SACD - Dying already?

“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.

Some cars have DVD headunits and there are portable DVD walkman-style handhelds. You could play the the DD, DTS, 24/96 'DAD' audio mixes on those devices. I think the days of "CD-only " playback devices are numbered. everyone wants DVD now. :-( DVD-A could piggyback onto that better than SACD, IMO.

IMHO, intentional purchases on the part of the mainstream public of SACD will probably never materialize. Even if SACD doesn't survive, it has been instrumental in finally delivering the promise of the cd format, "perfect sound forever". Since the introduction of SACD and DVD-A(to a lesser extent), the quality of redbook players has far exceeded what they were prior to the SACD revolution.

Regardless of what ultimately happens to SACD, I say kudos to Philips and Sony for forcing the industry to raise the bar in the sound quality of redbook players.
Just my $.02.

Just a correction to my above posting: That was "3 new SACD releases a *month,*" not 3 new SACD releases a year, LOL. Yes, one cannot judge a product anymore by how well it sells in "local" stores; not with the internet around. (Plus Tower is too expensive.) With regards to DVD-A, reality is my favorite indicator indicator of its health--there are only 1/4 the titles available and how long has the format been available? DVDs have been selling *extremely* well, but what that tells me is that people are satisfied with them as they are. Hard core music buffs have been complaining about the sound quality of CDs for years which created a hunger for SACD within this particular niche. Many SACDs I buy on line are on back order--reality check again: the inventories, however small, are being exhausted. There *are* mid-fi SACD players available--Denon has one for $3K that even does bass management in the analog domain. It's just that the name is Denon and not audiophile brand X.

They are both dead. Mass storage device based music systems will make physical media obsolete soon enough. Witness iPOD, and the steady advancements in Media PCs. This will be a boon to both the music industry (reduced distribution costs) and the audiophile (true high resolution audio and reduced mechanical playback issues).