Any hope for SACD?


Is there any hope at all for transferring more music, especially classic popular music, to SACD?

I mean, so many audio companies are investing so much in R+D for the hardware, but, to me clearly, there is huge bang for the buck in having an SACD version of the recording.
For example, the recent Carole King Music SACD is incredible, with a totally natural image density and rock-solid soundstaging (qualities I hear in most SACDs of long-familiar albums). Is there no economic justification for this? You get so much for so little. I wish the audio companies would band together to fund this. It sure would make equipment demos sound better.

My little system at home with SACD trounced the quality of even the megabuck systems at the NY show a few weeks ago, including all the vinyl demos to my ears. (My EMM XDS1 helps, but my Sony 5400 on SACD is also quite fine.)

It just seems like such an incredible waste that SACD is dead or dying and nobody in the audiophile or larger music community is talking about this. Does everything have to suffer at the invisible hand of the profit motive? This is an artistic pursuit fundamentally, and you might as well always show all the paintings in the world behind blurry glass. It's a crime that, say, the Beatles aren't available in SACD or any HiRez format.
rgs92

Showing 5 responses by edorr

The difference between encoded high rez PCM (which is what BR carries), and DSD is splitting hairs.
Forget SACD. Much to my regret the format is dead. You can take some comfort in the fact that high-rez computer based audio will be taking off in a big way. Unfortunately no multi channel of course, but two channels of SACD level quality/resultion will be broadly available.
This issue is not SACD /DSD per se. Blu Ray audio can carry encoded high rez multi channel LPCM audio that is sonically at par with SACD. Unfortunately, there appears to be little appetite for actually releasing much music only content on Blu Ray. The future is downloadable high rez, which will be 2 channel. The writing on the wall is labels like chesky releasing all their MCH high rez content as downloadable 96/24, as opposed to Blu Ray.

Only live concerts and classical will be released in MCH, mostly on BR video discs.
I'd still much rather have a broadly available high Rez format that is 95% as good as sacd than a niche, audiophile format with no catalogue. Give me all mainstream released as downloadable high Rez flacs, and live concerts, classical and select other content as high Rez Dolby trueHD on BR discs and I'm a happy camper.