SACD vs ANALOG

I hope SACD will be around for a long time because I am buying the Sony 9000 SACD player today. If it sounds like I read, the Goldmund turntable is out the door with about 5000 records.

Edle, because you don't have to wash you cd's every time you play them, they don't warp (under normal conditions), they sound the same no matter how many times you have played them, and last but not least......they are shiny.

My impressions are similar to Mr. Porter's. SACD is probably getting you closer to the master tape, and as such has certain advantages, but still doesn't have the warmth or intimacy of vinyl. It is a clear step above CD. I tend to get the same let-down when I switch back to most CDs from either vinyl or SACD, but I still prefer a record on the turntable when I really want to get totally immersed in the music. Fat Albert, if most of those LPs are classical or 60's-70's rock and in good shape, I hope you like the 9000ES! As far as the future of the format goes, Sony is finally going the right route on the hardware, getting out cheaper units and combining them with high quality DVD players, so they're getting units in the hands of consumers. Now they have to get their act together on the software, both price-wise and with new releases using a full DSD recording and mastering chain. I hope the format makes it, as it's what a lot of us have been wishing digital could be.

Comparing my $1600 Sony SCD-777ES with a similarly-priced SOTA vinyl rig and using the same program material, SACD sounds, to my ears, more "there." More expensive vinyl rigs may be better.

Speculating about the future of SACD is in one sense a crap shoot, but, for what it's worth, Classe and Krell have both indicated that they will produce (very pricey) SACD players...suggesting they see a future, at least in the niche market. At the same time, Sony indicates it will release even cheaper players (down to $299 list) at some point...so that suggests something more than "niche."

In addition to Sony, Telarc, Audioquest, Groove Note, Hyperion, Vanguard Classics, DMP, and Water Lily Records, EMI, Virgin, and BIS have released or will release some SACD's (Virgin's "Tubular Wells" is already on the market), while some other record companies "wait and see."

Whatever its sonic merits, SACD stands little chance of becoming a mass-market technology, and without that the major labels aren't going to release on it. That means program material on a par with what's out on vinyl today (but without all the old stuff!). SACD could survive as a niche market, the way laserdisks did on the video side. I don't even think multichannel music-only disks (SACD or DVD) will capture the mass market. (I'd love to see a survey of how many people who've bought DVD video players actually have all five channels hooked up to speakers placed in appropriate places.) And I doubt that both DVD/A and SACD can survive as niche markets. Caveat emptor.