[faulky]

does anyone know if/when portable sacd players will be made?

 

[blr]

Don't know of any release soon, but thing like a portable SACD player doesn't make much sense to me. SACD have an obvious advantage over red book Cds only when coupled with quality DACs and amps. This is not likely to be the case in a portable setup. IMO the whole advantage of the SACD format will be diminshed by the poor electronics.

 

[BenG]

Hard to say, It seems like it would be far off, especially given the economic slowdown, and the fact that full size players have not made much of a market penetration.

I will say this. I have the entry SACD 775, which is only a slightly above average redbook player. Even out of the headphone jack of the player, SACDs are more natural and enjoyable with qualities that I have never heard in any CD player, portable or fullsize(instruments are more 3-D and PCM "harshness" is gone).

All that being said, I still don't think the average Joe is going to buy into the subtle but very significant improvements that any new format will bring(even multi-channel sound) unless it's forced upon them - Sony's new DVD players are all multi-channel, SACD capable, for example.

Available titles is another sad issue as well.