@jafant "treljathe SACD may not have reached the masses? Much depended upon
location(s). Best Buy, in my area, always had a pretty good selection
over several genres of music. Circuit City (remember this chain store?)
dabbled in SACD, again, in my area."
You're exactly right. Most likely, I bought most of my SACDs from Best Buy. And at decent price. We also had Circuit City also in my area, but I don't think I ever bought an SACD there.
What I mean about SACD not reaching the masses is that virtually none who actually (most likely, unwittingly) bought a hybrid got to actually hear the SACD layer, as they lacked the hardware that allowed it. SACD not taking off drove me back to vinyl. I have a ton of CDs, but CD just cannot provide me with the same moving experience.
My best friend is a serious musician, got signed to a record deal by the Maloof brothers, and has a bit of interest from afar in high-end audio. He'd never heard of SACD, and when I talked with him about it, the conversation normally went nowhere. Once, we got into a little more, and he asked me how many bits SACD used. The look on his face when I told him 1 bit was of utter scorn. However, several months later, within 3 seconds of listening to the opening track of Getz / Gilberto SACD, the more than ubiquitous Girl From Ipanema, I literally saw his eyes pushing out and his jaw hanging
