The Year of the Universal Player


Universal players appear to have come of age, with announcements at CES of new universals by at least 8 high end manufacturers, and rumors of 'in progress' from several others....Bel Canto, Linn, McCormack, MBL,Audio Aero, MSB, Lexicon, Teac, (Krell?, Goldmund?). And in addition, a majority of Japanese makers have them, and even at multiple price points.

This is excellent news for high resolution, as it follows on a general industry consensus, expressed by S. Rochlin at enjoythemusic.com, that both SACD and DVD-A are here to stay. That, together with the success of SACD disc sales, the availability of appropriate chip sets, and the fact that the majority of high end audio shops are now heavily involved in home theater and multichannel sales.

Universal players by high end makers are clearly aimed at that 75% of the audiophile market that is still fence-sitting because of the format war.

Will the presence of higher quality universals now affect your decision to buy into these formats?
flex
I'd have to disagree with the "more hardware results in more software" theory. Just like with HDTV, most people get excited while viewing the super clear images but get turned off after realizing that there are (still) so very few programs (channels) available to watch. Put more hybrid disc titles and HDTV channels out there and watch them explode.
As a confirmed fence sitter, I am looking forward to these universal players. I believe the Muse model 10 is a good universal player currently available. With any luck maybe Wadia will join the fray.
I don't think the Muse model 10 plays SACD, just the CD layer of a hybrid. Could be wrong, but I don't believe there are any Sony decoder chips in there.

Wadia was alive two weeks ago when I heard one at a local dealer.
According to the muse web page, the model 10 playback capability includes hybrid sacd.