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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 1 response by kijanki

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kijanki
4,412 posts
 
I suspect that SACD was created partially to introduce format that cannot be copied. Unfortunately greed killed it at the very start. Price of over $30 for SACD was about double of CDs while royalties and cost of manufacturing was about the same. Media itself is double layered, but it is only very small difference (less than dollar). Now prices are way lower but it is too late. People lost interest, I know I did. I remember this happening many times in the past with Beta VCR, Iomega Zip, MiniDisc etc. Good way to establish standard is to promote it with lower prices and advertise it. I don't remember seeing any ads for SACD while Iomega instead of promoting their ZIP media charged $10 a piece suing everybody else (involving international courts). I remember seeing one car radio with MiniDisc but now there is none. If it is perfect format for the car - much easier than CD, then why is it gone? Because greed kills.

Good example of greed is region code protecting DVD profits. Same DVD sold in US for $20 is sold by 20th Century Fox in China for $2 (they even admit making small profit there). That suggest 1000% profit here protected by region code (that they forced on manufacturers of the hardware)

Popularity of computer based music servers is final nail to the coffin of SACD that cannot be used with server at all.
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