Why didn't the DAD format take off??

DAD does not stand for Digital recording/Analog mastering/Digital release but for Digital Audio Disc. It is an audio disc which uses the audio parameters of the DVD-video specifications and, therefore, is playable on all DVD players. AFAIK, only Chesky and Classic released such discs.

They have not flourished because of DVD-A/SACD and because the market for them is limited.

"DAD" stands for "Digital Audio Disc" the 96/24 audio only discs that can only be played on latter generation DVD
player/transports. Some player/transports could only output this signal via analog outputs making the benefit of an outboard DAC moot. Shortly after the release of DAD the "promise" of DVD-Audio and SACD appeared, consequently many (consumers, manufacturers,etc,) held out for the "promise" of even better mediums rather than waste time and money on something that appeared to have imminent obsoleteness. Now that many people have the necessary hardware, perhaps we should revisit this medium. Perhaps not, if it would compromise any hope of an even better format? I don't know.

Because, from the record companies' perspective, DVD-A offered the prospect of both multi-channel sound and copy protection. DAD was always just a bridge technology, a smart place for a little company like Chesky to jump in ahead of the bandwagon, but nothing more.

I think it was probably a misreading of where the majors were going to go, as the product itself is quite good, and Mike Hobson was banking on the fact that there were tons of DVD players out there for people to play DADs on. He knew SACD was in the wings, but figured that with the head start on hardware out there the 24/96 pcm would be the winning format. Unfortunately, the major record companies seem more interested in watermarking their discs and establishing a new system rather than utilizing what's out there, and their delay really has hurt the 24/96 format. I am very disappointed about the DVD-A format in that, unlike the DADs, I can't use a better quality DAC through a digital out to play the discs (DVD-A will not currently let a digital 24/96 signal out of the player)--it really bugs me that the Classic and Chesky DAD system, which utilizes the same technology and has been available for years, wasn't adopted. A case of corporate concerns over piracy stifling a very good format.

I agree that the DADs were a nice format. I personally like them very much since even though I own a DVD-Audio player, even if DVD-Audio fails, I will still be able to get better than CD quality playback on any DVD player. I think the 24/96 playback thing is player dependant, since as I remember my Pioneer 38a does output 24/96. Since I had ModWright tweak the Pioneer though, it's output is better than my Sunfire so I use it almost exclusively.

Greg