive type setup. You still need a DAC.

Contact Audiogon member 'Acadie'. Basile has a Space Tech Lab system.