Will Wadio ever make an SACD player?

After 5 years and someone's trumpeting 2700 titles available? I got more titles than that on CD right here in this room. Hell, I could buy more than 2700 brand new LP titles right now. I don't see any reason for Wadia to pony up the money for SACD when the catalogue is boring, boring, boring. And a few occasional gems admittedly. I don't have an SACD player and can't see why I would need one. Oh sure, I have some hybrid discs but I got 'em just for titles not because they were SACD. A couple of Dylan discs that I have yet to play and a Stones CD that I do play but I ain't dropping big bucks on a player just so I can listen to Beggars Banquet. I don't see most of the underground music that I listen to (whether it be psych-noise, drone, jazz or avant-classical) ever coming out on SACD.
Since most of us probably have a substantial investment in redbook and are still buying tons all the time, I think that Wadia could focus on their immediate concerns and keep putting out killer CD players while they reorganize.

I have nothing against increased resolution formats but I'm not sure that SACD was ever the answer and it sure has gone nowhere fast. Or perhaps gone nowhere very, very, very slowly would be more accurate. For the meantime, for better and worse, I'm married to redbook. As far as CD's goes. I still buy plenty shiny black discs and spin them on my so-called "turntable" which is having it's own format wars with Classic Records putting out those fancy-dancy 45 RPM discs......

I own a DVD/SACD/DVDA player, and i bought it to function as my main dvd player, the sacd and dvda are just there as a bonus to me, however i have found a few sacd's (which i strongly prefer over dvda's) that are just mesmerizing, James Taylor's Hourglass is really amazing in 5.1 surround. Anyway, for whatever it's worth, my .02...

Rex, why do you write that Wadia might never make another cd player? I haven't heard this - did i miss something?

Kublakhan,

Wadia has already made another CDP. They have a new flagship model that has been around for several years. I would guess that they are deciding on whether it would be financially feasible to bring it to market. Perhaps someone with firsthand experience with the company can comment.

I asked someone at the company several years ago whether they would develop a machine with SACD capability. The response was something like, what's the point? Meaning they felt that Wadia on redbook sounds better than SACD. The company line is that if something comes along that makes a significant improvement, they would welcome it. And also, that the current models would potentially be upgradable for future technologies.

Rob

Rob,

The comment that Wadia does not see any point to SACD is interesting. That apparently is the opinion of the Theta people as well. In the manufacturer's comment to Stereophile's review of the Theta Generation VIII DAC, the manufacturer noted that its DAC would be retrofittable for SACD playback, once a digital interconnection protocol is worked out, but they thought redbook CD playback done correctly is superior.

So far, I have found really good CD playback to be better than the SACD machines I've heard. By really good CD machines I mean, specifically, the Audionote DAC-4 and DAC-5 and the Naim CDS3 (the machine I own, it replaced a Sony SCD-1). Other machines I heard and liked include the Audio Aero Capitole, the Burmester 001, and the MSB machine. I saw and heard the Audio Aero universal player at CES, but I cannot really comment on its sound; the system, however, sounded good.