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Hello!
I am thinking to buy a SA-CD player and wondering what is going to happen with SA-CD media. A lot of people say to me that it is dying or even worse it is already died! The idea entered in this area is to have the easy way a stable HD stereo sound quality, not needed to be a professional sound mechanic in order to achive bit accurate reproduction! Even more to have top sound quality wherever the circumstances, (excellent dsd data), allow!
Which is your opinion? Is there any good future or it is better to avoid it?
Thank you.
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Post by emaidel April 28, 2009 (2 of 61)
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SACD isn't dead yet, but isn't exactly thriving as one might have hoped. If you aren't a fan of classical music, you'll find source material very, very scarce. Also, the multi-channel aspect of SACD, while a sonic delight when set up properly, is a big turnoff to many an audiophile since few have the desire, or the ability to transform their 2-channel systems into multi-channel setups.
Still, if you like the classics, and have a decent 2-channel system (whether or not multi-channel is a possibility for you) there are many sonic delights to be had from an SACD that you simply can't get from any other source. This site alone wouldn't exist if it weren't for the fact that we members are largely die-hard fans of the medium. We may not constitute the majority of recorded music purchasers, but apparently, we exist in sufficient numbers for producers of classical music to continue offering SACD's, and for a number of manufacturers to continue offering newer and better SACD players.
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Thank you for your answer.
My system is, (and is going to be for ever), only stereo two channel!
I like very much classics and jazz. So it's o.k. to me!
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hellenic vanagon said:
...what is going to happen with SA-CD media. A lot of people say to me that it is dying or even worse it is already died!...
I have read statements like this dated as early as 2004. Did they say the same about DVD-A? Hmmmm...
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hellenic vanagon said:
Hello!
I am thinking to buy a SA-CD player and wondering what is going to happen with SA-CD media. A lot of people say to me that it is dying or even worse it is already died! The idea entered in this area is to have the easy way a stable HD stereo sound quality, not needed to be a professional sound mechanic in order to achive bit accurate reproduction! Even more to have top sound quality wherever the circumstances, (excellent dsd data), allow!
Which is your opinion? Is there any good future or it is better to avoid it?
Thank you.
I wish I knew what the future of SACD would be, but that applies to many other things also!
I bought my first universal disc player in December 2006, and cannot describe the pleasure I get from listening to hi-res (particularly muti-channel) sound from my DVD-As and SACDs. I don't have a preference of one format over the other, and am convinced that these offer the way to listen to high quality audio. In fact, I've lost a lot of interest in buying CDs, not having bought any for about 4 years now. Who knows, perhaps SACD will be forgotten about in 10 years time, but if I think about how many hours pleasure I can get from one disc (costing possibly £10 - £15), that's incredibly cheap entertainmnent. Perhaps I am not looking at things in quite the right way, but I'm happy. Two hi-res record labels mentioned the possibility Blu-ray recently. Initially I was very disappointed, and I can understand some people getting tired of changing formats. But while SACD and DVD-A exist, and I'm able to play them, I'll continue to enjoy them.
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My old CD player ... a Madrigal Proceed ... gave up a few months ago ... and I faced this very same choice. Basically, I had 3 options:
1. Go iTunes. For me, this was sub-optimal: (i) I don't like the sound quality that comes out of my computer: sub-standard. (ii) I don't always want my computer on just to listen to music, or iTunes hogging my processor power, or causing my music to stop when I re-boot, or change users or ... (iii) ripping a large number of CDs is a real pain, esp fixing up the meta-data (which is crucial, otherwise you can never find anything) (iv) it's just old CD quality at best. So what's new?
2. Buy a new CD player, and then what? What's new? What's changed? Nothing. You spend a lot of money, and get the same thing you always had. Pfft. CD as an audiophile entity is finished. High-end audiophile companies like Krell and Mark Levinson have now completely stopped making/selling CD players anymore: they've gone SACD.
3. Or, go SACD: You still get to play your CDs, but ... there's something new and exciting in return for spending your money ... hi-rez sound!! Something 21st C. Something better. Something incredibly cool.
I bought the new Marantz SA-8003 SACD player. It's a fantastic CD player, and an even better SACD player. Best decision I've made in yonkers. Even has a USB port. The sound quality is superb. Music is actually incredibly exciting again ... the quality of good SACD releases is wonderful, and you won't want to listen to the old CDs anymore. Prepare yourself for hunting trips!
I haven't been so evangelistic about anything since the Mac came out.
