Best Buy Confirms Commitment to SACD & DVDA (1 Viewer)

[Lee Scoggins]

At 8:30 am this morning I received a call from the Regional Merchandising Manager of BestBuy. He told me that they have intentions of continuing to market SACDs and that is why they expanded the rack space from two to four units. BB only deals with domestic distributed titles up here and that puts them in a rather limited position as far as available product.

From Khorn, a longtime member of Steve Hoffman.

I also spoke with the manager at my local store and he said they are definitely committed and explained he had corporate orders for the new hirez section and the signs in the redbook aisles. He said there is a suprising amount of interest in the format and they are selling a good number of Sony Dream Systems and DVDA capable players. They think universals like the Pioneer 963 may be big sellers...

In other news, I was happy to find a copy of the Sam Cooke Portraits of a Legend at Borders, one of the historical laggards on hirez. They had a number of titles but have placed them in the regular bins...

That puts to rest some internet concerns on high resolution. Both our formats appear safe for the forseeable future.

 

[Brian L]

I also spoke with the manager at my local store and he said they are definitely committed and explained he had corporate orders for the new hirez section and the signs in the redbook aisles. He said there is a suprising amount of interest in the format and they are selling a good number of Sony Dream Systems and DVDA capable players. They think universals like the Pioneer 963 may be big sellers...

Perhaps if they are so committed to hi-rez, they might also consider adding a hi-rez section to their web site?

Perhaps there is a secret code that I have yet to crack, but searching for SACD or DVD-A on the "new improved" Best Buy site is exasperating, to put it mildly. I thought the old site was lame, but the new site out-lames it by a huge margin.

Not to mention they have one of the worst search engines of any music site I have tried.

Circuit City, not to mention any number of independents, kick Best Buys butt on that count.

BGL

 

[Mark Hedges]

Maybe they can pressure Sony into releasing a replacement for the CE775 CD/SACD changer. I still can't believe that Sony does not offer a non-ES SACD-only player.

Mark

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Mark,

I'm not sure why it is important to have sub-$400 SACD only players. That market is looking for video capability as well. You can shield the video portion well enough it has a marginal effect on the audio performance for that price level.

Sony does offer a $400 Super Audio carousel player and a $200 SACD/DVD player. Below that price point of $400, you almost have to add DVD capability to be successful.

Would you question Panasonic not offering a sub-$400 DVDA only player?

There are now several SACD players and SACD capable DVD players at various price points from Sony's new line which is filtering into stores now and in the Fall.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

You can shield the video portion well enough it has a marginal effect on the audio performance for that price level.

Or, as in the case of the Philips 963SA, you can put a switch on the front that powers-down the video when you want to listen to music.

 

[Angelo.M]

That puts to rest some internet concerns on high resolution. Both our formats appear safe for the forseeable future.

Sorry, but how one extrapolates this from Best Buy stores potentially adding a rack or two for hi-rez discs is beyond me.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Sorry, but how one extrapolates this from Best Buy stores potentially adding a rack or two for hi-rez discs is beyond me.

Well Khorn spoke with a senior manager there who cleared up his original concerns about Best Buy in Canada and I spoke with local managers who said there was pressure from corporate to raise the visibility.

Other hirez concerns may be valid, but at least we know that Best Buy is supportive.

By the way, Best Buy has already been adding the racks for hirez near the main bestseller aisle, at least here in the Southeast.

 

[Angelo.M]

Best Buy has already been adding the racks for hirez near the main bestseller aisle, at least here in the Southeast.

The BBs that I've been in recently are also doing this. I was in Tower a few weeks ago and I don't recall a hi-rez section. I did spot the hi-rez section in Virgin Megastore (thanks, Lee). BTW, unrelated, but Tower's prices seem to have increased in the last few years!

 

[TheLongshot]

I was in Tower a few weeks ago and I don't recall a hi-rez section.

Here, it is at the end of the Pop/Rock section. Hybrids are mixed in with the normal CDs.

Best Buy has had the high res section up front for a few months now, which is much better than having the SACD section in the back, and the DVD-As by the music DVDs...

Jason

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Here, it is at the end of the Pop/Rock section. Hybrids are mixed in with the normal CDs.

Same in the Tower Atlanta store.

The good news is all the extra foot traffic the hybrids and single inventory get.

I have to think that single inventory discs are the best way to go, followed by hybrids in same redbook area.

In the Atlanta Besy Buys (been to four), the DVDAs are in a separate hirez section next to the Super Audio CDs, right next to the best seller rack. That's a prime location.

 

[Doug Otte]

I was in Tower a few weeks ago and I don't recall a hi-rez section.

In DC, I couldn't find it, so I asked the lethargic salesperson. He waved vaguely at a tiny rack that had a few SACDs & DVDAs mixed together. There were outrageously expensive, of course!

Doug

 

[Jack Gilvey]

What "hi-rez" section? I saw no vinyl whatsoever.

 

[Dan Stone]

Sorry, but how one extrapolates this from Best Buy stores potentially adding a rack or two for hi-rez discs is beyond me.

In all fairness, IMHO, a link to the thread at the Steve Hoffman site should have been posted rather than a highly 'selective' post being extracted and used to imply what's stated in the thread title. These types of tactics seem eerily familiar to what politicians like to do to justify things like wars with other countries, for example.

Here's the link to the full thread so those who are interested may read the full story and decide for themselves:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/sh...threadid=20885

 

[Dan Stone]

Perhaps there is a secret code that I have yet to crack, but searching for SACD or DVD-A on the "new improved" Best Buy site is exasperating, to put it mildly. I thought the old site was lame, but the new site out-lames it by a huge margin.

Haven't tried this for DVD-A yet, but if you go to the Best Buy site and simply put 'SACD' in as the search term, and select the music section to search within, you'll get back 43 results for available discs. I agree that they still can stand for improvement to their site, but at least this might help you a bit.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

What "hi-rez" section? I saw no vinyl whatsoever.

 

[KeithH]

Yeah, when Best Buy starts stocking Classic Records 200-gram LPs, I'll be really impressed.

 

[Ted Lee]

my bb also has a dedicated section near the front (second row in...i think) for sacd/dvd-a. it's pretty prominent.

i was kinda surprised to see it...guess now i know why.

 

[LanceJ]

My local hi-end store now has a twenty foot long dvd-audio shelf w/listening stations & the sales guy says they stock over two hundred titles now. And in the back they just opened the Dvd-Audio Listening Room. It's about 20ft X 30ft, acoustically correct, and uses an all-McIntosh system with Dynaudio Confidence loudspeakers. Most of the time it's filled to capacity with listeners so it is best to get there in the morning.
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Haha, fooled ya!

Unfortunately, there is no such easily-accessible place where people can experience surround music. :frowning:

LJ

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Unfortunately, there is no such easily-accessible place where people can experience surround music.

I am not so sure...the Circuit Citys in Atlanta have surround system kiosks for both SACD and DVDA.

 

[Dan Stone]

My local hi-end store now has a twenty foot long dvd-audio shelf w/listening stations & the sales guy says they stock over two hundred titles now. And in the back they just opened the Dvd-Audio Listening Room. It's about 20ft X 30ft, acoustically correct, and uses an all-McIntosh system with Dynaudio Confidence loudspeakers. Most of the time it's filled to capacity with listeners so it is best to get there in the morning.

*LOL* Good one Lance!

I think about the only thing you forgot to mention is that, of course, you and your friends all have much better systems than the one at the store so that it makes no sense for you to go listen there. :wink: