Sony CEO Reaffirms Commitment to SACD (1 Viewer)

[Tim Hoover]

Maybe I'm missing something, but since when does the number of titles available have anything to do with how popular the format is?

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Lee,


You are right, and to be fair, I am also a big jazz fan and there are many great SACD releases on Columbia as well as the Prestige/Riverside family of labels. There's also a selection of American & British rock groups that I like (Stones, Bowie) that have been released on SACD. Unfortunately, I've barely finished replacing my late 80s 16-bit pressings with the 24-bit remasters. And I haven't bought a lot of new jazz & rock CDs in the last year or two.

I brought up PIZZICATO FIVE and PUFFY for 2 reasons: 1) they are Japanese groups (one with a huge hipster/cult following, and the other a multi-million selling mainstream success), and 2) they are on SONY labels. I wonder what was going through their minds as they prepared releases in 2003-04 (and the forseeable future) that were not SACDs or hybrids.

 

[John Kotches]

DanFe says:


Not at all.

Sony's title output (as well as WBs for DVD-Audio) has been abyssmal over the last year. Which part of that would you like to argue with?

Sony's count of SA-CD capable players over the last year has decreased. There are 3 standard Sony badged, and two ES-badged players available at this time. At one point, the ES line had the SCD-C222ES, SCD-C555ES, DVD-9000ES, SCD-777 and SCD-1 all as current products. So then clearly the number of supporting products has dropped. Which part of that would you like to argue with?

This discussion was about Sony's support for SA-CD, and from where I'm sitting it hasn't improved.

Cheers,

 

[Lee Scoggins]

This is really looking at the glass as half full. In the past year Sony has introduced an inexpensive carousal player, a brand new 9000ES flagship, unveiled the DR-1 in Japan, and further publicized the Qualia SACD player at its opening of the NYC store. In addition, Oxford has revealed several new pro products including revised DSD workstations.

Sony has been strong on the hardware side John...the better argument would be on the software side but even here some 80-90 new titles per month being released.

I don't know why you are so down on Super Audio. It's a great sounding format without the fussiness of LP and there are some great recordings out there.

I think it is like the MoFi or DCC for the 2000s. We should appreciate that.

The point of the thread was the high level support SACD enjoys at Sony and how they are trying to get more label support as Dan says.

 

[Wes]

Looks to me Sony is more committed to DTS music CD's over their own SACD format. What Sony DVD player does not have a DTS decoder in it?

If they were committed to SACD every Sony CD and DVD player would have SACD capabilities, plain and simple!!!!!

Wes

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I want SACD to succeed, but...

o Sony doesn't have a $1000-$1500 single disc player SACD/CD player. I would buy one in an instant if they did.

o SACD used to be prominantly displayed on Sony's home web site. Now, you have to dig quite a ways to find any mention of it.


This is one way to spin it. No later years Stones. Exactly one Pink Floyd disc (with hopefully more to come, though). The Police is a joke, because they never put out all the extra stuff that's on the CD box set, on SACD. You could add the Allman Bros Fillmore East too, but then I'd add that they also missed all the extra tracks now available on CD. One marketing gaff after another... :rolleyes

 

[Marc Colella]

Agreed 100%

Why isn't SACD implemented in 100% of the players that Sony releases? Why not 75%? 50%? 25%?

 

[CarlP]

My SACD gripe...
If you announce a title will come out on a certain date, HONOR IT and RELEASE IT.
Where are the Steely Dan SACDs? They were announced, delayed a few times, then cancelled. Pure frustration.

NP: Interpol Antics

 

[Seth--L]

While I agree, the return of budget CD/SACD only players was a smart move.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

How about SACD support in the PS3 (along with Blu-Ray)? Or is that too much to wish for?

 

[Rachael B]

Did ya'all know that the Mark Knopfler SA-CD is a Warner Brothers release?

www.acousticsounds.com

They have it, my previous link that I just edited out didn't work.

European, I presume at that price. Why does hi-rez feel like a shell game? What next, Sony DVD-A's? Actually, that would be good, like some kind of truce.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Sony DualDiscs...

 

[Wes]

Is not Dual Disc basically a DVD-A with a built on CD? So Sony is supporting DVD-A in a round about way? Would not Dual Disc be in direct competition with SACD?

 

[Lewis Besze]

Lee, look at this link below,since when WB started doing SACDs? Am I missing something here or is it just a typo.

http://store.acousticsounds.com/brow...words=NL092904

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Rachael,

It's a typo. That is the Mercury Records import SACD. Not Warner.

 

[John Kotches]

Lee says:


It is not high level support from the two most important areas at Sony, the record label and the hardware.

We're still waiting on that car deck that has supposedly now been in executives cars for 2+ years.

Cheers,

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Sony is not supporting DVDA. They committed to DualDisc but not the DVDA part of the spec.

Lewis, Warner has released SACDs in Hong Kong. And a number of titles like the Mark Knopfler have come out in Europe on sister labels to Warner, ie. the artist has different labels based on geography.

 

[Thomas Newton]

It's a DVD/CD hybrid. There's nothing about the DVD side that forces it to be a DVD-A ... it could be a DVD-Video-only side, or a DVD-ROM-only side.

 

[John Kotches]

Lee says:


It's "out of band noise" not "outer band noise". The point is very simple. If all you have is noise above 25kHz, you aren't producing better performance than dithered 48kHz PCM.
Well okay, really if we're going to be picky and follow Nyquist literally you'd need just a dab more than 50kHz.

Bob Ludwig thinks DSD and 24/96K are roughly comparable in sound quality and 24/192K is best. So there's two highly respected individuals with that opinion.

David Chesky might still be capturing everything at 24/96K, I haven't talked with him in a while.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Not any more. Only a few until Warner Corporate found out what was going on.

Kind of like how Sony Music would like to release DVD-A but Sony Corporate squashes it.