SACD - Another year and ...

I have owned DVD since '97 and here were not a lot of titles for that format in the beginning either. I believe SACD will come of age as it is vastly better than CD regardless of what some people submit concerning HDCD and the such. I have owned the top Sony for about a year and I am happy with the steady stream of titles that are becoming available. My new Accoustech mag had many new SACD titles including Sades latest "Lovers Rock". I sometimes wonder about what audiophiles really want..? We complain and complain about CD, get a better format, then want to kill it because X thousand titles don't show up overnight. I use my player for CD as well as SACD playback and there is NO WAY I am ever going to forego a SACD title to go back to Red Book. I am glad Sony didn't listen to the same nay sayers regarding the first playstation which only had a few games released with it as the PS2 now follows with very few titles. At least SACD is real and not vapor-ware as is DVD Audio. Also note that some of the larger cd websites are now offering SACD's (cdnow.com) thus the masses are being introduced to the medium. Happy Turkey Day :) Mike

In either case,...SACD or DVD audio, any of the new, or upcomming, players must address playback of current CDs better than the first generation units have. I have talked with people that have one of the first two Sony units..and have added Bel Canto DAC-1's or someother outboard unit to improve the sound quality of standard Disks. All of us will have many, many more standard CDs for a long time...so the quality of the playback of these is as important as the playback of any advanced format.

The Dec 00 Stereophile has several articles that really muddly the water. Seems the technical discussions are saying two things. The watermarking of the DVD-audio format sucks and does leave audible artifacts. Second, the DVD-Audio is a better format then SACD...presumably without the watermarking. Figures.

Yeah, but, at least with respect to the DVD-Audio/SACD point, consider the source, who while knowledgable may have a good deal of resources tied to pcm-based technology. Ultimately, forget the theory and listen for yourself. Having heard both DAD discs from Classic and SACD in my system, I think that they are both substantial inprovements over CD, and come closer to analog without its drawbacks than I thought could happen. I don't have a marked preference of one format over the other at this point as far as sonics go, but SACD is here now and DVD-Audio is trying to put an audible watermark on its yet-unreleased discs. I agree with Mikeam that we ought to be rejoicing that a better format is at hand for digital and start taking advantage of it as the prices come down, because if we don't, who else is it aimed at? Happy Thanksgiving!

SACD is already dead! yea, yea I know...nobody in the high end community wants to admit that a better format might not make it...but just like Elcasette, DAT and DCC this format will not survive. Sorry guys, I hope I am wrong, but unfortuntely I am a representative in the high end chipset manufacturing industry. We are anticipating a REDUCTION in support devices for SACD no later than 2003 i.e., the format is not going to survive. Again, I hope I am wrong.