[Uncle Erik]

Since getting into SACD about three years ago, it seems that many titles hae finally gone out of production and are becoming harder to find. Further, the more popular discs seem to be climbing in value. BIN prices at eBay are creeping up and auctions seem to be much more competetive all of a sudden. What used to go for $12 now gets several bids and ends over $20.

So, what gives? Is the format becoming more popular? Are the lone adherents finally starting to bid against each other for remaining stock?

On one hand, I sort of like that my collection is worth more than I paid for it. On the other, will the increasingly scarce and expensive titles scare off new converts, dooming the format?

For those of you who spin hi-rez, how are you dealing with this? Do you know of any good retailers who stock a good supply still? Are there rumors of putting hotly desired discs back into production?

I don't want to debate the merits of the format here. Some of us are several hundred discs in and love them - I'd like to talk about finding more discs and get opinions on the scarcity that seems to have developed this year. What do you think is going to happen?

 

[Czilla9000]

Supply and demand. I think demand is shrinking, but supply more so.

I have not bought an SACD in years. My uncommon view: I thought the format's fidelity was awful, unless the SACD came from an analog recording (AAD). Recording and editing in PCM or DSD provided nasty results. If I were mastering an SACD, I'd edit it in analog. I think I'm pretty much the only one who didn't like the sound of digital SACDs, though. I thought they sounded too mushy.

 

[virometal]

I guess you're not into classical then?

As for Pop/Rock and Jazz, I have bought most of everything I want. The few I would like to have, are so rare and expensive, it's not worth it. So I don't really deal with it anymore, save the occasional cherry pick of classical title from acoustic sounds or elusive disc.

My hope has switched to BD for pop/rock high rez. I can see more established artists reissuing collections such as Neil Young and The Pixies, for a hefty price of course. Maybe with enough penetration, major artists will release Deluxe CD/BD editions for new releases. Maybe.

 

[linuxworks]

doesn't it bother you that you can't backup your own bought media?

it sure seems that the drm message is coming across, even to audiophiles. that's why the format is not popular. drm is killing it.

 

[robm321]

Who knows, but for me I've noticed classical and jazz and even rock to some degree are readily available and not going up in price. I still see a couple of brick and mortars carrying the format.

My CD player covers all formats DVD-A sounding better than SACD IMHO just lacking availability. However, redbook really shines on the modwright (it's why I bought it), so I'm content if I can't find something on SACD. But I do hope it continues. I'm a fan of the format.

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

I still visit the SACD section in Fry's electronics whenever I'm there. Not exactly a section that keeps changing much, but I do see that they still have it and have quite a few ones in stock, and get fresh stock for Diana Krall, DSOTM, Andrea, Sam Cooke and a few others quite frequently. Amazon still remains my goto place for SACD's. I find the price marked up quite frequently in Ebay and a lot of times I find people using terms Rare and OOP just to get the price hiked up when its available elsewhere. Case in point - Carpenters SACD available at Yourmusic.com for 7$, its frequently going for more than 20$ in Ebay.

So I guess its not dead, at the same time, its not picking up either. I dont foresee it living very long though. I think sony has been very limiting with the launch and the PS3 was one way they couldve resurrected it, but the PS3 itself has so many variations some of which read SACD and some of which don't that its hard to figure out what Sony is upto.

I am also wondering if Sony themselves might just call it quits and force people to move to Bluray as a HiRez audio alternative.

Nevertheless, this was one of the reasons I never did invest a lot in terms of hardware, atleast the cd's being hybrid dont go waste as such since the cd layer is usually mastered well on the sacd's as well. I do have around 40-50 sacds right now. Plan on getting more, I have atleast 5-10 in my cart right now. I havent really explored the classical side of things since I focussed primarily on non-classical SACD's up until now.

Pity that some of them are now OOP and hard to find. I never managed to get Dredg - El Cielo, Beck - Sea Change, Alison Krauss - Live and a few other albums that I really like since they just randomly went OOP and went to absurd prices overnight.
I'm now going to start with Classical SACD's, get into the Living Stereo and the Jarvi Beethoven SACD's.

To those who listen to only the stereo layer of an SACD and then say its not worth it, you are missing out on a lot, you have to listen to some of these albums in multichannel to appreciate how far technology has come. Even a low-mid end home theater like I have (not HTB, Inifinity Primus with Panny BX500) gives such an immersive experience its totally worth it just for that.

At the same time, I honestly believe some of the really sincerely done Stereo SACDs are worth it. Examples are the Mofi SACD's which sound terrific. Patricia Barber, Cowboy Junkies, Pixies just to name a few. Its worth getting into the format just to hear those albums IMO.

I really wish things pick up a bit and we see some new sacd's classical and non-classical. There is still a lot of scope for it, if only sony markets it a bit more. The whole DRM thing is moot when its a hybrid. You can very well rip the cd layer into lossless and get most of what the sacd has to offer. For the same price of a regular cd, you get a high res stereo version AND and multichannel version and a regular cd that you can rip onto your MP3 player. Really, all it needs is marketting, no ones losing anything by going to SACD's, they only gain, since the price point is the same.

 

[soundboy]

At this point, we shouldn't expect SACD to grow into a mass market mainstream music format. Given its status as an audiophile format, especially for classical music, and that it's been around for 10 years, SACD is still doing OK, in my opinion. Look at the below numbers I just compiled from sa-cd.net's database....

