HDCD VS SACD

Blindjim - Yes I remember initial slew of CDs. Bright unpleasant sound was, according to rumors, cause by frequency correction included for LP pressing. The fact is that a lot of music got digitized with A/D jitter that cannot be removed.

I agree with you that quality "largely depend on the source" and that is one more reason for SACD being dead. I have many great sounding redbook CDs and a lot of bad ones. Bad mix sounds perhaps even worse on SACD than on CD (better resolution).

According to RIAA I'm not allowed to make copy of my own CD as a backup. They are rich getting cut from CD-Rs sold in proportion to record sales in spite of the fact that SACD cannot be copied (but also counted). I remember innocent times of my youth when copying to tape was legal since tape makers paid royalties per foot of tape to common fund for artists.

I'm afraid that in future we might be reduced to MP3 downloads.

Apparently you are not buying them the same place as me.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=sacd%27s&x=13&y=21

Well, it looks like price went down a lot. The most common price I found for SACD was $18.98 but when I tried to find Keith Jarrett (made a lot of recordings) in SACD the only thing on Amazon was $34: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=sacd+keith+jarrett&x=0&y=0

Next I tried Ahmad Jamal - (one of the greatest) and found no SACD. I tried Bob Marley - two titles available thru Amazon - one is $15 the other is $106 so it is practically one.

Total Blues SACD recordings: 108
Total Country recordings: 79

For redbook CDs - Blues = 50,000 Country = 67,000

Finding recording I like, other than popular music is very difficult and when it is finally issued sound quality might be not worthy of SACD (plus no option of backup). It is not worth hassle.

Thanks for those links to save on SACD. Thanks a lot.

K's right though... SACD is a classical lover's sanctuary. DVDA though seems to have tried to gain the younger more pop oriented audience.

the numbers I saw on the Wickopedia site for HD was similar to the numbers for SACD. Around 5000 titles. of which how many were dupes for the SACD format wasn't mentioned.

The immediate future given the Apple business model is excelling and quite succesful now, will definitely be in downloading music over that of buying the orig hard copies. personally, I've no problems with that what so ever.... so long as those files remain cost effective. $2.50 per is stretching it for me. Given the usual 2 or 3 best tracks on any album and the balance seems more filler than fun, any higher tarriff there will simply point me towards the CD instead.

The downside to the HR files is the compilation of them into a playlist that makes snese. I prefer sessions at times vs random cuts being cast about, and then there's the levels to contend with too. I never attunuate volume levels of files for consistency. I just run higher to lower in the so & so playlist. that works best for me.

I guess it all comes down to just what one can or will be able to live with... and I'm quite OK with Red Book generally speaking. A little A/B'ing of HR files to lossless ones will tell me that tale in a better light.

Amazon is not the last word in availability for SACD but they have a lot. The prices are always high for items out of print. I also hardly ever buy from amazon directly. I buy from the resellers that are selling through amazon. I also buy some of mine from yourmusic.com for 6.99. Although their supply is dwindling they have all of the Elton Johns and the Carpenters Greatest Hits is 6.99 as opposed to amazon who has it for 35.00. They also have classical. There's also deepdiscount.com and cduniverse.com.
So most SACDs can be purchased at the same or close to the price of a regular CD. And the CD layer can be copied, ripped put into itunes etc at the same quality as a regular CD. Then you still have the high resolution SACD to play back when you want better quality and or surround. The only problem I see is the lack of titles available.