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Will the better format lose again? Even though Beta (a Sony format) was the superior format, VHS won. Is SACD headed down the same path?
Beta was not back compatible.Beta and VHS were both aiming at the same market. There is no indication yet that either DVDA or SACD is poised to capture the mass market. I think us audiophiles have blown the whole thing out of proportion---these are meant to be niche products---at least for a while as companies try to soak up revenue from sagging CD sales and the threat of mp3/satellite music, et cetera.
SACD is at least primarily being aimed at audiophiles, and DVDA at the HT and car market. Luckily, there isn't a whole lot of overlap there (score one for SACD, which is back compatible, IMO)
Beta and VHS never enjoyed the prospect of a universal player.
Both Beta and VHS enjoyed convenience edges over their predecessor, not just quality upgrades, as is the case with SACD and DVDA.
I could go on, but I think everyone should just chill instead of trying to make radical speculations this early in the game about which side is obsolete, and which side is definitely going to win. It is to our benefit as audiophiles to wait until we see where things are going before we declare that one side or the other has won or lost. SACD only has released some very expensive players, and DVDA hasn't even been released. You can't call it yet. It's just like history. We always say, yeah this war happened because of X, Y, Z. Yeah right, no one saw it coming at the time.
SACD vs DVD-A; another Beta vs VHS? - yes, that is quite possible indeed. Remember though that professional Beta did not die and even if SACD doesn't make it commercially, the DSD-encoding fomat will survive as an archival storage medium. It's too bad in some ways that Sony/Philips didn't envision SACD as more than an audiophile niche product, since that approach is bound to ensure that very little recorded material will ever make it this format. Of course, there is no guarantee that DVD-A will succeed either, at least as a music-only CD format. Yes, CDs someday will vanish, but it will take longer than a lot of people think, seeing that it is the most phenomenally successful consumer music storage format ever to exist. Record companies obviously have to sell their product to survive, and that means they will choose the format that's likely to be most successful commercially - CD. I certainly would not want to limit my music to only a handful of SACDs that I may have little interest in to begin with. When CDs do finally vanish, I don't think it will be due to SACD or DVD-A but rather due to entirely different ways of digital data retrieval and storage (e.g. via MP3 like format from Internet, only better - utilizing DSD technology, etc with storage on extremely high capacity solid-state chip like devices). Of course, some of this technology is ready now but some is still on the drawing board - but then 10-20 years from now - that's a whole different story.
On the technical side SACD and DVD-A are not mutually exclusive. There are already dual-format players out in Japan.Of course Sony and other labels have to continue to release software in the format. However even if it fails as a consumer format it will be used in production and for archival purposes by recording engineers, so the technology will not go away.
Steve
In short, yes SACD will fail. Theres no way in hell it's gonna succeed IMHO. Being in the military I get to really see what Joe 6-pack thinks is neat. When I went TDY to Tokyo, I drug some of these dudes to the sony building. They had a decent room full of top of the line Sony stuff to demo their SACD player. Half of those dudes left right after they saw how much the discs cost. Ten minutes into Miles Davis, I sat completely alone in the room. Where did everyone go? They went to pet the robot dog, play with palm-sized camcorders and to listen to Sony's bose-ish HT setup complete with "real bass"."Why the hell would I want to pay $30 for a damn cd?"
-"Because the sound quality is infinatly better, besides the price will come down eventually""I remember when music used to cost $4.50, theres nothing but crap out right now anyway"
-"But that was cassette tape in the eighti...""Sounded fine to me. Hell, still sounds damn good to me"
"...sigh..."Regards,
Bernard(if anything, mp3...yack...)
have to do with a format intended for audiophiles? Sony is not targeting the masses with SACD.
"Sony is not targeting the masses with SACD."I don't think your statement is fully true. If it was targeted at audiophiles why throw in dual-layered disks and multi-channel sound? If Sony isn't targeting the masses, SACD is as dead as DAD. I havn't seen one DAD that I would want to buy if it wern't for "24/96".Even at that, I don't own any. It's my personal policy not to buy music based on the recording. I like to buy music that tickles my emotions in one way or another. Personally I hope I'm really dead wrong about SACD. I think if sony was smart(or wanted SACD to succeed) they would have included it with the PS2. Then it would be everywhere in a very short time. Take the intial loss, be king of digital for another decade or two.
Regards,
Bernard
as stating that SACD is targeted at audiophiles, not the mass market. Moreover, Sony has NOT released any hybrid SACDs and Sony's players are two channel. The only hybrid discs currently available are from other labels, not Sony.SACD doesn't have to be targeted at the masses to be successful. Sales of the machines are already exceeding Sony's expectations.
PS2 is a mass market toy, hardly befitting a technology positioned as "high end."
Well then, why Mariah Carey and Oasis? Hmmmm? Hardy "Audiophile & High End" material. I guess it's all in how you define success. I hope SACD succeeds but at least I know DSD will.Pump the positivity,
Bernard
It does not matter how good it sounds SACD was obsolite before it's release.Fred G
coming out anytime soon are very slim. Now that playstation-2 has also been hacked (for dvd region code) ...
seems like anytime there are competing formats people make this comparison. i don't feel it's valid here because beta and VHS used different sized cartridges and so the players were totally incompatible. CD, DVD-A and SACD can all conceivably play on the same disc player or transport. i think within this decade it will not matter what type of disc we buy. the components coming within the next few years will automatically recognize and play CD, DVD-A and SACD. these will all exist together a long time, with CD vanishing first.
So no, not at the moment.
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