SHMCD : Second thought on buying SACD player

Just think, if you could download the CD-quality (16/44.1) file and play it from your server, the quality of the disc material would be, um, immaterial.

And what if you could download and play a 24/96 version? I suspect that, a few years out, these new types of discs will look like overpriced, best-ever buggy whips.

True that 24/96 downloads will not become mainstream. But they will be more available (more titles) than SACD and, in all likelihood, will sound better, at least on the more modest playback systems most of us have.

I'd say 2-3 years if there's decent demand for it. Agree with you about the 30 page booklet. A PDF version isn't as useful. Then again, CD packaging doesn't compare to LPs.

My estimate of timing above assumes that it's relatively easy and cheap for a publisher to put up files of different resolutions. If that's not true, then I'm probably optimistic. But the iTunes Store populated pretty quickly if I recall. Seems to me that if there are people willing to pay a premium for higher rez versions and all it takes is disk space and bandwidth, why wouldn't they offer it? Would love to hear comments from industry insiders about this.