Have you sign the petition to save SACD? (1 Viewer)

[JeremyErwin]

DVD-A?

Heretic! PCM destroys music which DSD handles with grace and subtlety. But putting aside that for a moment, might I remind you that this particular DVD-A includes a dts option?

Most SACDs these days have a redbook layer, and I've had no trouble ripping them into iTunes. So pick your poison. Would you rather have a disc that can be ripped, or a disc that requires a slightly cheaper variety of cabling?

If you want digital, look into firew... erm... HDMI.

 

[Phil A]

Actually a little too late in my opinion, HDMI 1.2a adopted around December 2005, allows SACD signals to be passed via HDMI. I'd personally rather have hi-rez vs. a music DVD. I probably only have a dozen or so music DVDs and about 250 hi-rez discs between SACD and DVD-A. But the petition is an example of how niche the market really is (and probably why most would rather own a concert DVD). I signed as no. 209 in March 2005. Certainly not tons of people breaking down the doors to save SACD.

 

[LanceJ]

You might want to read post #87 written by "Tweaker".

But for the whole picture.....

*Also* read the posts by the same member in an earlier thread from a year and a half ago (or read posts #22 and #67 if you're in a hurry).

Transparent and "sounds good" can be different things to different people.

The words he uses to describe the audible effects of the distortion caused by too many DSD re-conversions are interesting.

Back to original thread........

 

[Lee Scoggins]

"Certainly not tons of people breaking down the doors to save SACD."

I don't think you can judge SACD support by who signs that petition. There are a lot of fans of Super Audio in Asia and Europe who will probably not see the petition and more here who would like to see it survive.

 

[Phil A]

I do agree that it is not the sole measure. However, the petition has been circulated several times via so many audiophile boards (we do live in the age of the www - world wide web) including those in Europe and other places. There are many recognizable names on the petition from those not located in the US who regularly post on Audio Asylum. Since, I signed for example, in March 2005, there have been on avg. about 2 signatures a day. Don't get me wrong, I love SACD, but it is a small niche market (as is most of the audiophile stuff) and the petition is reflective of why the format was abandoned as non-mainstream by the big labels. I suspect we'll see more MoFi discs made of Sony and other record label artists artists. We may continue to see some major label issues from artists who care about the sound and where there is enough demand for a hybrid pressing.

 

[Matt Birchall]

Sarcasm: Such a difficult concept to convey on the Information Superhighway without the adequate number of smileys.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Hi Jeremy,

I agee with you completely - I wasn't speaking for myself -- I only have SACDs (though not that many -- I did get the Dylan box recently, its great), and I have sprung for the expensive cabling. I was reacting to posts about how hi-rez audio isn't that expensive, etc.

All I'm saying is that the way this thing is being marketed it is guaranteed to turn people who aren't in our category of the committed few -- off.

The refusal to allow digital (optical) audio out for SACD is my exhibit #1 as to why the format is doomed, and no amount of petitions will save it. HDMI?? Sorry, but how many people have HDMI equipped receivers? 1% or less, would be my guess. Everybody with a remotely modern receiver has optical.

Ted

 

[LanceJ]

And.......how many of those HDMI equipped receivers also include DSD decoders? Denon, Yamaha, and IIRC Sony hi-end receivers have the decoders, but these systems use proprietary links to transport the DSD signal from the *matching* brand of sacd player.

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FYI: few people seem to know that DSD recording gear has a built-in system to prevent overcompression of the signal. Overcompression is one of the leading causes today of harsh & "loud" recordings and this is easily accomplished by careless engineers using PCM formats (only because PCM is inherently easier to manipulate). And since CD and dvd-audio both use PCM, guess what? If a label's marketing department tells the engineer to crank up the compression so they/their customers can hear the music better on their iPod's cheezy earbuds or crap car system, he has no choice unless he wants to apply for unemployment. Though an sacd *can* deliver an overcompressed signal to the user if the original recording i.e. PCM or analog, was overcompressed.

Recordings that AREN'T overcompressed "breathe" better, sound more realistic/natural, the rhythm of the music is much improved because its dynamic range is intact, and they can be turned up loud without searing one's eardrums. This applies to any music delivery format, including radio.

It seems like every six months or so, another facet of the sacd format's TRUE operation comes to light. The above revelation showed up on stevehoffman.tv the middle of last year. Some others include DSD filtering techniques (in most players not as gentle as you'd think) and its actual resolution above 12kHz (Stereophile magazine revealed this last one).

 

[Danny Tse]

2,219 signatures on the "Save SACD" petition as number of titles approaches 4,400 at sa-cd.net.

 

[Danny Tse]

The 4,500th SACD title mark has been crossed at sa-cd.net earlier this afternoon....of course, by 5 new Japan Sony jazz titles.

Just bumping up the old Save SACD petition. Currently with 2,712 signatures.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Have they added the new Genesis discs yet?

 

[Marc Colella]

Is there a way to find out how many SACDs exist for each category of music?

It would be interesting to find out how many of the 4,500 are classical discs... for curiosity sake. I have to believe more than half are classical, maybe even close to 75%.

 

[Phil A]

I did a quick search by genre and it said 2,368 are classical.

 

[Phil A]

A search also showed something like 796 were jazz. So roughly 52.5% are classical and 17.7% are jazz. The total titles I believe also includes stuff out-of-print as well so it is a bit misleading that there are 4,502 titles available. It shows a bit less than 4,100 available from all vendors so perhaps around 400 are no longer in print.

 

[Danny Tse]

Based on the total of 4,502 SACD titles listed at sa-cd.net, here's the breakdown (highlighting the top 5 catagories)....

Blues -- 63 titles = 1.3% of titles listed at sa-cd.net
Chanson française - - 47 titles = 1%
Chinese pop - - 104 titles = 2.3%
Classical - - 2,368 titles = 52.5%
Country - - 27 titles = 0.6%
Demo/Samplers - - 85 titles = 1.8%
Easy listening - - 27 titles = 0.6%
Folk - - 9 titles = 0.2%
Independent - - 3 titles = 0.06%
Inspirational - - 2 titles =
Instrumental - - 13 titles = 0.3%
Japanese pop - - 125 titles = 2.7%
Jazz - - 796 titles = 17.6%
Latin - - 11 titles = 0.24%
New Age - - 20 titles = 0.44%
Pop/rock - - 427 titles = 9.5%
Soundtrack - - 70 titles = 1.5%
Spoken word - - 6 titles = 0.13%
Traditional - - 30 titles = 0.66%
Unassigned - - 92 titles = 2%
Vocal - - 132 titles = 2.9%
World - - 46 titles = 1%

 

[Danny Tse]

But then not all SACD titles are listed on sa-cd.net

 

[Ron Reda]

They sure have, but there aren't many reviews.

 

[John Berggren]

Money talks. Petitions just don't. It sucks, but it's true. Format war and apathy killed this advanced audio format. Probably time to spend that effort on a certain Sony video format....

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Lots of reviews over on AVS. Not all of them so glowing.

 

[Marc Colella]

Thanks for all the trouble guys... I didn't see a way to pull that info.

Looks like my prediction of Classical being 50%+ is accurate, and the number of Jazz titles makes sense - although it seems that the number of Jazz releases have slowed down considerably the last year or two. These two genres definitely appeal to audiophiles.

I'm suprised that Blues only accounts for 1.3%. I thought it'd be closer to 5% as Blues releases seem to do well in audiophile circles.

As much as I love the Classical releases (there's so much more I want to see released on it) it would be nice if SACD picked up the pace on Jazz releases.