Is SACD a dead format?

Not dead, but not mainstream. It is morphing into a niche market for audiophiles only--just like vinyl. With universal machines proliferating, those who are willing to pay will get SACDs. Sadly, few people are willing to pay for sound quality, so we are going to see a lot more MP3's and even less SACDs. I like vinyl, but I really do prefer a well recorded SACD. Unfortunately the blinkin record companies, looking for the fast buck, don't often make an effort to make a decent SACD. A good example is Norah Jones 1st album, the SACD is awful. I just wish people would be willing to pay for fidelity. SAd thing is a lot of "audiophiles" won't pay extra.

There are two factors that also trouble me about SACD [besides the limited number of titles, and idiots who release titles as a single layer, with no redbook CD layer].

1) What type of master tapes are used for the SACD titles? If the masters are 16 bit, and not analog or DSD bitstream, then dude, you've got nothing more than an upsampling CD player. I don't believe that SACD's list their master tape source, but I may be wrong.

2) Does the manufacturer use a mediocre DAC for their redbook section? I have heard that many SACD players have a vastly inferior CD section when compared to a high end reference redbook only CD player. And most SACD owners will play far more redbook CD's than SACD's.

Now everyone tells me that SACD is dead. I just recently purchased 41 SACDs to join my collection.
Oh no, wait a minute, I've been reading that for a couple of years now in here and in the Asylum.
You know what? For the little extra money that it costs over and above a standard CD, I have no issues putting that money into the software as that is where the music starts. At least in my system.

It's not dead...yet, just terminally ill, along with DVD-A. The early adopters who bought into sacd will keep it on life support for a while, but I wouldn't hold out any hope of it becomming a niche market for audiophiles. Eventually there will be one hi rez format that will establish itself.
Unfortunately, the hi rez war between the two competing formats resulted in MAD (mutually assured destruction). Maybe blu-ray is the "ray of hope" for all of us looking to make the move to hi rez digital.

Fatparrot...I don't think you need to worry about 16 bit masters. Recording and mixing has been done using at least 24 bits for as long as I remember...back to the digitally mastered LP times.