Another sign SACD is dying

I find it ironic that I discovered this thread as the new 2006 catalogs from "Acoustic Sound" and "Music Direct" both have arrived in the past two weeks. Wonderful to see how much is direct DSD recorded by so many labels.

Yes the Vinyl selection looks strong too, but I am so excited putting my Christmas list together. Over the past five years I have patiently waited for SACD to grow, and ever so slowly it has.

SACD will never be "the" new format, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have their eyes on that. These two are going to take the sonic quality of music down another notch or two, which makes the small quantity high quality disks even that much more in demand by the Audiophiles. We are willing to pay $35 for a 180 gram vinyl pressing or $25 for boutique labels and SACD.

My guess is redbook cd will die before SACD and DVD-A. Once Apple and Microsoft finish there new ventures there will be no need for music from the store. It will all be internet downloads, except for us, the Audiophile market. This is where the labels who care about quality recording and production will stay and SACD will be one of their preferred formats. It does sound better, and it's a step forward, be it a smaller step than I was hoping for.

If vinyl, SACD, DVD-A die, we audiophiles will die too. Given the fact that any 24 hour period here at Audiogon has over 500 new listings, I don't see that happening. So if you do care about quality recordings, you best support the efforts "our" labels are making to get recorded music better.

If you don't care about sonic quality, then why not leave this site and go to the Microsoft chat rooms...

If vinyl, SACD, DVD-A die, we audiophiles will die too. (...) So if you do care about quality recordings, you best support the efforts "our" labels are making to get recorded music better

Well put, JD, in a very direct and down to earth way, too.
It's actually a very serious possibility that I for one had comfortably paid only lip service to.
I believe we should give serious consideration to supporting ASAP these labels.

Jadem6, your post appears to be based upon what you own rather than facts. That's OK, as long as you recognize it.

"If vinyl, SACD, DVD-A die, we audiophiles will die too."

Says whom? Formats come and go. Minidisc and Elcaset are two. The death of vinyl has been greatly exaggerated (apologies to Mark Twain), but SACD and DVD-A are less certain. Redbook is here to stay even though sales have slowed a bit.

Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct and others offer most SACDs available, but you don't read about what they can't get. Did you know Sony cancelled their music SACDs several months ago?

I am strongly committed to sound quality and long term music satisfaction. It's not cut and dried the way one might think as far as formats are concerned, and if you think it is, you are missing out.

Essentialaudio,

I agree with the point you are making. We audiophiles all have different priorities but have one common thread - we build our systems around the best playback format(s) available. I doubt anyone on this forum has built their system around 8-track, cassette, MP3, etc. We have chosen formats that have, theoretically at least, the BEST performance available. Unfortunately, recordings are of various quality no matter the medium.
On question though, you state "Sony cancelled their SACDs several months ago". Where did you get this information?

I just read this today:

"Sony Music Sets 5 Titles for 5.1 Surround Sound Super Audio CD Release
Sony Music has set release dates for five of their albums on Hybrid Multichannel Super Audio CD. The upcoming 5.1 Surround Sound SACDs include titles by artists including Duran Duran, John Legend, Yo-Yo Ma and the move soundtrack albums from The Legend of Zorro and The Phantom of the Opera. There are also rumors that two additional albums featuring Switchfoot and John Mayer may also be destined for the 5.1 Surround Sound SACD treatment as well.

Mining The 5.1 Dual Disc Catalog
One of the interesting things about the Sony Music announcement is that the upcoming Surround Sound Super Audio CDs is that they are in large part drawn from the company's Dual Disc catalog. High Fidelity Review readers probably recall that the first set of Sony Music Dual Discs with 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks came from albums that had mixes originally done for 5.1 Surround Sound SACD release.

Now the tables appear to be turned as this group of 5.1 Surround Sound releases had their start on Dual Disc in 5.1 Dolby Digital format. With their appearance on Hybrid Multichannel Suepr Audio CD, the albums will now be available in high resolution auduo as well.

December SACD Titles from Sony Music
Starting off the releases will be Duran Duran's recent album Astronaut and R&B singer John Legend's album entitled Get Lifted. This marks the Super Audio CD debut of both artists.

As noted above, both albums were originally issued as Dual Discs as well as on Stereo CD. They are due out as Hybrid Multichannel Super Audio CDs on December 20th.

Duran Duran - Astronaut (Epic EH 76175)

John Legend - Get Lifted (Columbia CH 76181)

January Brings 3 Sony Classical SACDs
On January 3rd, Sony Classical will add three more Hybrid Multichannel Super Audio CDs to the mix. They will include Yo-Yo Ma Plays The Music of Ennio Morricone and the movie soundtracks to The Legend of Zorro and The Phantom of the Opera.

Yo-Yo Ma has been featured on several Super AUdio CDs from Sony Classical in the past including the albums Solo and Silk Road Journeys - both of which were recorded in the Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format. Morricone's music has also appeared earlier on two Super Audio CDs issued in Europe - his movie soundtrack to the movie The Mission (Virgin Records SACDV-2402) and Focus, an album of Morricone's music featuring Morricone and Portugese singer Dulce Pontes (Universal/Focus 980829-3). Focus was recorded in DSD and has been given high marks by many audiophiles in Europe.

Yo-Yo Ma plays Ennio Morricone - Yo-Yo Ma (Sony Classical SH 76225)

The Legend of Zorro Soundtrack - James Horner (Sony Classical SH 76226)

The Phantom of the Opera - Original Movie Soundtrack (Sony Classical SH 76662)

Two More SACDs Planned?
In addition to these 5 Hybrid Multichannel SACD titles, rumors on the Internet suggest that more may be on the way. The MusicTap.Net web site says that 5.1 Surround Sound SACDs of John Mayer's Room for Squares and Switchfoot's The Beautiful Letdown are also coming. There's no confirmation of these two titles from Sony Music to date. But we'll keep an eye out for more news in that regard.

Now Available for Pre-Order
All 5 of these Sony Music Hybrid Multichannel SACDs are now available for pre-order on the Sony Music Store web site. The Duran Duran 5.1 Surround Sound SACD is also available for pre-order on the Amazon.Com and CD Universe web sites. As the release date draws closer, I suspect we will see them featured by other web sites that carry Super Audio CDs as well."

Interesting news Treyhoss. Thanks for the input.

I was simply ignoring Essentialaudio because his comments made no sense to me. I assume he thinks I'm listening to music, so ????????????? Yes I did comment on SACD, that is the reason for this thread, all the other he comments on?????????

If he means I'm not listening to MP3, cassettes, real to real, 8 track... then he is right.

No matter, his comments were so far off topic, they meant nothing to me. Maybe he's upset because I haven't bought a cassette deck from his "audio" store.