The plight of SACD....


Venturing into a local Audio Supermarket chain the other day...I found the latest advancement in digital audio relegated to a cheesy Kiosk in the very back of the store...complete with a Bose cube set-up...and the new Stones hybrid of "Got Live If you want it" (a dismal live recording regardless of format) blaring to a very disinterested public...no wonder average Joe aint buyin'...

Even with Sony "dumbing down" SACD/dvd players to the sub $500 level...without the software catalog to support it...and with the majority of the public A)satisfied with current redbook sound and B)not possessing even moderate midfi audio sytems to hear the sonic benefits...it appears SACD is going to be the next DAT commerical failure...ditto for DVD-Audio...these new products are not "market driven"...they are being forced on consumers...

The majority are not audiophiles let alone audio enthusiasts...accurate or improved sonics do not play an important role in their lives...redbook became dominant because its main competitor at the time was not the LP but the pre-recorded cassette...a dreadful format made worse by Dolby B...the Compact Disc won out but any digital format at the time would have...it offered convenience,portability,and eventually...compatability...

As someone who has invested a small amount in a SACD player and software...and was one of the first on my block to have a CD player...I have waited almost 20yrs for a digital
format that gives a hi-end analog system a run for its money...that day is both here and gone...I predict that SACD will remain a fringe format...similiar to DAT...in that
it will live on in professional applications...and have a small loyal following that truly appreciates its greatness...heres to hoping Im wrong...
phasecorrect

Showing 2 responses by joeavid

"If they can't get digital to sound better than vinyl after 22 years, and they can't get a higher resolution format to do it either, then they ain't gonna do "
Obviously you've been spending too much time scrubbing all the dirt off your 12'' party platters to take the time to keep up with the state of Digitial.I'm not just talking Sacd /DVD-A but Redbook is now truly a musicial medium.And for the same high price you paid for your High End Turntable", cartridge,tonearms,cleaners,special album sleeves,and the myriad other products you need to keep your platters sounding click and pop free, you could have achieved a satisfying ,musicial sound on digitial.
"You scorned the digitial world, and embraced the analog devil. Now you have to live with it."
That's right stay in the past,they may be making more TT's and still produce LP's but your market demographic is in reality so small that it hardly registers on the map.Vinyl is just dying a slower death that anticipated.
"Perfect SoundF orever" get over it ...it was a marketing statement that implied that you didn't need to worry about the skips,ticks,pops,warps that was part and parcel of the ancient medium of vinyl.
So keep vinyl alive by spending your $ on the vinylsaur!
Time to wake up and enter reality.
Sorry but I too get worked up over the mantra of "analog is better"Al Queda is the devil not digitial...
Hi Troglodyt let's analize your post...

Have fun with 16/44.1.(let's start my rant with some sarcasm)

"You already got the best you're gonna get. The joke was played 22 years ago. Alot fell for it, and some didn't. I didn't think the joke was funny in 1981, and I don't think it's funny now."(Preaching to the ignorant masses)

"The fact is, you wanted your "Perfect sound forever", and you got it(?). You scorned the vinyl world, and embraced the digital devil. Now you have to live with it."
YOU know the future and have a disdain for people who embrace technological change)

"Just how many times oversampling will it take to convince you that it just isn't going to happen? Oversampling, upsampling, downsampling, interpolation, no upsampling, jitter reducers, digital lenses, 1-bit, 20 bit, 24 bit, DSD, tube dacs, green pens, Buddhist chants. It just is not going to happen, folks. Time to wake up from the bad dream."
(Our Saviour Twl)

"I know this is hard medicine, but what do you think us vinyl guys have been having to swallow for over 20 years? We've watched all the music dry up, and go to digital formats. We've seen cost increases and less selection of our analog gear. We've borne the brunt of scorn from our fellow audiophiles. It hasn't been easy for us, but we've kept the vinyl flame alive for all of you, so that when this point came, there would be somewhere to go. If we hadn't done that, there would be no analog refuge from this digital crap-storm."
(Oh poor me ,I can claim poverty and intellectual superiority all at the same time )

IF YOU PROVOKE EXPECT A MIRRORED RESPONSE.