Thread: PFO "and Steve says… SACD is a failure!"

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Post by zeus May 16, 2006 (11 of 17)
Peter said:

Am I right in believing that Philips Electronics, who worked on the development of SACD, has no link with Philips Records, currently held captive by Universal?

Yes.

Post by dvda-sacd May 16, 2006 (12 of 17)
The SACD enthusiasts from Philips Classics founded a wonderful Super Audio CD label called Pentatone in 2001. ;-)

Post by tream May 16, 2006 (13 of 17)
zeus said:

I don't know why people get fixated on Jazz at the Pawnshop, Kind of Blue etc when the bulk of the SA-CDs appearing today are of new made-for-the-format recordings.

One of the joys for me of SACD has been that I have discovered a large number of artists new to me that I might not have found had I not taken up SACD. A few of these are classical artists, but most of the new ones are jazz. I don't know if this is because I was software hungry and thus more open to experimentation or because it was easier to find these artists as the SACD's were released, but I've added new to me artists like Art Pepper, Chet Baker, Wes Montgomery, and Stan Getz (none exactly obscure, but for whatever reason were not in my collection before) and added terrific new to me releases from Gerry Mulligan, Bill Evans, Tony Bennett, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and so on.

The issue is that few of the releases are multichannel, with the exception of some releases from Telarc and Sony, and maybe a few others. In other words, there just isn't as much interesting jazz these days as there was at one time (I think the genre peaked in the mid -60's - maybe that labels me an old fogey, but it was before I became a jazz enthusiast so I'm not just pining for the old days of my youth - I think fusion is not very interesting, for example), and many of today's more interesting or well-known artists aren't recording for SACD-friendly labels. Anyway, I have amassed an excellent jazz collection on SACD. I think SACD makes a real difference for jazz, which is mostly acoustic based sound. My latest jazz acquisition is Mulligan Meets Monk, on Fantasy - the first impression is that this is a heckuva disc.

For the record, I do not own Jazz at the Pawnshop :-). I do own Kind of Blue on SACD - the Japanese pressing, reputed to be the best. It is a classic, but not my favorite jazz.

Last point - I really, really wish some Dexter Gordon was available on SACD.

Post by dvda-sacd May 16, 2006 (14 of 17)
tream said:

One of the joys for me of SACD has been that I have discovered a large number of artists new to me that I might not have found had I not taken up SACD.

Me too. ;-)

Post by braver May 16, 2006 (15 of 17)
tream said:

I do own Kind of Blue on SACD - the Japanese pressing, reputed to be the best.

I wonder how a Japanese 'pressing' of SACD is better though. :)

Post by andyshedd May 26, 2006 (16 of 17)
Johnno said:

I agree, and I was amazed at how quickly, relatively speaking, Sony appeared to lose interest in SACD. Did they really expect it to be an instant "goldmine"? It would seem so.

I don't know how accurate it is today, but not too long ago I read something some Sony executive said regarding SACD being a "slow burn" process; meaning that it would take some time before the public became aware of its superior quality. I also read something about using their portable players to whet listeners' appetite for SACD sound--something to the tune of improved sound for mp3's and the like. I believe that Sony has not abandoned SACD, but they definitely have put it on the back burner. Taking a look at other "failed" Sony formats (like MD for example) I can imagine that it will take some time before Sony completely abandons SACD.

Post by mdt May 27, 2006 (17 of 17)
Castor said:

I am surprised that no one has mentioned the dreaded DVD-A which surely helped to lessen the impact of the launch of SACD, caused confusion in the minds of consumers and made them hold off from trying either format.

SA-CD was droped when it was allready clearly ahead of DVD-A. I dont think DVD-A has anything to do with it. I guess the reason is that the masses give a d... about quality, they just want lots of music as easy and above all cheap as possible. And since its they who bring the big bucks, who cares about those few music loving freaks seeking quality.

To bad they dont notice, that its those few freaks who continue buying discs, whereas the masses they're after, prefer downloading and i wouldn't bet that its legal downloading allways.

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