AudioAficionado.org - Why Super Audio CD Failed

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Why Super Audio CD Failed

Then came the bombshell. Like Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition, nobody expected the iPod. While there were MP3 players that preceded the iPod, they were clunky, difficult to use, and thus had limited success. Steve Jobs and his crew put a simple, straightforward user interface in an elegant package that was a huge hit. Never mind that it used MP3 files (although it could also play PCM files)

The mass market fell in love with the iPod. Consumers didn't care that its supplied earbuds were poor quality and that its MP3 files didn't sound as good as CDs, let alone high-resolution. Then Apple released its iTunes software, first for the Mac and then for Windows, and they started selling music at $.99/track through the iTunes Music Store. Apple made it easy for the average consumer to buy music and carry it in a convenient package.

The money that consumers would have spent by on high-resolution surround sound instead went to portable music, and the demand needed to establish a viable high-resolution format never materialized.

http://audiophilereview.com/cd-dac-d...cd-failed.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBT (Post 823362)

I still buy SACD's .

If you are talking about new music not being issued on that format, I am personally not concerned.

Quote:

Originally Posted by krustycat (Post 823364)

I still buy SACD's .

If you are talking about new music not being issued on that format, I am personally not concerned.

Yes I'm still buying a few from time to time, but it never really took off.

Ease of use and good user-interface trumps everything else.

Plus Apple was a computer/Internet company who owned the platform and delivery infrastructure. Whereas Sony remains an electronics company. Sony just does not get the Internet.

I think the author jumped to the wrong conclusion. Portable audio did not kill SACD as the author stated.
SACD was and to a great extent still is a closed system, encrypted, with limited playback options and content, and confusion around 2 channel and 5.1 channel sources. In my view it was never positioned well as a consumer format capable of mass adoption.
Almost all of my digital music is now file based, and I can't easily add SACD's to the mix.
So even though I have two SACD players, I seldomly spin an SACD.
Tom

I own 60 wonderful sounding "failures" that I listen to on my K-01X. My Chesky SACDs sound as great as any of my high res. files.

Ken

I have hundreds of them.
But I'm lucky, I love classical music. And there are still a lot of excellent releases (in multi-channel).

That said, the future will be streaming. :yes:

SACD collection became something I started a while ago. I resisted mass streaming because I couldn't add them to the mix. Now w the oppo option for burning them to a hard drive, I have the best of both worlds!

I just counted and I have 62 SACDs. But I rarely play them. Ease of streaming.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBT (Post 823375)

I just counted and I have 62 SACDs. But I rarely play them. Ease of streaming.

Many DCC gold discs or AP Gold are the ultimate recordings for me, even over sacd, such art pepper and the rhythm section on AP gold or oscar peterson on fim lim. I really like the japanese sacd SHM, but i think it's more about the mastering and transfer. Exceptions apply, of course. Listening to chet baker chet on riverside on AP gold is outstanding, but the AP SACD of the same recording is even better.