Does SACD really have a future? (1 Viewer)

[Marc Colella]

I'm not sure it would useful writing these chains.

If they do actually listen and stock the shelves (which I really doubt) they'll just be removing them again down the road because they won't sell well.

There's been talk that BB and Circuit City have been removing (or at least not restocking) anymore SACD/DVD-A titles - as they don't sell. It could explain why it's becoming harder to find hi-rez titles in the stores.

I think it's a lost cause, and in times like these e-tailers are your best bet.

 

[Phil_DC]

Now that is a good idea;

If at least large stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, or Fry's had some small sound proof demo booths where one could go inside push a button and hear such an explanation, and or perhaps actually hear a CD track or part of a one then hear the SACD or DVD-A multi channel version of the same track I think a whole lot more people would be jumping on the he res audio band wagon.

 

[Danny Tse]

I did get a personalized acknowledgement from Best Buy of the e-mail I send them. Soon after that, the Elton John/Eric Clapton SACD reissues showed up at my local Best Buy. Just e-mailed Best Buy again last night about restocking their SACD section.

 

[Paul.S]

I like the conclusion of Ken Pohlmann's piece in the Feb./March S & V, subtitled "The best formats don't necessarily become the biggest." After briefly putting forth a few theories about the less-than-stellar market success of the hi rez formats (and Ken Richardson's piece in the same issue expands on one of these theories: "Music's role is diminished in today's videocentric world"), Pohlmann concludes the piece saying:

 

[Lewis Besze]

That will surely ruffle some feathers!

 

[Artur Meinild]

The SACD format is indeed a strange animal - 1 bit 2,8 MHz compared to the normal 24 bit 48/96. From a music production perspective, I clearly prefer DVD-A because of it's backwards compatibility, easier mastering and authoring, and it's interactive features. I hold nothing against SACD, and I think both formats can coexist, but I will continue to support DVD-A.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Paul,

I like Ken's comments but I think he misses the point about how immersive just the 2 channel experience can be. I enjoy both surround and 2 channel.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I think SACD is a dead format for fans of classic and contemporary pop/rock. The upcoming SACD page has shrunk dramatically, and for the first time, Universal has removed the Coming Soon page for SACD (they still have Coming Soon pages for DVD-A and DualDisc). Audio Fidelity is making 24K gold Redbook discs, at least for now (no SACDs listed as coming soon). Bruce Springsteen, long rumored to have SACD releases in the works, has his new album coming out exclusive to DualDisc. Can anyone name the major-artist pop/rock releases that are in the works for SACD? Do you need more than one hand to count them? More than one finger?

At this point it appears that SACD will not even be a niche format for pop/rock. If anybody has interest in discs that you haven't picked up (Dylan, Stones, etc.), now is the time to do it; don't assume they'll be around forever. The Dylan discs on my local store shelves are rapidly being replaced with redbook-only remasters. As far as I can tell, the Stones discs are still SACD, but the plain packaging makes it hard to tell. Other SACD discs like those from Peter Gabriel and David Bowie are becoming more scarce in the racks.

If you want a disc, pick it up now. Even if it's single layer.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Classical music is thriving on SACD (the RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence SACDs are possibly the best hi-rez releases in any format ever), but it's hard to argue that pop/rock is catching on... or even holding on. At least not in this country. Sad to say, but for pop/rock it looks like either the semi-retarded format of dual-disc or back to vinyl/CD... so, I guess it's back to vinyl/CD!

In a world where crap is king, how did we ever think something as wunnerful as SACD had a chance? :frowning:

 

[Rachael B]

All those Kinks SA-CD's have been coming out...I'm not sure if the entire lot is out yet???

I think the big 4 will regret dropping SA-CD down the line when they become the even more desperate 4. Their best customers expect them and snbbing them is D-U-M-B!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

So the outcome of the format war is:

DVD-A: pop, rock, etc.

SACD: classical, jazz.

This would be a satisfactory outcome for all concerned. Most people prefer one genre over the others, so everyone can purchase a cheap drive that only has to decode one format. I'm quite happy with my Philips 963......I listen almost exclusively to classical. Upscaled redbook is good enough for the others.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Unfortunately, it looks like most pop/rock and country will be on DualDisc, not DVD-A. And I can accept DualDisc, with some reluctance, but not the lossy low-res titles from Sony. Their discs all have low-res PCM for stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 for surround. That's not high-res.

 

[Rich Malloy]

But there are so many of us who see only two primary categories: good music and bad music. Those who can pigeonhole their tastes into one tiny marketing demographic may be able to make such a choice, but this is hardly satisfactory for those of us who love Dylan as much as Stravinsky, Miles as much as Marley, etc.

I think SACD will stagger on, and I'm nearing 200 discs in my collection (only some of which just collect dust!). My greatest disappointment is the apparent move to phase out DVD-A and replace it with Dual-Disc... and just as DVD-A was really becoming viable IMO.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Agreed. But once Sony/BMG and Universal started supporting DualDisc, their SACD pop/rock output ground to an immediate halt. There are still some cool DVD-A titles coming out, at least (REM, Simple Minds, Beck, Porcupine Tree).

Universal used to release more SACD on a good week than they have all year.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Yup.

 

[Ken Groulx]

Does Universal have any SACDs forthcoming in the near future?

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Lee Scroggins claims they are releasing 150 titles this year.

As best as I can tell, they've only released one or two in the last couple of months and have none on the slate.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

SACD will always have a future with me, even if they only release a disc or two a year that I want. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is coming, and so is Wish You Were Here, as well as rumored titles (like Aerosmith's Rocks).

 

[Matt Fisher]

I've only bought DVD-A mainly because my DVD player doesn't support SACD, well ONLY because it doesn't support SACD, but I honestly see myself upgrading to probably a universal (dvd/dvd-a/sacd) player by the end of the year. Like people have said, it seems DD is halting DVD-A production a bit, and I just see such a more available catalog of titles in SACD - my local BestBuy usually has about 20 DVD-A and somewhere around 100-125 SACD. As long as the resolution is good and makes enough use of my HT as to where I can discern between sacd/dvd-a and redbook, I'll continue to support the format/s.

 

[Paul.S]

Are you interested in hi def movies, Matt? You might be best served by waiting--impatiently, if you're like me--to see whether DSD is going to be supported on Blu-ray. If so, hopefully we'll have a universal player that plays HD DVD, DVD-A, DVD-V, Blu-ray and SACD in about 18 months to two years. Hopefully. Hey, I can wish, and stranger things have happened, right? :rolleyes

-p