Is SACD a dead format?

Tbg, I totally agree with your video and computer driven assesment, especially video(the more direct effect on audio at this time.) Here again, everyone wants that convinence of an all-in-one system.
I have talked to local dealers and without the video side and all that, they would be dead as a business.
You know, 2-ch was really developed in small garages and small niche businesses. It was about the product then. Maybe as this segment retreats, we can go back to the true designers who are in it for the sound and get away from this integration crap. It is depressing to me. I'm old school with those old school values. I guess I'm just sentimental to those great years of audio.

Still deader than disco,not referring to quality,just everything else associated,software,hardware,marketing[read price]and especially availability.Anyone deep into music needs 10,000 to crop 100.Thats 1 out of 100,thats me at the store,YMMV,Bob

Bigtee...Yep. I also am "sentimental to those great years of audio" when I, as a college student could afford a SOTA system. The equipment was often built, not in someone's garage, but on our own kitchen tables.

Based on the comments from Bigtee and Eldartford, it makes me wonder if the current state of [b]commercial[/b] high-end is just a generational anomaly? It seems that high-end may be retreating its [b]DIY roots[/b]. Which isn't really a bad thing. I can't afford to go to a B&M store and plunk down $4k or more on a component. I value competent designs, good sonic performance, good value, and good reliability.

SACD is likely still born unless you are looking for analog replacements with unamplified acoustic music (Read: Classical, Jazz, and Folk/Ethnic). Or reissues of rock/pop past recordings targeted to "baby boomers" as analog replacements. SACD has always been dead as far as new electronic music recordings are concerned.

Except for new classical recordings, the future or current and new recordings will likely hold new 1. redbook, 2. mp3 (and/or DVD or its replacement), and (in some cases) 3. vinyl LP. It's a shame, since I would purchase ALL of my digital on SACD (single player or hybrid, doesn't matter) if I could. But I can't. Grrr.

What really gets me is when "they" overprocess a redbook CD and sqash the life/purity/dynamics out of it. That's very sad. something is wrong people when 320kbps (equivalent) mp3, 16/44.1 redbook CD, and a (compressed) Dolby Digital 5.1 recording all sound the same. In lots of cases we aren't getting the full resolution capabilities of 16/44.1!! It's more like a mp3 "upsampled" to redbook. So sad.

I have always thought that way too much is made of the decline of high end, of vinyl, and now of sacd and dvda. Technology is now more advanced and people have many ways to spend their entertainment dollars. I would grant that there were quality kits available in the past from Heath and Dyna as well as American manufactured equipment, such as Marantz and Fisher, but it was not cheaper than today if you adjust for inflation. And then as today the young with less money built the kits while the old bought councils with record changers and tuners.

There is no question that parts quality is much superior today and that the circuits being built today rest in the main on those that were conceived in the 20s and 30s. My sound reproduction today far surpasses anything that I could have achieved in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. I am very happy about this.

Similarly, sacds may be dying as vinyl was supposed to be dying, but I am spending more each year on newly available sacds. I have more cds, sacds, hdcds, and LPs than I could ever listen to in the remainder of my life and given the quality of new pop music, I care little whether it is ever available in hi-res.

Vinyl is another example. I have nearly doubled the size of my record collection in these last several years. Fortunately I only half believed those who said in the 70s that vinyl was dead. I almost considered selling all of my 4000 records but did not. Now I am hearing LPs reproducted unlike anything that was available in the 60s and 70s.

I do remember when the record companies ruined LPs by recording them on crapy solid state gear and pressing them on inferior, reprocessed vinyl. No one can ever say that those making decisions for recording companies have a clue about good recording. The advent of the MBA degree has also resulted in a greater focus on the bottom line to the exclusion of everything else. Book publishers haven't a clue about what is a good book, movie companies on a great movie, television networks on a great news show, universities on what is a good education, wine companies on a great wine, etc. MBAs make all decisions. There are a few people across all of these, who do their best to provide what is great. Fine them and enjoy. It can be done.