Is SACD a dead format?

Sure looks like it. Have you seen how cheap Sony is selling some own SACDs on their site? Sad, becuase this playback format, and the associated recording and storage mechanisms held a lot of promise. Oh well. Blu-Ray anyone? I suspect that as massive (by today's standards) storage capacities become more prevalent, and lossless compression techniques continue to evolve, we will not be doomed to MP3.

What local store are you talking about? They still have a decent section at Best Buy - and I would assume Tower Records.

I wonder if with Blue Ray coming up Sony has new plans for hirez music?

If it dies, Sony only has itself to blame with its' moronic licensing practices. Sony should have made a point of licensing SACD to every upper end DVD or CD player manufacturer at a healthy per unit price, thus making SACD the audiophile standard at the least.

Instead the charge a lump sum of over $60K just to use the technology - effectively leaving many hi end boutique makers out of the running for SACD units.

Sony seems to be masters of inventing standards, and then doing everything possible to make sure they're not widely adopted. They should send Sony execs to school at Microsoft - who makes mediocre standards, but knows better than anybody how to make them universal through intelligent licensing.

I recall reading an article that suggested that both DVD-A and SACD essentially were dead. While both formats have deep pockets backing them, there does not appear to be enough buyers to make either format commercially viable. As the article pointed out, it is tough to ask someone to spend $20 for a SACD when the same disc is available at half the cost in a more readily accessible format. Given the troubles of the music industry, it would seem prudent for the major labels to try to increase sales volume. Sadly, in today's environment, that translates into MP3 downloads and ring tones (WTF)!

never was alive it never even achieved a 1% sales penetration

never came to life for me....quality redbook CDs sound excellent in a quality CD transport and DAC anyway...never felt the need