SACD - Dying already?


I just read the industry blurb in this month's TAS which described how it seems the stream of SACDs from Sony has pretty much dried up. I was in the largest local independent record store in my area last week and actually bought a SACD because it was music not available on CD. The SACD/DVD-A section was a bit smaller than a year ago and I asked the manager about it. He laughed and said they only sell 2-3 a month combined and he doesn't order many anymore.

Except for audiophiles, is anyone buying these things? Or, are all hopes and dreams of SACD slowly fading away (for at least Sony)?
tomryan
Yes, I've listened to a good SACD system and some SACDs are recorded badly some CDs are recorded badly and some vinyl is recorded badly. What was the point of comparing a well recorded SACD to a badly recorded LP? Where were you going with that?

To my ears SACD does sound better than CD - it is very impressive. But Sony isn't gonna make its numbers selling SACDs to audiophiles -- and non-audiophiles don't care about small sound improvements (they won't notice it oh their systems anyway - so IMHO (ok maybe not so humble) SACD is dying.

I hope I'm wrong. I am tired of cleaning my records. But at this rate by 2020 maybe SACD will line the shelves of record stores... or will it be DVD-A or a newly invented product?????
I think the root cause of everything bad today is that people are becoming more and more machine like. A few years from now and most people can't even spell the word conscience.
If that is tha root cauze of everythingg evil -- does that makee spel checker our saviorrr.???
It's quite likely SACD (or to a lesser extent DVD-A) will never find its niche with audiophiles because we all prefer vinyl, given the choice. However, SACD is definitely going in the right direction because:

(a) it's less of a compromise than CD sound,
(b) music recorded on DSD today (it could well be the medium of choice for the majority of studios) transfers naturally to the SACD format which means less to go wrong from instrument to disc and
(c) SACD shares a lot of what makes CD so popular: convenient size and durability.

Technically SACD has a lot going for it but its financial sense is less clear and it may well die from underinvestment.