Is SACD a dead format?

Thank you for the kind words, Pardales.

This has become a pretty heated thread, and while I often enjoy those, this one doesn't need to be.

In the "put your money where your mouth is", I just returned from Best Buy with one of the $99 Samsung HD841 players which Sean described above as a closeout. I have been thinking about it for a few weeks now, since the thread was active regarding how the modded Toshiba 4960 ($700 for player and mods) equalled the $11K Linn Unidisk. I saw one last week in Tweeter, and was quite impressed with the look and build. While I have seen them on ebay in the $89 - $130 area, Sean's news put me over the top. The 30 day return policy appealed to me should the unit be defective.

I am going to give it a listen, break it in, and then compare it to my Granite 657 CD player. At some point, I will be shipping it out to a modder for the royal treatment. At that point, look for me to initiate a thread here on Audiogon on how the machine compares to what I consider a top drawer audiophile CD player.

Again, I like the flexibility of being able to run CD, DVD-A, SACD, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, MP3, ABC, 123, whatever in the machine. Hopefully, after this plays out, I can sit back and enjoy the music until if/when whatever the whiz bang thing downloaded, hard disk, BluRay, whoever takes serious root as something better.

Trelja: I look forward to your upcoming review of this player in both unmodded and modded form.

prompted by this thread and an email exchange with one of the site members who began doing mods to the samsung/toshiba machines i have purchased the toshiba for a paltry $80 from amazon.

having lived without a CD player for many a moon now, happily subsisting on vinyl and the local FM airwaves, i now see a reason to re-embrace the technology on a sensible level :-) i've always loved how my one and only DSD recording, tony williams "young at heart" sounds on redbook players, and it's worth the price of admission to hear this one and only disc as it was meant to be heard (post-mods of course). my thanks to the individual who initiated this thread.

Ben, the sonic difference of SACD converted me long
time ago to SACD,I even spend close to 2k, to mod
my SonyDVP9000es,I just read your arguments between
Rsbeck, that was two years ago,I totally agree with
Him,obviously up to now, you have not heard a good
SACD player,I want you to read the thread of AVguru
Is there any CDP Significantly Better than The DV50.
Are you Anti SACD? If you are, I respect that.But
you cannot convince me that SACD is not better than
Redbook.Try to listen to Mark Levinson DSD, SACD cd. If
you still cant hear the difference,you need an EENT.
I have collection of 100SACD, thats more than enough
for me.Go to Music Direct store, and you will see
How much SACD they have on their cd rack.
Lastly I own the NJOE Tjoeb with upsampler, very
musical player, but no match with my Sony9000es SACD
mod.It takes 3 days before I can go back and listen
to my AH, after listening to the Sony.Listening to
SACD, its like listening to vynil.
If ever you come to Chicago, you are more than welcome
to stop by my house to listen, I will pay the taxi, or
pick you up.

I ran out to Best Buy today, and picked up about 15 SACD's at dirt cheap prices. Both the SACD and DVD-A sections seem to be on closeout.

Soundwise, SACD is much easier to listen to than redbook on my rig. Although the meitner is very very good on redbook, SACD, when mastered correctly, to my ears, is on a different level.