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The Year of the Universal Player

Universal players appear to have come of age, with announcements at CES of new universals by at least 8 high end manufacturers, and rumors of 'in progress' from several others....Bel Canto, Linn, McCormack, MBL,Audio Aero, MSB, Lexicon, Teac, (Krell?, Goldmund?). And in addition, a majority of Japanese makers have them, and even at multiple price points.

This is excellent news for high resolution, as it follows on a general industry consensus, expressed by S. Rochlin at enjoythemusic.com, that both SACD and DVD-A are here to stay. That, together with the success of SACD disc sales, the availability of appropriate chip sets, and the fact that the majority of high end audio shops are now heavily involved in home theater and multichannel sales.

Universal players by high end makers are clearly aimed at that 75% of the audiophile market that is still fence-sitting because of the format war.

Will the presence of higher quality universals now affect your decision to buy into these formats?
flex
adamanteus
80 posts
 
Ditto to Bomarc's and Hockey's posts. Very little reason to make such an investment, what with very limited software.
treyhoss
287 posts
 
I definately think software - and availiablity - will drive the sales of these players. They are practically "giving away" DVD-A and SACD on the sale of DVD players, which have been one of the most popular sellers in the history of electronics. One of the reasons I am sure these formats will continue is the inability (at this point anyway) to copy or burn them. This should provide greater incentive for the record companies to buy in to these formats AND as more people replace their DVD players with newer models (with the technology built in) they will have the players to play them. I can tell you that the quality of sound put out by a lower end SACD or DVD-A is probably equivelant to a MUCH more expensive CD player or DAC/transport combo - a discernable difference to the "mass market" consumers. AND Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is going to be released in March (30th anniversary) on SACD - for me, 'nuff said!
oldears
386 posts
 
For Scotty,
If you talk to MUSE they will confirm to you that the Model 10 will play the CD layer of a hybrid SACD, it will NOT play the SACD layer and they do not claim it to be a universal player in that sense.

For Others,
I have a MUSE 9 Signature Gen 3, and if anyone has compared or been able to listed to the Model 10, I would like to have their comments.
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