Paul,
Perhaps I am optimistic because I do think SACD will be around in the next 5 years or so. At this point, we can rule out it will ever be a mainstream format, but I think it will do nicely as an "audiophile" format. New titles are continue to be issued....with
161 news titles thus far in the new year. Hardware are continuing to be released....Sherwood Newcastle just joined the SACD camp by announcing
2 new universal players at the CES, where Pioneer, Toshiba, and Samsung announced updated universal players. Yamaha and Onkyo both now market SACD-capable players under $300.00. And Sony has yet to announce their audio line yet. There are no guarantees that Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will succeed in the marketplace even if they are techically superior. Just think, MiniDisc is still around and Sony continues to refine and push the limits of its performance even when music companies have stopped issuing pre-recorded MD titles.