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SACD - a new life? (1 Viewer)

Brian-W

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I know this is a software forum, but I found this news announcement interesting for SACD fans:

http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news...everybody.html

Sony it appears still hasn't thrown in the towel on SACD, although I am surprised that their high end Blu-Ray player still does not play SACDs. Now, if Sony Music (and others) would just step up SACD releases, I'd be a happy camper.

 

Alon Goldberg

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The Sony DVP-NS9100ES is an exceptional SACD Player. I wouldn't hesitate to purchase this model if I had the budget. But I'll get by with my Denon DVD-2930CI for the time being.

SACD isn't going away anytime soon. :)
 

Danny Tse

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I don't think this piece of news was ever mentioned at this particular forum, but several weeks back.....

Sony announces the introduction of the first car SACD player

Actually, 3 new decks from Sony that support SACD in stereo/multi-channel playback.

Late March/early April will be exciting times for SACD fans as Genesis and the Moody Blues release their long-awaited SACD titles.

By the way, the speakers mentioned above, or a very similar version of them, were cleared out by Circuit City last year at $60.00/pair. You can read about them here. I was very tempted as Positive Feedback gave the floorstanding version a rave.
 

Phil A

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Unfortunately Sony Music and Sony Electronics are not the same unit and not exactly on the same page. It would be at least nice if Sony Music would license their stuff to MoFi. Yes it would not be cheap vs. what a regular label hybrid would go for but it's better than nothing.
 

John Berggren

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I'm really surprised the music studios aren't on board with SACD and DVD-A moreso. You'd think that high resolution audio would be a good reason to convince someone to buy an album rather than download it illegally.
 

Phil A

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The problem is that people who are not seriously into the hobby (the avg. public) prefer just a clean copy of songs. A decent MP3 is going to satisfy lots of people (not me). The music industry (main stream labels) has been slow to change (its distribution methodology) and has paid big dollars to many artists that have mediocre talent. The price of albums and the fact that many don't have that multiple quality songs (vs. downloading individual songs) has slowed music sales. Audiophiles don't make up much of the market so they don't really care. It's a shame as they can make a profit on name stuff or selectively license it out to an audiophile label if they don't want to do it themselves. Look at the Doors box set that took a month to sell out 20k copies on DVD-A (and the set was not cheap). There are many other artists that can result in a similar type demand for hi-rez (either format). One would think before the record labels complain about downloading (and losing profits) they would at least skim the cream from the top and start releasing some more of this stuff (and make a few dollars and keep a segment of their market of better paying customers happy).
 

Brian-W

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I'm convinced if Sony would have adopted the hybrid version from Day 1 (regardless of multi-channel), the format war would have been over quickly. Insteady, the route they took (as well as many but not all other labels) resulted in dual inventory for many retailers.

The irony is Sony can force Sony music to release content for SACD - problem is (chicken and egg) that Sony Music is still responsible for operating a profitable unit. And if they rack up lower profits (or losses) because of SACD, that's their ultimate reason for not supporting the format and it becomes a chicken and egg situation.

Argh!
 

PeterTHX

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I don't think they could have. As it was it was known at launch that surround was forthcoming, but only stereo playback was possible at first.

DVD-Audio could never get their combo disc to work properly, and by the time they came up with Dual Disc it was too late.

I have a feeling that the launch of the PS3 is part of this SACD resurgence, since the units fully support it. Digital multichannel output thru HDMI at 88.4KHz is a wonderful thing :)
 

Marc Colella

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That would'nt have made a difference.

The extra revenue gained would be outweighed by the extra cost of producing hybrid discs. The amount of people that care about sound quality is ridiculously small. The hi-rez audio format war was a battle to win a small niche market, and the studios will soon realize that HD video will be a niche market as well (although not as small as Hi-rez audio).
 

