Thread: Why SACD will (sadly) die very shortly (probably)

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Post by DSD December 16, 2009 (11 of 32)
Funky Monkey what would help is all new releases in all fields of music (including Rap) be released ONLY as SACD/CD hybrids which is the most logical thing to do as they have a CD layer for backwards compatibility. Short of that SACD will likely eventually die.

Post by jzpchen December 16, 2009 (12 of 32)
What die means? Like LP? To me that means longevity.
To me hybrid is 95% of what I buy now. 4000-6000 SACD titles to choose from; that is plenty for me. I figured I will collect 200-300 more titles. That's less than 10% penetration; too many to choose from! Not to mention new titles are coming. What about LSO Live. All new recordings are in DSD.
I may die sooner or my hearing or listen interest may die sooner. Life is too short.

Post by sordidman December 16, 2009 (13 of 32)
FullRangeMan said:

You missed a great change to be silent! What silly statement! In this minute there is 6.183 titles in this Site, this said it all!!

I don't think that his complaint is silly. It is more of a frustrated whine. And, I think that there should be a certain amount of tolerance for it. But, it is also beating a dead horse. When one is someone who likes a different kind of music, 6150 of those 6183 titles are useless and become the barest hint of the tiniest drop in the bucket compared to other available recordings.
It's true that rock and some jazz recordings were designed to be compressed for radio and big commercial success: so it can be argued that fans of that music have had bad sound quality from the get go: and therefore aren't going to want the higher quality of hi-rez. But to some extent, if they hear it, they will come. And there's no doubt that opportunities were blown. It's too bad that Mobile Fidelity ruined their opportunity by making muddy SACDs, - which did not help their cause, and the cause of SACD. Why did ABKCO give up? Isn't there a company out there like Rhino who'll go out and give other genre a go?
97% of the SACD music made is classical, 97% of the SACDs that are actually wanted and are most popular and anticipated are ROCK!

SACDs will never completely die, but everyone who has heard them, and can play them, wants more of them, and they are willing to pay for them. The more discs that get manufactured outside 1 genre; will be beneficial to both the format and that genre as well.

Post by wolf359 December 16, 2009 (14 of 32)
jzpchen said:

What die means? Like LP? To me that means longevity.
To me hybrid is 95% of what I buy now. 4000-6000 SACD titles to choose from; that is plenty for me. I figured I will collect 200-300 more titles. That's less than 10% penetration; too many to choose from! Not to mention new titles are coming. What about LSO Live. All new recordings are in DSD.
I may die sooner or my hearing or listen interest may die sooner. Life is too short.

While I agree with what you say sad fact is as other posters have pointed out classical music is a minority. Pop and rock is where the volume sales are. The tiny trickle of releases in those genres is not enough even combined with classical to make the format stronger or viable. I have demonstrated SACD both Stereo and Mch SACD to my friends who have been knocked out by it but when they have shown an interest the problem is not the supply of machines but the discs situation. There is no consistency in releases eg a company like Abkco will release the early Stones discs as SACD delete them reissue as stereo and the later stones albums will not be released as SACD at all, This kind of treatment of the product does nothing to persuade the buyer to go SACD. At the same time many pop acts are instant throwaway fodder bound for the bargain bin in the weeks after release, in these circumstances the record companies would make a loss on SACD so nothing seems to happen in those genres and classical is not big enough to kick start the format into any meaningful life. I think thought it pains me to say it that SACD will continue to be a small insular format just clinging onto life. If only EMI had had the guts to release the Beatles on SACD that could have brought some much needed publicity and kudos but they wimped out and that was probably the last great chance to kickstart SACD in another genre of music

Post by FullRangeMan December 16, 2009 (15 of 32)
sordidman said:
For Pop/Rock there is few SACDs indeed, this is guilty of Sony Music and Universal music. Inform this will aware the custumers.

Post by Myrantz December 16, 2009 (16 of 32)
FullRangeMan said:

You missed a great change to be silent! What silly statement! In this minute there is 6.183 titles in this Site, this said it all!!

Yes, it says SACD may as well be dead. Although a long time fan I have given up on them - sure if I ever see one I fancy I'll buy it. None of the stores near us stock them any more. And to be honest 6,183 titles in over 10 years shows just how SACD is failing - it's quite pitiful really.

The other thing - a few of you on this forum should read your own posts, they make you come across as pompous, egocentric elitists. Take the silver spoons out of your mouths and listen to the music - in whatever format you use.

Post by michi December 16, 2009 (17 of 32)
There will be more pop and rock releases. Some people may be surprised.
Quite a few SACDs are still in the works.

(And remember, I'm a pessimist and cynic. Except now i'm a pessimist and cynic with information.)

About to die soon? Some of us involved in the production don't give up that easily. And certainly not because a troll says so.

It ain't over. Not by a long shot.

Post by TerraEpon December 16, 2009 (18 of 32)
It may not die, but it probably won't turn around and gain momentum.

Downloads are the future (as annoying as that is) -- and why? Because the trick is, by selling a COPY, companies not only pretty much pay almost nothing for distribution, but they ALSO prevent its resale.
Thankfully there will always be enough buyers who want the 'deluxe' product, as it were, and the 'best' stuff will certainly continue to be sold on physical media, but I for one see the future will have more and more disjunct, as it were.

Post by sibelius2 December 17, 2009 (19 of 32)
SACD is an audiophile format. It just is. Wishing that it was a mass-produced pop-culture phenomenon will not make it so. The two reasons for SACD to exist are superior sound quality and multichannel playback, but the fact is that most people aren't interested in one or the other.

Some consider vinyl to be an audiophile format, but this is deceiving: true analog audiophiles fret over every detail of their systems from stylus to tweeter design. Having done so, they don't just spin any old LP from their parents' basement - they invest in 45rpm half-speed mastered 180 gram virgin vinyl pressings at 50 bucks an album. Obviously these audiophile pressings will never be commonplace, but I'm sure demand for them will never drop off to nothing either.

But over and over again I find references in TV shows and movies about vinyl sounding "better" or "warmer" or "more present" than anything digital. Hollywood writers seem convinced that any LP on any turntable will sound better each and every time than anything else you could name. I think the typical person who follows pop culture believes this to be true just from having heard it so frequently. Vinyl certainly has its good points, but many people seem to have forgotten how many problems there are with LPs, and why so many people were so excited when CD first appeared 25 years ago.

While vinyl was once the dominant audio medium and thus most people are familiar with it, SACD never has been dominant and never will be. But that doesn't mean it's dying out. Again, it's an audiophile format, so I predict that there will always be a steady if small demand for it. But as long as pop music labels view a small demand as not being worth their time, selection will be limited.

Post by hiredfox December 17, 2009 (20 of 32)
FunkyMonkey said:

Not just because of downloads, but because of there being limited material, i.e. nearly all new releases are of old classical music. And there are only limited compositions, and of course, a limited market for this material, especially on SACD.

In other words, there will be no "new" music driving the already-small number of SACD buyers into buing new releases.

Are you teasing us? I am sure you are not daft.

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