Sony may be pulling the plug on SACD?

[Polkfan]

Drat! And I haven't even had a chance to buy one to play on my SACD player yet. Maybe they (SACD) will become collector's items.

 

[Khorn]

Even if Sony were to "pull the plug" on SACD which is very very doubtful (just look at the number of SACDs scheduled) it would still be produced by many other companies. I believe that "Audiophile Grade" High Resolution will always be a niche market as most people don't give a hoot about real high quality sound. It's just not "on their radar" so to speak and they haven't the equipment to reproduce it to its potential anyway.

Even if the "Major" music producers drop SACD it will be served by small "Audiophile" specialty labels albeit at a higher cost to the consumer. In a way I would prefer it that way as there will be more incentive to licence title to these smaller labels and without doubt we would end up with a higher quality product.

 

[Polkfan]

I guess my main concern is that since Sony and Philips originated the format, and if they lose interest in it, then other manufacturers will. But like you said, it really is a niche market. Hopefully it will stick around as a format for a while. I did notice Acoustic Sounds has alot of new SACD titles coming in.

 

[MarkSJohnson]

Is it official?

I haven't heard anything about this....
Is the statement based on a Sony press release or something?

M

 

[Khorn]

I guess my main concern is that since Sony and Philips originated the format, and if they lose interest in it, then other manufacturers will. But like you said, it really is a niche market. Hopefully it will stick around as a format for a while. I did notice Acoustic Sounds has alot of new SACD titles coming in.

If want an accurate picture of what's happening with SACD check out the following site, specially the list of 2389 SA-CDs and 1307 Reviews to date as well as the upcoming titles link at the bottom of the page. I don't think most people know how much is really availabe on SACD:

SA-CD.net

 

[Polkfan]

I haven't heard anything about this....
Is the statement based on a Sony press release or something?

M

The info is on the Audioholics front page. The operative words are might be however. The indicators seem to indicate yes.


http://www.audioholics.com/news/pressreleases/EHXsurround2004conference2.php

 

[WmAx]

Even if Sony were to "pull the plug" on SACD which is very very doubtful (just look at the number of SACDs scheduled) it would still be produced by many other companies. I believe that "Audiophile Grade" High Resolution will always be a niche market as most people don't give a hoot about real high quality sound. It's just not "on their radar" so to speak and they haven't the equipment to reproduce it to its potential anyway.

Even if the "Major" music producers drop SACD it will be served by small "Audiophile" specialty labels albeit at a higher cost to the consumer. In a way I would prefer it that way as there will be more incentive to licence title to these smaller labels and without doubt we would end up with a higher quality product.

I won't discuss any issues of audibility. However, I will discuss feasibility. SACD was ill concieved from the start, is NOT compatible with the well understood and cheap(pricewise) PCM systems that are so widespread and economical. If a hi-res system is to suceed, DVD-A should be that format, it's based on PCM, which is already establilshed. Unfortunately, DVD-A is limited in versatality/usefulness by the consumer since the digital PCM output is not avaiable(disabled by rediculous protection scheme). But their is no reason why this can not be remedied.

-Chris

 

[Rob Babcock]

I agree with you, WmAX (geez, that's at least twice already! ). SACD was a result of Sony's desire to create a new revenue stream to replace the money lost when their part of the CD patent expired. As Sony & Philips owned the format, they received a royaltie on each disc. Sony hoped DSD/SACD would catch one: if it succeeds, they're sitting in clover again. Very few of Sony's proprietary technologies of late, the Playstation aside, have been really successful. But if DVD-A takes off, then Sony is SOL as they don't own the format.

I wouldn't mind seeing both survive. SACD is a little more user friendly while DVD-A is a bit more flexible. There's room on my rack for both discs, but is there room for both on store shelves? Hard to say.