As for the doomsayers ... yada yada ... I think the dark days of SACD were in 2004 -2006 when the big boys like Universal left ... But, in their place, in the last few years, hundreds of smaller companies have entered the market, and I find it incredibly vibrant. I think SACD is now going through a resurgence. There are now some 440 labels producing SACD discs ... that's an amazing number. There are almost 6000 SACD discs out there. That's about 50 times more hi-rez content on SACD than on ALL THE other hi-rez formats combined (DVD-A, bluray audio, hi-rez downloads etc). Yes - COMBINED! SACD might be small compared to the whole CD market, but in the audiophile market ... in the hi-rez market ... it is the undisputed market leader ... not by a small margin ... but by orders of magnitude. It's the giant gorilla of the hi-rez audio industry.
I now have SACDs with artists like Murray Perahia, Julia Fischer, Pieter Wispelwey, Matt Haimowitz, Ashkenazy, Volodos, Alfred Brendel, Maisky, Mitsuko Uchida, Yevgeny Sudbin, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne Sophie Mutter, Jordi Savall, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Kuijken, Fasolis, Gergiev, Jurowski, etc ...
And the really interesting development, quite recently, is that some of the world's top orchestras and artists are now bringing out their own labels, with total support for SACD. Examples include:
LSO Live Label http://lso.co.uk/buyrecordings/
and the new
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Label http://www.cso.org/resound
To spend money on a CD player, today, seems crazy, when you can buy an SACD player for the same price, still play your old CDs, but actually have the option of enjoying hi-rez audio. Yerp!
Enjoy!
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Post by pgmdir April 28, 2009 (7 of 61)
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hellenic vanagon said:
Hello!
I am thinking to buy a SA-CD player and wondering what is going to happen with SA-CD media. A lot of people say to me that it is dying or even worse it is already died! The idea entered in this area is to have the easy way a stable HD stereo sound quality, not needed to be a professional sound mechanic in order to achive bit accurate reproduction! Even more to have top sound quality wherever the circumstances, (excellent dsd data), allow!
Which is your opinion? Is there any good future or it is better to avoid it?
Thank you.
You have NOTHING to lose, and hours of great classical listening to gain.
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Post by wolf359 April 28, 2009 (8 of 61)
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hellenic vanagon said:
Hello!
I am thinking to buy a SA-CD player and wondering what is going to happen with SA-CD media. A lot of people say to me that it is dying or even worse it is already died! The idea entered in this area is to have the easy way a stable HD stereo sound quality, not needed to be a professional sound mechanic in order to achive bit accurate reproduction! Even more to have top sound quality wherever the circumstances, (excellent dsd data), allow!
Which is your opinion? Is there any good future or it is better to avoid it?
Thank you.
Welcome to the forum
If you have a look at whats available on this site it will seem that your choices of Jazz and classical are more than well represented. In addition apart from the standard repetoire there are many recordings of lesser known works some of which are available only on SACD. The choice of hardware is not a problem as there is everying from basic players to the highest of high end to choose from. The problem is with the discs themselves. There is nowhere near the choice as their is on CD. This in part has been caused by lack of support from the so called major record companies. However there are enough music lovers and/or audiophiles to keep the format viable at the present level and are supported by forward thinking companies such as Bis or Pentatone. As for the future some argue that Blu-ray will replace SACD for music on disc. I don't think that this is likely. Blu ray and SACD have differing target audiences and SACD is arguably better than Blu-ray anyway so the incentive is not to change. If the record companies changed to blu ray they would run the risk of alienating the SACD market which they are loath to do at present.
The vast majority of discs produced are hybrids wich means they can be played on any device that plays a CD. Many SACD CD layers are better than the equivalent standard CD, so the worst that could happen is that you would have to listen to them after the demise of SACD as CD,s they would not unlike other defunct formats become totally unplayable because of lack of hardware. You should be aware that there are like in the widespread recording world some badly recorded SACD's but those that are up to the high standard will make you wish you had made the switch earlier and scorn CD. I envy you your voyage of discovery. As DSD (Theresa) would say happy listening
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Thank you very much all of you! You encouraged me so much!
I am going to buy my player next few days. It is wonderful that SA-CD.net supports any newcomer with informations and knowledge!
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Below are links to budget professional units that sound good and allow you to transfer your existing library to DSD.
http://www.tascam.com/products/dv-ra1000hd.html
http://www.korg.com/Product.aspx?pd=417
Understand that most of the major labels consider SACD and DVD-A dead. Since the bulk of the majors think it is dead, it will not be easily found at the big three retailers of music. You will be limited to on-line stores and audiophile shops for the most part.
Not all SACDs sound good, as good as the original RBs, etc.
Many SACD releases were not recorded in DSD. If they were recorded in DSD and edited or processed by DSP in anyway, that DSD became PCM (DXD, 24-bit, 192kHz, etc) and then was resampled to DSD. There are almost always multiple resamples in contemporary music releases, making the anti-PCM argument BS and moot.
Many SACD releases were remastered from 16-bit and 24-bit masters.
Of course, SACD players play CDs, so if you want a really good unit that has some flexibility, consider the Esoteric SA-10.
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