Post by pgmdir June 23, 2006 (1 of 9)
|
|
Hi--- Just discovered the site, and I appreciate the work that goes into it. I've been in broadcasting for 42 years and well aware of the record biz...
I'm a big believer in SACD, and a classical listener at home. Years and years of over-cut, over-compressed music has left me with limited high frequency ears, and a bit of tinitis, but I can easily hear the difference between red book and SACD. I've always thought that Sony dropped the ball with SACD by pricing discs too high, and staying with non-hybrid disc way too long.
If Sony, BMG, and Universal had gone to Hybrid only releases (like Living Stereo) for vertually all releases (at least all Classics and Jazz), and priced them the same as CDs, the outlook would be quite different. Hybrids play in CD players-- just go to single inventory! People can still make car copies from the CD layer. Instead, SACDs and anything that will play them are unavailable at mass market stores, and most people have no idea what the heck we're talking about. As many have pointed out, the record companies need to go where the money is, but their poor marketing efforts haven't helped a bit. Sony is largely to blame for not supporting their own efforts. SACD will hopefully survive as a niche format, but even supporters are divided between those who listen to two channel, and those who support multi-channel. It was hoped that multi-channel would receive support from home theater enthusiasts, but those people who don't have 5 identical speakers spaced around the room have found the results to be less than great. I love my SACDs in multichannel, but the sound even in two channel is head and shoulders above cds, presuming a good recording to start with. Nice to meet everybody!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome Bill. Do you work for Classic King FM?
Edit to add: I just checked. You're out of Kelso, Longview.
|
|
|
Post by pgmdir June 23, 2006 (3 of 9)
|
|
flyingdutchman said:
Welcome Bill. Do you work for Classic King FM?
Edit to add: I just checked. You're out of Kelso, Longview.
Thanks! Right.... Country FM, Classic Hits AM. Beethoven and Mahler at home.
|
|
|
|
|
|
pgmdir said:
but those people who don't have 5 identical speakers spaced around the room have found the results to be less than great.
I really love my multi-channel sacds. click on "windsurfer" by this posting and take a look at my cobbed together system. There are six speakers by three different manufacturers - but everyone who has ever heard it thinks it is wonderful!
|
|
|
|
|
|
pgmdir said:
It was hoped that multi-channel would receive support from home theater enthusiasts, but those people who don't have 5 identical speakers spaced around the room have found the results to be less than great.
As a general comment, if people can get a receiver with a suitable box of tricks with iLink then they can marry almost anything together!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hi, Several problem with the single inventory idea - for one DVD players get confused with hybrid disks. A DVD player will play red book CDs, but unless it is an SACD player also, it won't play the red book layer of an SACD. Or at best, some will, some won't. The straight DVD players I have think an SACD is a DVD at first, but try to play them and they stop. My Philips SACD/DVD player works fine, and old CD players even work with hybrid disks, but the DVD/CD players I have seen won't play SACDs, period. I've emailed SACD manufactuers on this - silence is the reply. Compounding this problem is the fact that CD-only transports are no longer being made by Philips/Sony for sale to others, a problem in the high-end audio world where DVD transports are considered inferior for red book disk play. Plus it costs more to make a hybrid disk, and you think they'll sell them for the same price? No chance!
|
|
|
Post by Johnno June 25, 2006 (7 of 9)
|
|
I think I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I put the argument of single inventory to Mike Spring of Hyperion and he told me it simply wouldn't work. (Incidentally, this was well before the court case that has caused the company so much grief so his comments had nothing to do with the company's present dilemma). His argument was, simply, that SACDs cost considerably more to produce that standard CDs(and with SACDs we have to be talking hybrids here, of course, if we want single inventory), which would mean a cost increase across the board and a corresponding increase in the retail price. Hyperion's concern was that there would be a very real possibility of considerably reduced sales to those who have no intention of buying an SACD player and that was a risk the company was not prepared to take.
|
|
|
Post by pgmdir June 26, 2006 (8 of 9)
|
|
Polly Nomial said:
As a general comment, if people can get a receiver with a suitable box of tricks with iLink then they can marry almost anything together!
This is true--- and as we used to say in the good old days, "Different strokes for different folks." If one enjoys the results, who would I be to say it shouldn't be so... But,logically, different voicing from different speakers can certainly have its effect. I utillize 4 Bang & Olufsen S-75's for listening, so I don't have the concern in the first place--but I do generally prefer the sound of the two-channel mixes. Personal taste. The thought of a center channel that didn't sound as good, or have the same characteristics as the left and right... Well, the phantom center makes more sense to me. But I'd be the last to suggest that people can't enjoy what they have.
|
|
|
Post by pgmdir June 26, 2006 (9 of 9)
|
|
Johnno said:
I think I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I put the argument of single inventory to Mike Spring of Hyperion and he told me it simply wouldn't work. (Incidentally, this was well before the court case that has caused the company so much grief so his comments had nothing to do with the company's present dilemma). His argument was, simply, that SACDs cost considerably more to produce that standard CDs(and with SACDs we have to be talking hybrids here, of course, if we want single inventory), which would mean a cost increase across the board and a corresponding increase in the retail price. Hyperion's concern was that there would be a very real possibility of considerably reduced sales to those who have no intention of buying an SACD player and that was a risk the company was not prepared to take.
I'd have to agree in the case of small labels, although it appears that this is what BIS is doing in the case of the Minnesota Beethovens, and the Living Stereo releases are priced reasonably.--- my point was that Sony invented SACD-- it would have been in their own interest to go with Hyrbrids sooner then they did, and to make a better effort at "forcing" the format. Universal seems to rarely finish anything they start. Warner has killed their classical arm. And EMI deletes everything they put out within a short time anyway. SOny-BMG might have been able to really make a difference.
I am not an elitist-- I listen to my SACDs on inexpensive Sony DVD players-- one a changer, the other a single play machine in a den. Even on these machines I can have quality that would have been impossible with the best equipment in my early days of hifi. I'm lucky enough to have speakers that allow me to hear that quality-- even if my ears have to work a little harder than they used to. I hate the thought that the format may be abandoned or that the day may come when I would have to spend a great deal of money to buy a machine that will play it.
|
|
