Coping in an Age of Uncertainty

It would be a mistake to buy into a new format right now on the expectation that someday "everything" will be available on it. The odds of that happening are long. But given that most of the new machines on the market handle CDs pretty well, it's not as big a risk as buying CD in Year 1. Most of us have hundreds or thousands of CDs, and we're unlikely to have more than a few dozen SACDs or DVD-As in the near future. So the question we must each ask is, am I willing to pay the price for that few dozen recordings?

As for SACD vs. DVD-A, there are lots of opinions out there, but no one has done a true apples-to-apples comparison (because you'd have to create the software expressly for the test). Technologically, it's beginning to look like DVD-A has the edge, although that's not always the deciding factor.

Article from the most recent Positive Feedback Magazine stating that the war is over.
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http://www.positive-feedback.com/0804/Crock_S_ACD.htm

If you decided not to read the above article, let me reprint an excerpt:

If you read of, or hear people that say, "SACD is no big deal," you MUST immediately ask yourself if they are deaf,
if they have a mediocre audio system, or if they have hidden agendas. Only these reasons could explain why
anyone wouldn’t be absolutely shocked by the beauty of SACD music.

after reading all these posts, i am disappointed in my fellow audiophiles. as someone mentioned above, there is no format war between audiophiles, sacd is the clear winner, however in the mainstream, dvd-a may have a lead in the sense that dvd (as a format) is already such a success that its music counterpart already has all that advertising support behind it. also, neither format will prevail if we all sit on the fence and wait for others to dictate what happens. you think you are the only ones who are sitting ont he fence? the reference that someone made to sacd:betamax is erroneous as well. beta is still used in many studios professionally and then transferred to vhs and sacd has many licensed supporters of which they have "shared" their technology. for the price you can buy an sacd player at ($1000-2000) what can you lose? true the redbook playback does not exceed that of a wadia 860 or a naim cdx (comes awful close) but look at what people are comparing it to; megabuck top of the line transport/dac combos that easily exceed the price of the 9000 or 777. and if you don't like the sound of the internal sony dac for redbook, use the digital out to a dac of your choice. if the format war decides in favor of something other than sacd, not only do you have a killer 60lb (777) or 30lb (9000) machine that plays cd's (777/9000) excellently for its price, you also have the benefit of getting sacd (777/9000) and unequalled dvd playback (9000). not to mention that wahtever format wins the other will not vanish into oblivion it will simply exist at a lower marketed level. i have a 777 and have not looked back since. iam overly impressed with the performance i have received from it and whether or not sacd rules top dog i will continue to enjoy it until its time to update to a new player in 5 or so years just like we all do with almost all of our equipment. btw i bought my 777 from oade bros. for $1500 including shipping.

sony scd-777es
silver audio silver bullets 6.0 (wbt topline)
evs ultimate attenuators (vishay resistors)
Bel canto evo 200.2 monoblocks
tekline tl 650 speaker cable
various diy power cords
magnepan IIIa's
ps audio p300

I got a DVD-A only 'cuz it wuz cheap with a nice analog output and it iz muh first DVD player. I don't care if DVD-a ever gets in, but I got me one jus' in case!!! Now if'n SONY REALLY wants to start SACD to git' rolling make ALL Sony product CD, as SACD's, and sell 'em at CD prices. So all new releases from Sony would be for regular CD players but also play the SACD for the high enders. Then and only then will Sony get an edge in the market. Once ordinary folks HAVE 60/75 titles that they bought as "CDs" and happen to also be SACD.....
DVD-A who knows???? the producers can't engineer a two channel item very well.... How are the gonna make 5.1 sound good???? (except as a "wow 'em" disc with no real quality) Ditto for SACD multi channel.