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not much softwear will be available
Sony announced last week that they are lowering the price of their latest SACD player to $3500. Is this the right price to get your attention?
I already own a relatively esoteric cd player in the Krell DSP Based Integrated CD Player and making an investment on sacd with all its attributes it's prematurely! Eventually the price will drop to accesible numbers and if you buy now you'll feel guilty! And I need to know for sure that it's an audible and remarkable sonic experience!!!
Remember when CD players cost several thousand dollars? Now you can get them free when you buy a cellular phone. I gave one away last week. I have a modest system composed of Martin-Logan CLSs, an NAD CD player, and a B&K power amp. I don't have the extra several thousand dollars to throw around on a suped-up record player. To me, it's silly. I have better things to do with $3500.00.
I've gone through too many "upgrades" in the last 4 years. First the upgraded laserdisc player with an RF output, then the upgraded pre/pro to play Dolby, then the upgrade to DTS, then the DVD player. Fortunately, I waited a year to get a DVD player that would play DTS. But I'm sick of upgrades. How about something decent to play on what we've got? The list of DTS DVDs that are actually worth having is very short. And don't even get me started on HDTV! I'm off the upgrade path for a couple of years, at least until things settle down.
Are we talking high-end, or consumer grade? $1999 for high-end. I suspect, however, from what I have read, SACD isn't that superior and my guess is that it won't ever really catch on. Perhaps DVD-Audio will catch on, however... if they stop using compression for audio and come out with reasonably priced recorders. Only then will it take the major market share from normal CDs of today.
Until the SACD is defined as the standard with software to back this format, the SACD player is not very tempting. Also seeing that these are just first generation SACD transports, I would not spend a lot of money purchasing these players. For many high end audiophiles, they should wait and see if SACD servives the market.