SACD availability

^as you can see, SACDs are not only still being made but they are the current best-sellers :)

I received my first four SHM-SACDs yesterday (Aja, Velvet Underground, Stones (ABKCO 2002 master) and Police (A&M 2003 master)).

I popped in Aja and have been listening to it all morning. It sounds fantastic - open, clear and liquid.

With regard to the last two SHM-SACDs, I only picked them up (they are basically reissues) because I only recently began to get into SACD after I purchased my XDS1, but from all accounts the reissues are slightly better due to the single layer SHM process but are limited by the reuse of the older masters so there is probably not much point in double dipping if you already have them.

In any case, Velvet Underground is next...

It seems to me that there are more SACDs coming out every day. Besides the sites listed above, Music Direct and Elusive Disc have plenty of them. I recently bought about 35 RCA Living Stereo Classical SACDs for about $6 a piece from Barnes & Noble online. Buy two and get one free sale. Unfortunately many of the cases were cracked.

1. I've heard a few SACD's whose quality floored me. They sounded so natural that I thought a $200 stereo playing this disk might best a $30,000 stereo playing Redbook.

2. Alas most SACD's seem to me to be a modest improvement over their cd counterpart. I SUSPECT this is because SACD recordings are not being made in DSD which is (probably) what you need to do to get the best out of SACD. Certainly the reissues I've tried did not seem to wring the best out of SACD

3. Bluray discs support a sound format with movies that I personally find pretty amazing. I have never tried it on my high end audio system, just on my (very decent) home theatre, but I find that when you play a bluray disc that uses the new bluray audio format on a system that can play it back, it has a startling level of realism. The improvement is comparable to the difference between an HD picture and an old standard TV picture. I used to suggest that people not bother with bluray unless their screen size was 42" or higher. Now a ask - how good is your HT sound system. SO, there is a possibility that this format will come to be seen over time as the superior audio format as regards physical media, particularly as bluray will be default on virtually all new DVD players soon.

4. Is it possible to rip an SACD to iTunes? To any PC or Mac player? I think the answer is - only if it is hybrid and your drive can access the cd layer - in which case of course you may as well just be "ripping" the cd itself.

5. Hi Rez digital downloads are the most likely future, but this is still future.

Bottom line: no simple answers, IMHO.

Opinion: If there are great SACD's right now that you would enjoy, personally I say go for it!

Art