Coping in an Age of Uncertainty

Someone recently said that thousands of years from now archaeologists will be able to play LPs with a pine neeedle, while being baffled by assorted silvery discs!

Ern has a valid point. Was just reading about NASA's "old" computer files archived from Mars Voyager mission. No one is able to read them anymore. The machines that *could* read them have all been trashed ("who needs this old junk anymore?") the programmers are either retired/unlocatable, or are now dead. So these valuable data files are already useless. The scientist doing research was finally able to find file printouts & then had to pay people to re-key the data using newer machines & formats. No sense in archiving that either; before long those software versions will be outdated, & the files will again be unreadable because technology marches on & people don't think to re-reformat until it's too late. You have no idea how much important information has already been lost due to the "digital dark ages". Egyptians & their papyrus - an idea who's time has come back again.

Hi

My opinion is that new standards and new technologies generally bring advantages in terms of quality, but initially create the problem you mentioned. Well I decided to come down the fence and for $ 400 got a Philips 963SA that plays SACD, CD 24/192, DVD etc. I figured thet even if SACD does not work out I have an incredible CD and DVD player that sounds better than my Meridian 500/566 combo($ 3000+). At $400 all the problems you mentioned tend to fade away. To cut short, the secret is perhaps not to invest a large amount of money in waporware products.

Hello: Although I have purchased a number of SACD's and a few DVD- A's, I am disapointed in the audio quality of most of them. I am also noticing a number of disturbing trends. 1. Everything is now being released in "surround format", and this reduces the sonic quality of two-channel SACD playback. Has anyone with VU meters noticed the sub-sonic garbage level visible before the music starts. This must be harmful to the overall sound, if amps are attempting to reproduce it!! 2. Look carefully at the origins of the SACDs you buy. Very few are true DSD all the way through. Many of the master tapes are DAT 48Khz, or analog, or are edited on non-DSD equipment! 3. The vast majority of pre-amps, amps etc that can handle surround formats are oriented towards video and home-theatre, with many features un-needed and undesirable for pure audio setups!! The current issue of TAS features Harry Pierson raving about an audio surround system made up largely of hardware not yet available to ordinary mortals (i.e., non professionals). Have you tried to buy a Meitner processor??!!! Have you got the over 30 grand to buy the DCS Verdi...etc. etc. It would seem that truly proper reproduction of the best SACD and DVD Audio releases is only availaable to insiders in the industry and well-heeled audio critics. And this is a revolution??? I think they'll be growing coconuts at the north pole before most audiophiles are enjoying this "great revolution"!

I owned the sony SCD-1 when it first came out...I own a Levinson 360s DAC and 37 transport now....I've since listened to possible replacements at my local audio salon and at home...short of possibly $20K plus gear...buy the Levinson and forget about the future...enjoy the present!!