Has ABKCO lost their mind on the Stones SACDs? (1 Viewer)

Dennis Nicholls · Jan 21, 2004

I'm not much of a Stones fan, but with the new catalog of ABKCO hybrid Sack-Dees available for $9.99 each at http://www.towerrecords.com/promo.as...2c5a9e73b79f76 I thought I should get some.

The package from Tower.com came today. The sound quality is pretty nice, but of course I have no reference to previous editions.

But ABKCO is absolutely crazy. Nowhere on the external packaging is there any hint that these discs are hybrid SACDs. You have to open the package and read the liner notes to find this out. Why in the...heck are they being coy about these releases? If I had picked them up in a rack at a B&M store I would have put them back down and kept looking for the Sack-Dee version. :confused:

Mark All · Jan 21, 2004

It was a deliberate move on the label's part to leave off the SACD designator. They wanted the hybrid discs included in the regular CD bins in stores rather than being lost in the back of stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc, etc, which seemed to be clueless as to where to put SACDs when the Stones discs first came out. Since ABKCO has sold 2 million copies of the reissues the decision doesn't seem to have hurt sales any.

Hmmm, I wish I'd bought all of mine at $9.99 each. Enjoy!

Marty M · Jan 21, 2004

I remember seeing quite a discussion of this when these first came out. If I recall, there isn't any mention of SACD anywhere on the CD or in the liner notes.

LarryDavenport · Jan 22, 2004

I'm pretty sure that there is an SACD and/or DSD logo on the discs.

Evan S · Jan 22, 2004

There is definately a designator on the inside of the packaging. However, I don't think there is any designation on the outside of the packaging.

Dennis Nicholls · Jan 22, 2004

That's what I'm getting at. There is absolutely nothing on the outside of the package that would even hint that there's a Sack-Dee inside. The liner notes inside do discuss the hybrid SACD nature of the disc and the disk itself is marked DSD.

LarryDavenport · Jan 22, 2004

You should be thankful it doesn't say SACD on the outside otherwise Tower would probably mark it up to $30 a disc.

Lee Scoggins · Jan 22, 2004

Actually that's DVDA pricing Larry.

Also be thankful there was no mention of Super Audio. It kept from confusing retailers about where to put the disc in the bins and likely gave rise to the also superb Dylan series.

And by selling 2 million units gave an extra boost to Super Audio.

Dennis Nicholls · Jan 22, 2004

Well I guess I should have poked around more....

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...ht=stones+sacd

Ms. Bitchlist groused about the same thing back in 2002. I only got my first SACD player last summer so I wasn't following the threads.

Garrett Lundy · Jan 22, 2004

And the electronics companies want to know why I don't buy a SACD/DVDA player? Because when I go to the store I can't find the product!

Please do not mistake marketing fuck-up for genius.

Rachael B · Jan 22, 2004

Dennis, I'm one of Sack-Dee's biggest suppourters and harshest critic all rolled up into one. I quess that makes me a hybrid personality.

Craig Oberg · Aug 27, 2005

According to Acoustic Sounds, the ABKCO discs
will no longer be manufactured and are officially
out of print.

I don't know if it's true or not, but judging by their
highly inflated prices it's obvious they're waiting for
the stock everywhere else in the world to go away.

Luckily, J&R has a bunch of the discs on sale for
$7.99, limit 2 per customer.

The news was enough to knock me off the fence.

Craig

Marc Colella · Aug 27, 2005

Yep, they're going out of print.

They've been reissued on CD (like the Dylan releases), so they obviously have no need to keep producing the hybrid SACDs.

As suspected, trying to penetrate the market by using hybrids was a failure. All it did was increase costs in creating the discs - and brought in very few people to the SACD format.

I still remember the SACD faithfull on the AA a few years backs stating that almost all releases by all labels in the future will be hybrids SACDs.

Not even close.

ScottCHI · Aug 27, 2005

yeah, i had Let It Bleed and Beggar's Banquet well before i had a hirez player and had no idea they were hybrids; i just thought they were standard remastered discs.

i suppose that they're not abcko albums, but i wish someone would re-release Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. as hirez.

Gerry P. · Aug 27, 2005

I still need four of these. Hopefully, the SKU numbers will be changed for the CD only releases.

Sean A · Aug 27, 2005

Is this not conclusive proof that SACD is dying ? The highest profile releases in the format are going OOP.
Let's face it, outside of hard-core audiophiles, the average person could care less about musical hi-resolution. Which is very interesting in opposition to DVD, which many people bought into BECAUSE it was obviously visually and aurally superior to VHS

Marvin · Aug 27, 2005

It remains to be seen how many people, outside of hard-core videophiles, will buy into HD/Blu-ray DVD.

KevinJ · Aug 28, 2005

The one mistake that was made w/Sacd was the lack of a portable player to play the Sacd layer on....hopefully BluRay /HD-Dvd will have a portable player to play em on at some point

ElevSkyMovie · Aug 28, 2005

Why does this surprise anyone? Very few customers knew they were getting a SACD with the cd they purchased. Why would abkco spend the extra money when no one is getting the benefit? It would cost less to just make a cd and not worry about the sacd, then the record company makes more money on each disc.

Paul.S · Aug 28, 2005

Although it no longer reflects the sale pricing, I'm surprised that Tower link still pulls up the Stones discs at all . . .

-p

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