SACD's pissing me off.

[bdfin]

Man, ...........I just don't get this. I know the format has limped along for several years, but wouldn't it make sense to lower the price of these discs and SELL MORE of them to more people rather than selling fewer copies at 60.00 bucks plus. I only have about 6 discs, but not having played one recently I finally bought "Brothers In Arms" last week and played it this morning. Then immediately followed it up with 2 more discs all the way through. Even my " OLD " sierras sound so sweet with these discs..........AAARRGGG, I just can't justify re-buying music for the 3rd or 4th time at those prices. It just pisses me off.........Thanks for letting me vent for a few moments.

Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits
Sisters and Brothers - Eric Bibb, Rory Block, Maria Muldaur
Wind and Wuthering - Genesis

3 Different styles.....all great in SACD.

[bdfin]

Not that I've paid 60.00 bucks for any of the ones I own. I guess my frustration is with the Japanese imports, which when you read the reviews are generally are the ones that are preferred because they sound different or " better " in alot of cases to the US hybrids. Although the 18.00 bucks for the hybrid Brothers in Arms sounds great to me. I guess it depends on the album. The Allman Brothers " Live at Fillmore East " is one of my favorites from yester year, but reviews say the hybrid version doesn't sound that great, but the Import disc is much, much better........for 60.00 plus bucks.

[curtis]

What surprises me is that there are not more music BluRay discs. Sound quality is/would be every bit as good as SACD.

I miss listening to my SACD's and DVD-A's.

[bdfin]

I am one who still likes to have an original album ( or disc ) anyways. I'm WILLING TO PAY FOR IT, instead of downloading it for next to nothing. If they've gone to all the trouble of mastering the SACD in the first place, why limit the number of copies, pick many obscure artists, and create a semi collectors market for these awesome sounding discs ( most discs anyways not all ). I would think if you wanted to pump some life back into the music business.......sell SACD's at a reasonable price so more people would develop a taste for well recorded audio. Make em 20.00 max............sell many, many more of them.
Yeah Curtis I keep hoping for more killer BD discs to push me over the edge to buy the hardware. I'm about 80/20 music / movie so the music quality is more important to me, so if it's SACD or BD I would go either direction if they would just put out greater selection at reasonable prices.
Curtis, you said you miss your SACD's, I thought you had a budding collection from some older posts I read. Did you get rid of them or just not pop em in the player lately ? I have to admit, these ease of just clicking the play on the music library has spoiled me some too. But today after playing one disc I proceeded to play a couple more start to finish because they all sounded so nice.

[blindcat7]

It's all your fault. Your post reminded me of how long it had been since I had looked at SACDs and I went and blew way too much on some titles I have been eyeing for some time and then went and blew a bit more on the Ultimate Henry Mancini SACD and the two numbered, limited edition Billy Joel SACDs that are being released next week, Piano Man and Turnstile. It's all your fault. I bear no responsibility. I was led down the path of temptation by a pied piper... Ok, it's all my own fault, I have no self control. But since I hadn't indulged in any good high def music outside of a couple of concert Blu-rays for probably nearly a year, and after having quite the crappy month, I figured I deserved it. Thanks for the idea. I had been trying to think of something different to treat myself to as a pick-me-up.

Finding out about the Joel SACDs gives me some hope that we might still see some good releases outside of expensive imports and classical and jazz releases from time to time. The two together came out just shy of $45 from Amazon. Still a lot more than a CD or a digital download, but if half of their hype about going back to the analog source and doing a careful and complete remaster is accurate, I think they'll be well worth it. I hope they will do the same with the rest of his albums. I never did manage to get the 52nd Street and Innocent Man SACDs and they now run over $70 used.

