Another sign SACD is dying

Two channel stereo is dead! I went to Best Buy and they did not have any high end gear. How long will it be before AudiogoN folds up and we don't have anywhere to write this stuff?!?

Best Buy is the lowest common denominator or electronics sales. They mean nothing to good musical reproduction, or good home theater for that matter. I stand by my statement that SACD will only succeed if audiophiles support it. If people who care about good sound stick with a garbage format like redbook, then we are doomed... No one will ever introduce a better format, why would they? We are shooting ourselves in the foot by rejecting hi-rez formats. Maybe we're shooting ourselves in the head!?!

Only companies as big as Sony and their ilk can design and produce a gamble like SACD or DVD-A. If we argue about their virtues and sit on the sideline, our options will never get better. Are you satisfied with your system to the point where it does not need to get better??? If not support better formats! Are SACD and DVD-A perfect? Not by a long shot, but they sure are better than the dismal failure of redbook CD!!!

Pbb how could you say that about Mario's??? That's some of the best Italian food I've never had!!!

Ben Campbell I'm not going to argue with you, at least I don't think I'm going to argue...

Listening to music is the ultimate goal of all music lovers and audiophiles. We all want it to sound good, or if possible better. Lots of people have said that with SACD the margin of improvement is not great enough to justify the expenditure. My response is that redbook CD in 1985 was a poor format. It has been improved upon by nearly everyone who makes any gear at all. SACD was much better sounding than redbook. If people could improve redbook that much in the last twenty years, you know they can do the same with SACD. Many companies already have. Classe, Reimyo (sp), and Meitner have made some very good units. This technology, if not left for dead would trickle down where Joe Sixpack could afford it soon enough.

My Sony SCD 777es sounds very good in SACD, but it is nowhere near SOTA anymore. The state-of-the-art has left it behind. BUT it's all dollars and sense. If audiophiles won't spend their dollars, it doesn't make sense for Sony/Classe/Meitner to invest in much better sound and formats or playback units.

I have the Dylan set, nearly all of them, and there are none of them that suck. They might not be as good as the best recordings available, but I bought them to support better formats and because I'm a Dylan psycho! I love his stuff!

What will happen when some designer puts together something truly amazing (format wise) but they never build it because they don't think buyers will go for it based on the failure of SACD? What is Sony's motivation to develop better sounding musical formats? What we have today is not the pinnacle of what the human mind can conceive. I want something better, if that means following the red herring of SACD, I'm not sorry I spent the money...

I was not going to respond because I didn't think there was anything else left to say, but after reading what has been posted lately I think there is more worthwhile discussion to be had...

Sinnermatic systems, Ampex sold out! It sucks but the good ol' US of A could have made a killing on video, but we sent all the money to Japan instead.

Sinner matic, Sony did not build SACD to use it for a little while and then to pull it. It may work very well to archive old tapes that are not holding up that well. Something needed to be done to preserve this music and Sony admitted that redbook is not the answer. The format is too flawed to archive old, great music. The format may have been developed to archive with, but I'm sure Sony hoped it would be a commercial success too. Redbook was forced upon an unsuspecting public, had Sony done the same with SACD who know what might have happened!?!

Ben, my experience is different than yours. I have not encountered a situation where the SACD did not better redbook. I have maybe 40 SACDs and this has not been an issue. I agree that there are not a lot of titles, but if people had bought the portion of what was available that they enjoyed, it would be good motivation to make more.

Eldartford, if you're not covered with it, then not enough mud has been flung! Who is flinging mud anyway? You should change your user name to: Ihateeverythingeveryoneelsesays.

Newbee most SACDs are the same or cheaper (in my little town) as their redbook counterparts. I don't think the issue is the cost of pressing (for lack of a better term) SACDs, but the fact that the gear for making redbook recordings is not the same as SACD. The additional gear costs money to the studio, and again along the chain. Prices for SACDs are not a deterent to buying the product, for me anyway.

Cinner I thought about what you said which was why I responded with a glib comment.

I'm not sure our difference in regard to this matter is as great as in other matters. I am simply saying that Sony must have believed that SACD as a consumer format had a fighting chance. I agree that Sony was looking for the best possible means of archiving their vast library of music. But if it were you, wouldn't you also hope that the incompatable format would be a commercial success.

There continue to be new SACDs available for the music lover. I bought several of the new Living Stereo releases a few weeks ago. Tschaikowski's 6th Symphony, Sherazade, and a Gershwin release all sounded very good. At the $12 price point, they were well worth the cost.

Post mortum eh? If it's dead (I will concede life support) that's just because people who claim to be music lovers let a better sounding format die.

Where is the controversy?

You're right Ben. If there were more music I wanted on SACD I would buy it, as I think, would you. This isn't as simple as I would wish. There are many factors involved, and we don't have any control over most of them anymore. Maybe if we had...

The Milwaukee Symphony orchestra is doing that right now...

I haven't taken the time to wade through all this animus, but when companies like dcs continue to make new SACD and have plans to release another next year, can the future really be soo bleak?