SACD availability

Art, you're doing something wrong if you think DTS HD and Dolby True HD are the same as Redbook and standard DVD audio. There are Bluray discs without video.

Art - Are you talking about the lossless audio that now comes on most of the new blu-ray movies? As far as I know, it's essentially the same as redbook as compared to the audio having some level of compression on standard DVDs. I would agree that it does sound great, but I think the distraction of the video really helps out.

1. I've heard a few SACD's whose quality floored me. They sounded so natural that I thought a $200 stereo playing this disk might best a $30,000 stereo playing Redbook.

2. Alas most SACD's seem to me to be a modest improvement over their cd counterpart. I SUSPECT this is because SACD recordings are not being made in DSD which is (probably) what you need to do to get the best out of SACD. Certainly the reissues I've tried did not seem to wring the best out of SACD

3. Bluray discs support a sound format with movies that I personally find pretty amazing. I have never tried it on my high end audio system, just on my (very decent) home theatre, but I find that when you play a bluray disc that uses the new bluray audio format on a system that can play it back, it has a startling level of realism. The improvement is comparable to the difference between an HD picture and an old standard TV picture. I used to suggest that people not bother with bluray unless their screen size was 42" or higher. Now a ask - how good is your HT sound system. SO, there is a possibility that this format will come to be seen over time as the superior audio format as regards physical media, particularly as bluray will be default on virtually all new DVD players soon.

4. Is it possible to rip an SACD to iTunes? To any PC or Mac player? I think the answer is - only if it is hybrid and your drive can access the cd layer - in which case of course you may as well just be "ripping" the cd itself.

5. Hi Rez digital downloads are the most likely future, but this is still future.

Bottom line: no simple answers, IMHO.

Opinion: If there are great SACD's right now that you would enjoy, personally I say go for it!

Art

It seems to me that there are more SACDs coming out every day. Besides the sites listed above, Music Direct and Elusive Disc have plenty of them. I recently bought about 35 RCA Living Stereo Classical SACDs for about $6 a piece from Barnes & Noble online. Buy two and get one free sale. Unfortunately many of the cases were cracked.

I received my first four SHM-SACDs yesterday (Aja, Velvet Underground, Stones (ABKCO 2002 master) and Police (A&M 2003 master)).

I popped in Aja and have been listening to it all morning. It sounds fantastic - open, clear and liquid.

With regard to the last two SHM-SACDs, I only picked them up (they are basically reissues) because I only recently began to get into SACD after I purchased my XDS1, but from all accounts the reissues are slightly better due to the single layer SHM process but are limited by the reuse of the older masters so there is probably not much point in double dipping if you already have them.

In any case, Velvet Underground is next...

^as you can see, SACDs are not only still being made but they are the current best-sellers :)

"Are SACD discs still being made?"

yep, you can look @

http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=topsellers
http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=results&orderby=13&ComingSoon=true&categoryID=4
http://twitter.com/puresuperaudio
http://sa-cd.net/

Other than classical and jazz releases, there are actually new SACDs being released off of new masters right now (e.g., Steely Dan - Aha, Dire Straits - self titled, etc.) but not in the US and they are limited releases (read, very expensive).

There are also a bunch of SACDs still available through amazon and others. Check out sa-cd.net.

There is nothing new in SACD outside of classical, jazz, and the occasional overpriced import reissue.

I have supported SACD since 03 or 04 but i have finally come to realize that the format is dead and I should get out while I can still sell my OOP disks for serious money.

Mark

Thank you all for your replies. On Elizabeths's comment: I do not believe any company would invest millions of dollars designing, implementing, marketing and distributing a product just to destroy a competitor's product. It just doesn't make good business sense. This is especially true for Sony, which was struggling financially when they introduced SACD in the market.

I sincerely hope that studios do put out BlueRay music discs. With a storage capacity like that...and the potential to have a very high sampling rate, we can all rejoice. We'll see. Somehow I kind of doubt it because I think we would have seen it by now. But a boy can dream...

I was actually replying to Mrtennis Kijay.

Rwear - I have a DAC but SACD format is different and cannot be stored on Hard Disk. I can use red book layer but it is the same as buying standard CD.

Agree with Elizabeth. Can remember when stereo records came out and the stereo was priced at the same level as the mono version or maybe a dollar more, its been awhile. Had Sony done the same with maybe an extra $1 or 2 for the SACD it would have taken off, the sound was worth it.

All you need is a good DAC.

some cd hardware is prefereable to sacd hardware. that is, some cds may sound better on some dac/xport combinations than some sacd discs played on some sacd players. one needs to find a high quality sacd player to appreciate the advantages of an sacd disc. i suspect there are some older sony players or modified sacd players which bring out the best in sacd.

Rwwear - part that I can rip is red book only - rest is useless to me since I use only server. I don't mind buying SACD if it is not too expensive.

Why does it matter Kijanki? As long as they are hybrid discs you can still rip them and still have the high resolution disc for playback when wanted.

SACD is not very popular for many reasons. It was very expensive at the beginning, could not be copied to provide backup and could not be used with computer server system. Sometimes I think that all schemes (SACD, DVD-A, HDCD) were only for copy protection where they loose a lot of money. It is very difficult to compete with established standard (redbook CD) while a lot of people switched to servers. I would not buy SACD for that reason alone.

I personally dislike a lot of things Sony has done of late and believe their products to be lacking in quality. But I think Elizabeth's comments are totally wrong about Sony's intentions for SACD. I believe Sony thought SACD was the superior format. I think if the public had supported high resolution audio and there had not been a format war, Sony and Philips(don't forget them) would have been more inclined to release more on SACD. Keep in mind there were only a few factories capable of mastering SACD discs and they were running at full capacity and Sony was very stingy with their licensing. Sony has not abandoned SACD entirely as they are still making players. But I would like to see Sony build a true universal player that plays DVDA in addition to everything else but it's not likely to happen.

Sony plans to start selling their new SCD-XE800 SACD player on August 21 for $430. Now that you have that information, go out and buy the Oppo BDP-83 SE and cover all your bases. Disclosure: I have a BDP-83 SE and I had the first entry level Sony SACD player which went 86 just months out of warranty. I still have the complimentary Rolling Stones SACD that they included with their first SACD players (to bad I could care less about the Stones). I've had only good experiences with Oppo and their customer service is excellent. Sony customer service? Expletives come to mind.

If you are primarily a classical and jazz listener there is plenty of music out there on SACD as well as new releases coming out. IMO I would not consider a player without SACD capability. But I listening primarily to classical and jazz so I have no problem finding music to purchase. And as Elizabeth points out it appears that only the small / medium size labels are supporting it.

SACD discs are mostly classical and jazz but there's still many older rock discs available. I think your best bet is to get a universal player that will play everything including DVDA and maybe Bluray and you'll have all formats covered for a while.