Phil A

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At this point I've have to largely agree. If HD Video is going to be more than a niche market they better get moving really fast (and start releasing all new titles, popular back catalog ones and make the software pricing virtually at DVD levels and get the hardware down to the point where the avg. person needing a DVD player will make the purchase). When DVD came out it was head and shoulders above VHS. I don't think for most people the difference between DVD and HD video discs is of the same magnitude. Also, there was no digital over-the-air TV when DVD came out with 1080i/720p content, TIVO-like devices, digital hi-def cable on demand, satellite TV with HD too (and stuff like FIOS too) and with more broadband connections available internet TV will get bigger too. So there is a lot more competition for better than DVD picture quality out there. Direct TV and DISH alone have about 28M customers between them. So the time frame for HD video to get established with customers as a mainstream format is ticking quickly.
 

dany

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Wouldny ya think having this player do SACD would only be good for SACD sales? Sony just thinks differently then i do.
 

Marc Colella

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The problem is that they can only go as fast as the HDTV market goes, because right now they're only limited to 10% of homes (which is the size of the HDTV market) - so right off the bat it's an uphill battle. Within that 10%, what percentage will care about HD discs? HDTVs are selling more and more, but it'll take a long time until we see HDTVs in 50% of homes.

Anyways, we should keep this on topic.

That Sony player really is nice to look at (although I'd love to have the Sony logo removed;)). That's one thing I love about higher end audio equipment, is the asthetics of them. They look so sturdy, yet polished and elegant.
 

Phil A

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There's also something to be said of the convenience factor with the general public. If they can sit in their homes and download quality MP3s, that's going to appeal to many as sufficient quality and convenience. Same of hi-def video - if they can sit in their homes and choose hi-def movies from the internet or digital cable on demand it may not matter if the discs look a bit better. With the avg. public convenience that saves them time with their busy schedules is something that often gets overlooked vs. just a discussion of quality issues. The avg. public is not someone who would belong to a forum like this and visit on a regular basis.
 

LanceJ

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On other forums when I try to promote surround music, I really do try to include sacd, but it's very difficult because of the severe lack of more mainstream pop/rock music, particularly modern varieties. And when you tell them they will need six cables to do so.......:frowning:. This is when I make sure to mention the Dolby/DTS tracks on dvd-audio discs are available via a regular optical connection. To me anyway, to non-audio hobbyists the Dolby and especially DTS lossy formats sound very good-to-excellent compared to a 120kbps AAC file, so pushing the hi-res formats with them is rather a waste of time.
 

gene c

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That's how I got started in all of this. Donald Fagen's Nightfly in DD. I always thought music in 5.1 would help push hi-res. I was wrong about that too except for concert dvd's which are somewhat successful. When Boz Skaggs Greatest Hits Live concert dvd is released in HD-DVD and True DD/DTS-HD I'm heading straight to the store (or computer).
 

Shane Harg

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Check out this handsome Super Audio CD player by Denon:



BTW: It's their flagship model in this particular line, it is 2-channel only, it retails for 500,000 yen (approx $4,350) and is available only in Japan. I have heard this player played through a tube amp into a pair of B&W 804s speakers. The depth, clarity and detail were amazing on SACD as compared to CD, which had a much flatter, more 2D soundstage.
 

Tony-B

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Sony also put an SACD player in the Playstation 3, so they obviously don't see it as dead yet.
 

Phil A

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There is still lots of hardware available. Marantz has a new 2-channel SACD/CD player that is supposed to be really good - $6.5-7k. Meitner (www.emmlabs.com) just came out with a new $10k player too. They make some of the equipment that is used in the mastering process. So there is no shortage of hardware. There continues to be a steady stream of classical and jazz releases by non-mainstream labels and an occasional surprise here or there that sometimes is not released in the US but is available at a premium. There are also many titles out of print or going that way soon. That's one of reasons I ended up selling my Modwright XA-777ES a bit over a yr. ago (a good portion of the mods were to multi-channel and I tend to prefer stereo) while I could get something decent for it. I suspect there will be software around for a bit but probably not tons of it and probably not too many mainstream non-classical and non-jazz ones.
 

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