Twl,
I think that most people have admitted that SACD sounds better but that doesn’t mean it will or should be adopted. I think you are right about comparing players of equal quality. This is my experience. The SACD players don’t play redbook as well as a comparably priced cd player. Example; SCD1 (5k) compared to Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D CD player (5k). SCD1 you get the benefit of quality SACD but the regular CD play on the unit is comparable to, say a $1500 to $2000 player. If someone could come up with a player that did both equally well, then I say go SACD. If not, the prospect of having two players, which a friend of mine does, to be able to do both is inappropriate for the high end hobbiest.
Now joe/jolean average public don’t care about the difference, but almost everyone posting on here does. I like the idea of 24/192 upsampling getting more refined because it improves every disc I put in the machine and not only the specially treated ones. I don’t think it is quite SACD but it isn’t far away and if the industry keeps striving for improvements I think it can give SACD a run for its money.
You say,
“Another thing I am noticing here on this thread is that many of the SACD doomsday predictors talk about not wanting to buy new software, or they have big money invested in Linn,Audio Aero,or other megabuck CD players. Could it be that they don't want SACD to succeed because of their large vested interest in the CD format?”
Well, I think that is taking a bit of a shot at people without knowing for sure but even so, “So what?” Many of the people have mega bucks invested in their CD collections and it makes sense that there might be some resistance to something that might make them replace the whole dang thing. Put the shoe on your foot, what if someone was introducing a new way of delivering vinyl that was clearly better (ha, not in our lifetime). But this meant you had to get rid of your current turntable and to buy different vinyl at 80% more than you currently pay. What then? What if the turntable they replaced it with couldn’t do your previous collection? What if it could do the collection but it was not as good as your old set up but you still had to pay the same amount for the table as you did your last one. This is wear many of us are at. I think this is a real and legitimate concern.
The recently released muti-layered CDs are kind of cool and I think they could help SACD/DVD-A survive. However, the price of these discs needs to come down to joe and jolean’s level or the plane just won’t fly.
Well it will be fun to see how the whole thing shakes out.
cd
I think that most people have admitted that SACD sounds better but that doesn’t mean it will or should be adopted. I think you are right about comparing players of equal quality. This is my experience. The SACD players don’t play redbook as well as a comparably priced cd player. Example; SCD1 (5k) compared to Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D CD player (5k). SCD1 you get the benefit of quality SACD but the regular CD play on the unit is comparable to, say a $1500 to $2000 player. If someone could come up with a player that did both equally well, then I say go SACD. If not, the prospect of having two players, which a friend of mine does, to be able to do both is inappropriate for the high end hobbiest.
Now joe/jolean average public don’t care about the difference, but almost everyone posting on here does. I like the idea of 24/192 upsampling getting more refined because it improves every disc I put in the machine and not only the specially treated ones. I don’t think it is quite SACD but it isn’t far away and if the industry keeps striving for improvements I think it can give SACD a run for its money.
You say,
“Another thing I am noticing here on this thread is that many of the SACD doomsday predictors talk about not wanting to buy new software, or they have big money invested in Linn,Audio Aero,or other megabuck CD players. Could it be that they don't want SACD to succeed because of their large vested interest in the CD format?”
Well, I think that is taking a bit of a shot at people without knowing for sure but even so, “So what?” Many of the people have mega bucks invested in their CD collections and it makes sense that there might be some resistance to something that might make them replace the whole dang thing. Put the shoe on your foot, what if someone was introducing a new way of delivering vinyl that was clearly better (ha, not in our lifetime). But this meant you had to get rid of your current turntable and to buy different vinyl at 80% more than you currently pay. What then? What if the turntable they replaced it with couldn’t do your previous collection? What if it could do the collection but it was not as good as your old set up but you still had to pay the same amount for the table as you did your last one. This is wear many of us are at. I think this is a real and legitimate concern.
The recently released muti-layered CDs are kind of cool and I think they could help SACD/DVD-A survive. However, the price of these discs needs to come down to joe and jolean’s level or the plane just won’t fly.
Well it will be fun to see how the whole thing shakes out.
cd