The ignorance of SACD & DVD-A marketing idiots....

How about this: Distribute your SACDs to Best Buy, et.al., but don't bother to provide and PROMOTE an advertising/marketing/sales kit for store "managers" and department employees. This way, when the hapless, but cash-flush Audiogoner shows up (who, stupidly enough, is not downloading his MP3's for free from Napster) appears and asks, "Where do I find the SACDs, please?", he is greeted all 'round by slack-jawed, blank stares reminiscent of Gomer Pyle seconds before he utters one of those classic quips like "That don't seem [sound] right..."

IF, by chance, repeating the question in various simplistic, but hopefully instructive ways finally spurs some dawning (but still nebulous) relative awareness or recognition in one of the hipper employees, hapless AGer may be informed, "Oh, THOSE... Well, I think we have SOME mixed in with the rest of the CDs." There will not, of course, be a store inventory list. Happy hunting!

In my opinion, it was a real shame that Sony dropped the ball on so many fronts when it came to SACD.

Sony Music, a different division than the hardware end of the business, should have stopped stamping CDs altogether. Instead, EVERY disc they put out should have been hybrid SACD providing the sonic benefit of the higher resolution format, with the back compatibility to play in any machine.

The hardware folks should have stopped producing CDs players across the board. At that point, ONLY build SACD players, be it home, car, or portable.

The final straw for me was when Sony Music showed up at a big annual industry event way back, and were ready to throw their support behind DVD-A. Were I CEO of Sony, anyone at Sony Music who had ANY involvement in this whatsoever and voiced even the most half-hearted support, from the lowest mailroom clerk to the top executive at that division would have been fired as quickly as they could be identified.

Don't forget Laserdisc. Pioneer came out with a video delivery system that absolutely stomped VHS & Beta.
Then they sat on their hands and watched it die.
Blockbuster started flooring a few titles for rental,
after everyone including the early adopters gave up on the format.
I'll postulate Sony Software marketing shares their philosophy with Sony Service. We're big, we know what we're doing. Take it or leave it.

So Sony should have tried to force everyone to switch to SACD whether they wanted to or not? That is so dumb I am supprised they didn't try it. After all it is what they did to LP. If you are waiting for a spark of intellegence from the music industry good luck; after 50 years I have given up hope.

Stanwal,

I believe Sony did try to force everyone to switch to SACD. They had the option of offering hybrid SACDs instead of the SACD only versions.
I can count very few hybrid SACDs I've ever seen from Sony.
I think this was a big mistake, on their part.
I dumped my Sony SACD player.
All my SACDs sound better on my Oppo BDP-83, anyway.