SACD Dominates Recommended List

Mes,

Which upgrade are you doing at Audience? The $1640 Cabledriver upgrade or the $450 upgrade? These prices do not include the their cord. Thanks

Mikeg- I'm doin the whole enchilado, including Cabledriver, sans cords. I may audition the Powerchord and see, I'd be surprised(pleasantly) if it bests what I already have, but I'm open to that possibility. I must say my interaction with Richard at Audience has been nothing less than pleasant and informitive, and best yet, a no BS approach. I'll hopefully have the unit in a couple of weeks, thats where the rubber meets the road, so we'll see. Mark

Great post Mes, thank-you for sharing your results. I agree that in audio there are a few great changes that come as a real bargain. IMO SACD players are an amazing value. It's exciting to think of where this technology will lead over the next years. For now again IMO spending more than the price of a SACD player on digital is foolish, and not at least trying SACD is even more foolish.

Twenty years ago the introduction of the CD was a distinct step backward as far as sound reproduction was concerned. Fortunately, within the last few years the CD format has sufficiently advanced to the point where it produces high quality playback. Compare that to SACD, which in its initial rollout is clearly head and shoulders above the "mature" CD format. If it's this good in its infancy, then imagine to what sound level it will mature? In this modern age, no format will last forever. In the future music delivery formats will probably last no more than 5-10 years before the manufacturers effectively stop supporting the format. My advice is not to get hung up on the equipment (which includes the little silver discs), but to instead keep moving forward towards the music. Rather than the small, incremental changes afforded by upsampling and expensive cables, the SACD represents great leap forward in sound reproduction.

I have to disagree with you Onhwy61 about the introduction of CD's. When they came out in the 80's, they were vastly superior in quality to the typical (although not high end) TT setup. For 98% of the consumers, it was not only technically and audibly superior, but it offered convenience unparalleled in the vinyl world. And within a couple of years of its introduction, machines could be had for $300, a price that nearly matched its TT equivalents. Its no leap to figure out why it displaced TT's so quickly.

I question whether SACD, or any other high end audio format provides the same kind of draw for the mass market. I'm not sure that those same 98% will benefit from the improved audio quality, and the format itself really offers nothing more. My guess is that with multi-thousand dollar machines, people in general won't be flocking to it.

As an audiophile product, SACD may have some legs, but this isn't a very large market overall. As a consumer format right now, DVD offers quite a bit more to the consumer than either CD or SACD. I'm putting my money on it gaining momentum as we head down the road.

Personally, I'm a bit torn about supporting SACD. Its a good audio format and I'd love to see the high end spectrum leap forward to this degree. But as mentioned in a prior post, Sony has a habit of keeping their technology close to the vest, and I don't really relish an all Sony audio world. Nor do I relish owning a music collection with a half dozen different formats (and the machines to accommodate them). For me, its a wait and see game with a willingness to comprise some audio quality for convenience, content selection, and reasonably priced equipment.

Cheers... Ken