I said a long time ago that if SACD had wanted to give themselves an advantage in their format war with DVD-A and help increase the presence of high definition audio they needed to make all SACD releases hybrid SACDs and start releasing some titles only in that format. I think if people had bought a few new releases from their favorite artists and read the included flyer explaining that they could get better sound, and in some cases surround sound from the disc, they might have been more tempted to check it out. Even with that, it probably would have still been an uphill battle, but it could have helped. Regardless of whether or not high definition audio ever becomes a big deal, I think there is evidence that there is at least a good sized niche market looking for material to buy. The insane prices of some of the OOP titles out there alone shows that. I heard that there had been an import SACD of the E.T. soundtrack, one of my childhood favorites, but when I saw what used copies were going for, over $300, I decided to pass. If they did even a small run of discs for the US market, they would probably easily sell out. I know that they need to be able to sell a certain number to make a profit on a production run of a title, but I think that if collectors are willing to pay so much for an OOP title, there is likely enough demand for another run. But I don't really know enough about the economics to be sure I am not just wishful thinking. Of course, I would be just as happy to get more Blu-ray audio releases. With that format, they could include multiple stereo and surround versions and add as an incentive a lossless digital copy for people to use on their portable player or streaming device.

Regards,

Chris

I am one who still likes to have an original album ( or disc ) anyways. I'm WILLING TO PAY FOR IT, instead of downloading it for next to nothing. If they've gone to all the trouble of mastering the SACD in the first place, why limit the number of copies, pick many obscure artists, and create a semi collectors market for these awesome sounding discs ( most discs anyways not all ). I would think if you wanted to pump some life back into the music business.......sell SACD's at a reasonable price so more people would develop a taste for well recorded audio. Make em 20.00 max............sell many, many more of them.
Yeah Curtis I keep hoping for more killer BD discs to push me over the edge to buy the hardware. I'm about 80/20 music / movie so the music quality is more important to me, so if it's SACD or BD I would go either direction if they would just put out greater selection at reasonable prices.
Curtis, you said you miss your SACD's, I thought you had a budding collection from some older posts I read. Did you get rid of them or just not pop em in the player lately ? I have to admit, these ease of just clicking the play on the music library has spoiled me some too. But today after playing one disc I proceeded to play a couple more start to finish because they all sounded so nice.

[bdfin]

No problem, blame me if you must, I'll gladly take it. Hope you relish your new purchases and enjoy . I've got 2 weeks straight of on the road for work so I may have to order a new SACD to bring me back down once it's over.

[curtis]

I am one who still likes to have an original album ( or disc ) anyways. I'm WILLING TO PAY FOR IT, instead of downloading it for next to nothing. If they've gone to all the trouble of mastering the SACD in the first place, why limit the number of copies, pick many obscure artists, and create a semi collectors market for these awesome sounding discs ( most discs anyways not all ). I would think if you wanted to pump some life back into the music business.......sell SACD's at a reasonable price so more people would develop a taste for well recorded audio. Make em 20.00 max............sell many, many more of them.
Yeah Curtis I keep hoping for more killer BD discs to push me over the edge to buy the hardware. I'm about 80/20 music / movie so the music quality is more important to me, so if it's SACD or BD I would go either direction if they would just put out greater selection at reasonable prices.
Curtis, you said you miss your SACD's, I thought you had a budding collection from some older posts I read. Did you get rid of them or just not pop em in the player lately ? I have to admit, these ease of just clicking the play on the music library has spoiled me some too. But today after playing one disc I proceeded to play a couple more start to finish because they all sounded so nice.

Sorry...I missed this earlier.

Yes, I have a collection of about 25 SACD's and DVD-A's.

I got a blu-ray player as a gift a year or so ago, and my pre-pro only has one set 7.1 analog inputs (no HDMI yet)....the new player did not support SACD or DVD-A. On top of that, my older Oppo universal went on the fritz.

So, to listen to my h-res discs, I am going to need to get a new player that supports them, and I will probably end up getting another Oppo when the funds are there.

[TomK]

BDFIN,
I absolutely agree with you on $60 a pop for SACD's. Even $30 gets my goat. Just a thought...have you tried Amazon. Used CD's in good condition can be purchased for a lot less. But be careful some outrageous prices can also be found. I just got a good deal on the complete Beethoven symphanies. I used to have "Brothers In Arms" until my son borrowed it (permenantly) Kids!
Tom

[bkdc]

Thankfully, I listen mostly to classical music, and SACDs of this genre are more competitively priced. Given the dominance of digital stereo downloads, the businessmen have probably crunched the numbers on profitability when pricing these expensive discs. Some of the Pentatone classical recordings make my hair stand up. The audio engineers were masterful.

[Blutarsky]

I always felt that SACDs were like the Emperors New Clothes. I couldn't hear enough difference to justify the cost.
http://www.pstracks.com/pauls-posts/sacds/13429/
B.