SACD - Dying already?

DVD-A and SACD don't fit in anywhere. For audiophiles, they don't sound as good as vinyl, for normal people (non audiophiles);) they don't have enough selection and most people don't care if it is a little better than normal CD (like audiophiles do) and as Uncle John pointed out downloadable digital music is going to dominate the future because of ease and continued sound improvement.

You want proof. What year did DVD-A and SACD come out? (several years ago) Look on your local music retailer's shelves and see how big that section is. Usually a four foot by four foot section in a warehouse sized store full of CDs -- Insignificant. Do you really think they will dominate in 5 or ten years from now? If so, that's what they were saying 5 years ago. At this rate, they might have an isles worth of SACD DVD-A by the year 2020. But by then something else new and better will come out. You do the math.

Records have been around for over 100 years and are still being used by audiophiles. The sound quality of Vinyl has yet to be matched.

So, I'll ask again where does SACD or DVD-A fit in?

It's fun to talk about them, isn't it?

For me, hi-rez format never lived. I never bought into it because none of my fave bands are available on them. This is coming from someone who definitely think redbook software is the weakest link in my system. Redbook technology itself is not that bad. I can still be totally enthralled by a well recorded redbook software and especially if its on HDCD.

I've always thought of myself as more of a gear lover than a music lover. This discussion made me realize I am more of a music lover relative to a gear lover. If I was a gear lover, I would have jumped on the hi rez format despite it not having any content in my opinion. But then I realize that I actually welcome the challenge in trying to build a redbook friendly system. So, maybe I am more of a gear head after all.

Viggen: I appreaciate your assessment of yourself as sometimes a gear lover and sometimes a music lover. I am definitely both. I jumped on SACD in the last year when several of my favorite bands' music was remastered (Police, Stones, P. Gabriel, Dylan, Miles Davis, Monk, etc.). I now have about 70 SACD's and enjoy them. The music lover side of me loves them because the music I love sounds spectacular to me--like I never heard it before. The gear lover side of me decided to buy an Exemplar modified Denon 2900 so that I can get the best of all worlds. The motivating factor for me is definitely the fact that so many of the artists I love have been remastered. If that were not the case I doubt I would have jumped in with both feet.

I was on the fence about SACD untill I found myself owning about 50 hybrid discs. I purchased a modest priced player(3K, talking Audiophile now)and was quite impressed with the format. To my ears there is simply no question that SACD is a better sounding format than cd. I have a very nice Audiomeca Mephisto 11.X CDP and almost without fail the SACD player sounds more musical. I don't think that vinyl has anything to do with the acceptance of SACD and I don't understand why people keep using vinyl as a reason not to listen to this format. I also have a high end analog system and while it sounds quite good SACD in many instances is comparable and sometime better sounding. I really wonder how many of the detractors here have listened to a good player in their system. Yes the catalog is limited, no I don't think it will replace cd but take the time, auditioned a good player in your system. Make an informed decision.