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to buy Space Tech Lab or not to buy?

From Pettyofficer
Its getting harder to decide which option to chose when looking for the most viable Format. All I want to do is to have access to High Rez. Recordings of my favorite Artists. A Space Tech Lab System with my existing CD collection is one option. Another is to wait and save my money for the latest SACD/CD Players from Mark Levinson or Wadia. This option can upgrade my existing CD collection, but the viability of SACD recordings of my favorite Artists is a dead issue. Another option is to wait and hope for BlueRay Audio versions of my favorite Artists. Another option is to buy the necessary equipment to download High Rez. Recordings off of the Internet, but with still the same up in the air viability of access to my favorite Artists. Does it really matter what my musical preference is since none of these formats promises to provide the variety of musical content to satisfy a large number of Musical Interests? My original goal still remains the same, how do I get access to High Rez. Recordings of my favorite Artists? Is the best option to forgo buying any equipment for years untill this thing is sorted out? Is the best thing to do is to forgo listening to any Music for years due to all new Formats remaining in limbo for the forseeable future? If I spend my money on any one of these Formats, It would be like playing Russian Roulet hoping the one I picked wouldn't end up dead on the floor. Consummers, much like Investors, absolutely hate and will not tolerate uncertainty. Not looking for a guarantee here, just looking at a level of obfuscation the likes of which the Music Industry has never seen. This makes it awful damn hard if not impossible to invest thousands of dollars on any desent sound system. Would like to hear from anyone about the sound quality of Digital Space Tech Lab Equipment they may own. Would like to hear from anyone about any opinion or answers anyone would have to the challenges facing the Audiophile Buying Public in today's Market.
pettyofficer
pettyofficer OP
453 posts
 
I suppose that it is up to me to answer my own question, perhaps it always was? It has been my experience that when a new Format first comes out, It is the most popular Music that first gets released. It usually takes 5 to 10 years for less popular Music to finally get released on the new Format. I believe that most people listen to less popular forms of Music and it is the diversity of less popular that dilutes it from ever becoming the most popular. Less popular forms of Music never made it with SACD or DVD-Audio do to the Format Wars. This War created a log jam of new releases, this made worse by the potential of Blue Ray Audio and High Resolution downloading off of the Internet. Will one be able to eventually download High Res. recordings of popular Music off of the internet, perhaps, but will one be able to download a larger variety of Archived Music based on High Res. digital versions of Master Analog Tape? I suggest that you will not see the Beatles White Album available for High Res. download anytime soon. Nor will you see most Archived Music available for download in High Res. for at least another 5 years. I base this on the fact of the severely limited variety of Music available today on SACD and DVD-Audio, and just how long has SACD and DVD-Audio been around? I believe that it is misleading to give people the impression that everyone's favorite Music is just around the corner from being available for High Res. download. I believe that it was just as wrong to mislead people that everyone's favorite Music was just around the corner for SACD and DVD-Audio. How many times can one be misled before one loses confidence in any new Format? Simply put, my Music is not available on Record, SACD, DVD-Audio, Blue Ray Audio, or High Res. download no matter how superior these formats might sound. If I am forced to listen to the Artists that I choose on the worst sounding Format compared to all of the rest, so be it! At least I have the opportunity to listen to what I want to listen to. I am not going to give up my favorite artists simply because they may never be available on the latest and greatest sounding Format. I am stuck with listening to the God- awfull sound of CD because that is where the Music is! It is pointless to hope for absolution from a new Format because none will be forthcoming! If you are probably wondering what bizzare and irrelevant Music that I listen to, that will never be released on a New Format, here is a list:
JOHN BARRY
BERNARD HERMAN
THE CARPENTERS
ENYA
ABBA
ENNIO MORRICIONE
NANCY SINATRA
HEART
BANGLES ( one album available on SACD )
WILSON PHILLIPS
JETHRO TULL
EMERSON, LAKE, AND PALMER
BEATLES
BLUE OYSTER CULT
JAMES BOND THEMES ( more John Barry )
MOODY BLUES
THE WHO
THE PRETENDERS
FLEETWOOD MAC
JEFFERSON STARSHIP
JERRY GOLDSMITH
JOHN WILLIAMS
GERRY RAFFERTY
MAMAS AND THE PAPAS
THE CARS
HERB ALBERT
As you can see, this is some pretty old, bizzare, and irrelevant stuff that doesn't deserve to be re-released on a better sounding Format. None of it was ever available on SACD with the exception of one Bangles Recording. Perhaps you have your own list of your favorite Artists that never have or never will be available on SACD or any new Format. Then you are in the same boat cursed to listening to your favorite Artists on the worst Format ever created, the Compact Disk. If you are not willing to give up your favorite Artists in order to listen to, whatever, in the High Fidelity of a new Format; then good for you, but welcome to HELL never-the-less! You will be shaking hands with so many friends that you wont have time to worry about it!
rsjm80
196 posts
 
Pettyofficer, I for one have NOT TAKEN the plunge into the SACD format as I too also share interests in many of the same (so called) more obscure interests that you have in music. I have faithfully stuck to my Red book releases and yes, I too would like the experience of Hi Rez but...I also beleive in the practicality of waiting for the wars to end and then investing in the format that was triumphant but only after evaluating the book that is being offered. With the situation being as is is today I find it to be much more cost consious to wait it out as opposed to investing and changing as the trend wind blows but then again this is mho too.
pettyofficer OP
453 posts
 
The question seems to be, are you willing to sacrifice every single one of your most favorite Artist save one, in order to benefit from the improved sound quality of a new Format. Even after the Format Wars are over and the improved sound quality of the victorious Format can be assessed, what's going to be left to listen to. Are you going to be willing to throw the BEATLES, THE WHO, FLEETWOOD MAC, and JEFFERSON STARSHIP under a bus for the sake of improved sound quality? It doesn't benefit a Man to sell his soul for the whole World! I've spent years and tens of thousands of dollars trying to become an Audiophile, only to wake up and realize what I truly am, the anti-thesis of an Audiophile, a MUSIC LOVER! I lived in a dream world where these two weren't mutually exclusive, where one could have ones cake and eat it too! Now I wake up and realize who I really am, and where my soul really resides! It resides with the Music, not the Equipment! Perhaps its time to say NO to SACD, NO to DVD-Audio, NO to High Res. Downloading, and NO to Blue Ray Audio! Perhaps its time to say "NO" untill we get our Music back! LET THE SLEEPERS AWAKEN!
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