The point everyone seems to be missing is that Universal has denied that they are switching over to hybrids. That could be smoke, but if it were they could have done a much better job of fudging. Apparently, they told Stereophile that it just wasn't true. And Stereophile ran with the story anyway.
Latest SACD News - Very Interesting.
Rumor is one of the main record companies had decided to stop CD production and switch to SACD/CD hybrids for all new titles. As Sony cannot as yet produce hybrids, it is assumed that the label in question has to be Universal (Philips).
The news, announced at a Sony-Philips press conference, was that one million consumer SACD players have been sold so far. The prognosis for SACD is total worldwide sales of 6 million players (in whatever form) in 2003 and 13 million in 2004.
Sounds like great news, but there are still no SACD titles I want to buy; and I refuse to pay more for a hybrid CD I can't use.
More information is at: http://www.stereophile.com/shownews.cgi?1353