Some good news for Super Audio fans! (1 Viewer)

[John Kotches]

Lee,

In response to this:

I remain unconvinced if all you have is AVS chatter or anecdotal evidence. Until an official press release comes out, I am going with the TAS reporting.

Please read my signature line. I have discussed this via e-mail with Jeff Talmadge, who "owns" the 5803 receiver and 9000 DVD player at Denon. If you consider Jeff anecdotal evidence, that's fine and dandy. I pointed you to AVS as a public forum that Jeff has shared this information.

You do realize that the print deadline for TAS and all the other print 'zines was about 1 week after the show (CES). Things can and do change rapidly in the business, and the lack of inclusion of SACD for the Denon flagship combo was made public a number of weeks ago. Unfortunately, the issue of TAS was committed to print and could not be modified in time. You could wait another 2-3 months and read TAS' errata, or wait less than 1 month and check it out on the shelves. Either way, it simply won't be there.

Regards,

 

[John Kotches]

Keith,

By the same token, the majority of SACD players (AA aside) have been sold as "added features" for DVD-V players, like the DV-S9000ES, DV-NS900P, NC650V (I think that's the changer model #) etc, etc, etc.

In each case, it's the "stealth upgrade" as I call it, that is getting the majority of the players in each format into the consumers hands.

I think 2002 will be an interesting year for both SACD and DVD-A.

Regards,

 

[John Kotches]

Keith,

If you look at the numbers of DVD players sold, Sony can still be leading in overall sales of a single brand, but they are nowhere near a majority of units sold.

Regards,

 

[John Kotches]

Steve,
A universal player under US$500? Man you're a tough customer
I don't know that it would be possible to deliver a universal player under US$500, because of the license costs on a per unit basis for the players.
Apex can sell their universal player for around US$300 because they don't pay any of the licenses.
Regards,

 

[Rachael B]

I wonder how many points of marketshare that Sony will lose in the DVD-V market in the next year or two for not making a universal player themselves? If they had any ball at all they'd make the great super player themselves. Sony is corporation clueless IMO. They don't understand the U.S. market me thinks. They make the same mistakes over and over. They introduce products at over the top high prices and wonder why they don't get off the ground.

They've made every mistake possible with SACD so far. They came to their senses somewhat and added 5.1 ability, finally. Pushing non-hybrid discs is like self-assisted suicide IMO. The one thing that could push the format over the top is what they refuse to do. To paraphrase the writer of one of my favourite British films, calling Sony stupid is an insult to the stupid eveywhere.

I got 5 more new SACD's this week, 2 hybrids from Rounder, a hybrid from Chesky, and Sony was very lucky I even bothered to take 2 of theirs. Sony discs are nearly always a low priority with me.

My ambition is to have about 100 SACD's within 2 years in case the format loses the momentumn it doesn't even have, to justify the two players I have.

NP - Laura Nyro's ANGEL IN THE DARK < SACD