The ignorance of SACD & DVD-A marketing idiots....

My Sony Blu-Ray does play SACD, both 2- and multi-channel, though there's nothing in the specs that states that. In the manual, it tells you to go to "Music Settings" and choose it, which I did and played an SACD only disc, no problem.

As far as the formats, DVD-A was flawed by having to have a monitor to easily navigate the disc. Didn't make sense at all.

I had read that one of the reasons for the failure of SACD was the cost, mandated by Sony having to pay three times the royalties, one time each for the CD layer, the 2-channel SACD layer, and the multi-channel SACD layer. Whether that is true or not, I don't know.

Having put out multi-format and single SACD discs, many people were afraid to buy SACD, having been warned SACD would not work on their CD player and the confusion of choosing the right discs.

Sony should have just made all the discs with SACD and put the capability in their players so there would be no confusion. Once people started to play Sony discs in Sony players, they would have realized how much better Sony stuff sounded.

Having said that, I'm not sure it matters anymore, since Hi-Res downloads are the future (or at least the next few years . . . who knows?).

In the meantime . . . vinyl, baby! Infinite sampling!

The Sony Blu-Ray player I have that plays SACD is a S580. Cheap and surprisingly good.

I'm a bit confused though (what else is new?). I have the player connected to my processor with a digital coax cable only. The processor shows "PCM." This is with a non-hybrid, SACD only disc (Jorma Kaukonen, "Blue Country Heart").

I called Sony support to find out how it was possible for SACD to be transmitted through a digital cable. Obviously, I didn't get a coherent answer . . . not that I really expected one. I honestly don't know what the person was trying to say. I don't think they did, either.

If anyone can explain what the deal is here, I would appreciate it. How can SACD go through a digital cable?

Yes, Unsound . . . SACD was out long before Blu-Ray. Did I misunderstand something?

Odd they should suddenly put SACD back. Just confirms the illogical Sony marketing. Why now, after they've killed it off?

Bobschneider, thanks for the explanation. I thought that might be the case, but I didn't know it was possible.