I'm totally confused about Hi Rez formats

Well, three of the posters on this thread are sounding pretty gloom and doom for the Hi Rez formats. Maybe I'll just pick up another CD player and continue the wait and see approach. Right now I'm using an iPod w/ AAC files for the front end of my second system (Levinson 383 and Thiel CS2.4). That simply won't do for the long haul.

I have to disagree with Pabelson. Not all DVD-As can be played in 2ch. Many do not have 2ch tracks; they only have multichannel tracks. Some can be "downmixed" by the DVD-A player from MC to 2ch, but many have a software flag set that disallows downmixing. Downmixing usually sounds awful anyway. DVD-A is a music format that was developed to appeal to the Home Theater crowd, not the 2ch music-only crowd. There are cross-overs, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

As to the formats being dead - the original incarnation of DVD-Audio is dead. It was mostly a product of the major labels, and when they stopped supporting it, it pretty much disappeared. DVD-Audio tracks may occasionally surface on DualDisc, but DualDisc is a seriously compromised format.

SACD is somewhat of a different story at this point. If your taste in music is Britney Spears, 50cent, Garth Brooks, or yet-another-reissue-of-Baby-Boomer-rock back catalog stuff, then SACD is dead. For people who favor those genres, SACD was never really alive to begin with. The short story is that if your musical tastes are served solely by the major record companies, SACD probably won't appeal to you.

If your musical tastes tend toward classical, jazz, and high-quality material put out by smaller labels, then SACD is very much alive.

Yes, pretty much anything that is available on SACD is available on CD, but if you buy the CD version instead of the SACD version (when there is one), you will often miss out on a much more musically-rewarding experience.

I have about 125 SACD's, 4 DVD-A'a and about 400 redbook cd's. I love the Hi-Rez stuff. Only about 10-12 of my SACD's are not hybrids. Even though I am selling my Exemplar Denon 2900, easily the best sounding CD player I have ever owned (and that is on redbook alone - Hi Rez discs are awesome!) I will by another modified universal player in the not too distant future. I only listen in 2 channels.

You are going to have to decide how curious you are.

By now you have gathered that you are not the only one totally confused. Most consumers are confused, myself included. Sony appears to be not supporting SACD by not issuing them as hybrids, and of course DVD-A discs (unless they are the new dual discs) will not play on a CD player.
Most DVD-As list if they have a stereo hi-rez layer as well as multi-channel layers, but on many players it is nearly impossible to tell if you are accessing the front channels of the multi-channel layer or the stereo layer unless you go through 2 set up screens, one for the player and another for the disc-which of course is absurd for anyone interested in 2 high quality 2 channel stereo.
The picture is fruther confused by many universal players not actually capable of hi-rez (see the review of the McCormick player in a recent Sterophile), and the fact that many discs don't really contain any higher rez than a good red book CD.
Overall a ridiculous situation for the consumer.

Mgottlieb,
From what I've read, more LPs are being sold than SACDs. If you think that vinyl is limited to "what was available in 1980, or reissues of it" then perhaps you the one "is just sticking your head in the sand. Or somewhere else." Plenty of new titles are available on vinyl. Granted, they aren't stocked at the local Target, but they are available. There are more high quality reissues(including some amazing 45rpm versions, such as the Fantasy 45s) then ever before, and LP hardware continues to develop to a level of quality and price/performance few who gave up on it years ago, would believe.
While I don't dispute that a good SACD on a good SACD player will sound better than redbook on most redbook players, there's still a large gap from a hi-rez format that will survive, let alone flourish. Most SACD reviews imply that the better vinyl versions are superior. That about says it all. Cheers,
Spencer