Quote:

New SACD releases (through August of each year) 2006....495 2007....471 2008....395 2009....383

The number of releases have definitely slowed down; for pop/rock SACD titles, there has not been much action. Still, given the world's current economic situation, the format is doing alright. Don't forget that for 2009, the announced but yet-to-be-released SACDs of Doobie Brothers (2 upcoming titles from Mofi), The Band (2 upcoming titles from Mofi) , and Nat "King" Cole (at least 3 multi-channel SACD titles remastered by Steve Hoffman) are yet to be included in sa-cd.net's total.

Btw, Sony has not really abandoned SACD....Japan Sony Music has SACD releases scheduled for later this month and end of October (total of 4 titles). Hong Kong Sony Music also just released a SACD title last month.

As far as buying SACDs, all I can say is that the internet is your friend. Yes, some titles are commanding big dollars, but then so are some CDs as well. Pink Floyd's hybrid multi-channel SACD single of "Money" is my latest SACD purchase.

 

[DeusEx]

A milestone in SACD - Club Polk

 

[robm321]

After reading this thread and the provided link, I'm actually optimistic. I didn't expect the number of new releases to still be high. I mean considering.

 

[virometal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jilgiljongiljing /img/forum/go_quote.gif To those who listen to only the stereo layer of an SACD and then say its not worth it, you are missing out on a lot, .

Absolutely, there would seem to be a small but loyal group that appreciates lossless 5.1. A well done mix - one that focuses on creating an involving soundstage, not just token channel isolation - can be quite the experience when played through a properly calibrated system.

 

[soundboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robm321 /img/forum/go_quote.gif After reading this thread and the provided link, I'm actually optimistic. I didn't expect the number of new releases to still be high. I mean considering.

One of SACD's big supporter, Telarc, announced that they will stop releasing SACDs. This is going to be a major blow to the format. On the other hand, Warner Bros. Music, former supporter of SACD's rival DVD-A, has allowed its catalog to be licensed for release on SACD (Doobie Brothers, The Band, etc). Van Halen on SACD is now a possibility

Reference Recordings also has joined the SACD camp recently.

 

[aryntha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxworks /img/forum/go_quote.gif doesn't it bother you that you can't backup your own bought media? it sure seems that the drm message is coming across, even to audiophiles. that's why the format is not popular. drm is killing it.

(laughs) - This always amuses me. "Back up"... Yeah. I'm sure you keep "backups" of all of your completely legally bought CDs.

"Back up" to the entire rest of the Internet, maybe

"Linuxworks"... Yeah, "Linuxworks" - I'm sure you just want to keep spare copies around in case. I'm sure you don't want to put it on a torrent to seed to the entire world because "information wants to be free". Oh no, it couldn't be that.

I don't think its "DRM" that killed SACD. It's the fact that the current generation wants everything for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and is completely satisfied with low bitrate Ogg Vorbis off of a sound card.

(Most SACDs are hybrid, and can be easily ripped and seeded and posted on Demonoid, err... i mean... "backed up" anyways.)

And if liberating, uh, I mean "backing up" the CD layer isn't good enough for you:

Slashdot, (a religious organization if I ever saw one) just published a "finding" that there is "no difference" between 48kbps lossy music and anything else.

And, Wikipedia now states that there is *no* difference between CD and SACD.

Now, to every Freetard out there, this is "fact". So why even bother?

Just be happy with your lossy rips that you can "share". Under "fair use". You know. *Just* like lending your CD to friends... (except that you have sixty million of them.)

"back up" your media... Thanks, I needed a laugh.

 

[Maxvla]

aryntha, some of us actually use our computers as a source for convenience. I'd surely not want to bother with manually loading every disc I wanted to listen to.

 

[SiriuslyCold]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aryntha /img/forum/go_quote.gif (laughs) - This always amuses me. "Back up"... Yeah. I'm sure you keep "backups" of all of your completely legally bought CDs. "Back up" to the entire rest of the Internet, maybe "Linuxworks"... Yeah, "Linuxworks" - I'm sure you just want to keep spare copies around in case. I'm sure you don't want to put it on a torrent to seed to the entire world because "information wants to be free". Oh no, it couldn't be that. I don't think its "DRM" that killed SACD. It's the fact that the current generation wants everything for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and is completely satisfied with low bitrate Ogg Vorbis off of a sound card. (Most SACDs are hybrid, and can be easily ripped and seeded and posted on Demonoid, err... i mean... "backed up" anyways.) And if liberating, uh, I mean "backing up" the CD layer isn't good enough for you: Slashdot, (a religious organization if I ever saw one) just published a "finding" that there is "no difference" between 48kbps lossy music and anything else. And, Wikipedia now states that there is *no* difference between CD and SACD. Now, to every Freetard out there, this is "fact". So why even bother? Just be happy with your lossy rips that you can "share". Under "fair use". You know. *Just* like lending your CD to friends... (except that you have sixty million of them.) "back up" your media... Thanks, I needed a laugh.

seriously, What???

 

[virometal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aryntha /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now, to every Freetard out there

Freetard, niiiiiiiice. I'm going to file that for later use.

To me, a SACD is more of an event listen. You know, good drink, comfy chair, and speaker room. I revere them in much the same way I imagine the vinyl guys do their black discs. I doubt that attitude is very conductive to mass adoption, more the niche where the medium happens to find itself.