SACD - Dying already?

I have what I feel is a very revealing system (certainly one of the best audio system of anyone I know personally) and find the SACDs and DVD-As I have to be only slightly better (if at all) than well recorded CDs. I don't have a $5000 player with mega-buck amps and speakers(I have a $1000 Pioneer 47ai with a Naim pre, McCormack DNA2 amp, and Thiel CS6s up front) but if my system is not good enough to hear a noticable difference, the formats are doomed. I think the quality of the recording has way more impact on sound than the format it is encoded in. I very much wanted the Hi Res format to be everything they claimed it was but lately I've been contemplating a high quality CD player and focusing my upgrades on High Def Video. HDTV is a format that clearly is superior and much more rewarding vs. I can't wait for HD DVD to become mainstream.

I buy SACD every chance I get. I either buy them online or from local store such as Best Buy or Frys. To me SACD bring me closer to the music and that's why I am buying them every chance I get. Every time I goes to the store or went online I found new SACD titles. Is SACD dying? Not in my book! If this is a Audiophile format at best, so be it! If it becomes a popular format, great! I can buy it cheaper. Meanwhile I just enjoy it every chance I get. Life is short.

I never think to buy discs anywhere except the net.

DVD-A will survive because it is a very flexible protocol, that can offer something for everyone. The audio quality is obviously better than CD (same PCM code with more bits and higher sampling rate).

With SACD Sony has painted themselves into a corner. Audio quality is about the same as DVD-A, but with none of the extra DVD features.

It's interesting timing of this post as I just purchased my 100th SACD and have been concerned about the viability of this format. I don't have a mega buck SACD player but a Marantz SA 14 v2 and have been very pleased with it. I have a large collection of CDs and vinyl and enjoy vinyl playback immensely. I am also very impressed with SACD, to me there is no question about it's superior sound over Redbook CD.( I didn't always think that until I heard a good player in my system) The biggest problem as I see it is the availability and price of SACD disc. Sony has done a poor job in this area, one of the biggest selling points of SACDS is backword capability but Sony continues to put out many only single layer disc, no simultaneous new releases of new titles and of course the biggest problem is limited catalog selection. Sony doesn't even put out same day SACD releases of their own catalog.

I believe the format will survive, at what level remains to be seen, you know vinyl is a niche format and doing quite well. We need more product at a cheaper price to really jump start this format.

“I have also considered that DVD-A has some advantage to the masses as most can be played on any DVD player”
And
“DVD-A will survive because it is a very flexible protocol, that can offer something for everyone”

The flip side to those positions are that SACD has the advantage because they can be listened to in a average car stereo. That is more flexible. A majority of music sales is targeted to the youth of America and the youth mostly care about whether they can listen to it in car as far away from their parents living room DVD player as possible.