Vote

It's bad for everyone alike. Can't the 2 sides work it out amongst themselves and, together, they give the public ONE FORMAT?

Never heard of a good war. A bit of competition never hurts, but a war creates losers and casualties that are stuck with obsolete hardware and software.

like Beta and VHS, we all get stuck with music or tapes that we can't enjoy anymore

just makes me appreciate my vinyl more.

To hell with inter-corp format digital battles!! I will sit back and enjoy my vinyl albums and watch everyone else go crazy! I am not doing anything digital until the smoke clears!

What kind of product would emerge if the great minds of DVD Audio and SACD got together? mmm.

Unfortunately, we consumers pay not only for the winning standards but also for those that lose. All these battles between manufactures are financed from our pockets.

it was created to force un - wanted multi - channel systems upon us. just more gear to buy, more sales for the big guys.

Remember BetaMax? Much better then VHS but look at what we are stuck with. Vote with your dollars. Don't pay for DVD-A.

Both. Although the innovation may be created by corporations, the battle begins in marketing which feels like an election campain @ times. But not all creations are good ones. The end user shold decide what they're going to pay not a company.

They're great, if you pick the winning format. Otherwise you've just bought an often expensive boat anchor.

Sometimes a format war can result in the inferior format winning the battle, EXAMPLE: VHS verses BETAMAX. The 'Boardroom Committee thing' could be the answer, but then again its nice to have a choice.

The industry just hurts itself -- paralysis through analysis. I'll just keep buying better DACs to enjoy my CDs.

The cheapest format will win as it always has, regardless of market. It's the nature of people to accept something less than the best to save a few bucks. To wit: Wal-Mart is the nation's largest grocery chain after a mere 4 years in competition. The old beta/VHS war should tell Sony something about the promise of their new SACD system.

What ever format is best sounding should be the winner.But that does not always happen.

The consumer should have the option of one or the other, unless the battle is for 4 or 5 standards, which should be first fought in the boardrooms. There should always be some competition, at least at first, so that the best product for the consumer wins out (or 2 standards that serve both sides)

rushing the players to the store shelves with very little software is such a waste of the consumers time.

The winner should be determined in standard commitee meeting.

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I suppose it's a good thing, thereby allowing the consumer to vote via his or her pocket. But honestly, I couldn't care less and I have zero interest in this so called war or format battle. Analog still rules, in my opinion and I have absolutely no plans to purchase either of the two competing formats.

The problem is not the best formats wins see V2000, Beta and VHS

Let's get CD right first said Akira Taguchi in the August 1998 issue of Stereophile. He could not have been more correct. I think that, arguably, CD has surpassed vinyl in a lot of ways and has gotten so good in the past five years, we really don't need the new formats.If the new formats must exist, then let's bring them out when it makes sense. Think of it this way, DVD-A only exists because the DVD consortium figured they could lure the home theater crowd into DVD-A by piggybacking it on the heels of the already successful DVD-V. SACD exists because Sony said "Hey, we can't let the DVD people corner the market on audiophile recordings, let's get a competing format out there".As I've said before, it's not that the new formats can't succeed -- they can. But only with universal machines and tons of affordable software on both fronts will it happen. Will we see that? Doubtful. Where the hell was SACD ten years ago when we actually needed it? Writers and audiophiles alike complained endlessly about "perfect sound forever" but nobody listened. To bring out SACD and DVD-A now is absurd. Only after we have exhausted all efforts on the CD format will it be necessary for the new ones.It's like Sam Tellig said, "Pick up a copy of Miles Davis' KIND OF BLUE on the Columbia Legacy label (CK64935) and you'll see why I don't give a shit about the new formats". Well, I did buy a copy. I can now see (and hear) what Sam is talking about. Well said Sam.

Allows time for the "watermarking" daemons, nefarious lawyers, and big business interests (who don't care about music, merely removing money from our collective purses) to muck up what should be pristine pure.

What is best for the average consumer might not be best for audiophiles. In a consumer-based format war the best product often does not win. Superior marketing does. When the war is over and a format selected, the results for the average consumer are generally good -

The only problem is that the introduction proceeded the release so much, that probably most of us have lost interest.

Tell the average consumer about the story of SACD and DVD-Audio and see what happens. NOTHING! Their first reply is "What's wrong with CDs?" If the scenario was to tell the average consumer about ONE high resolution format that would make CD audio obsolete and was priced the same as the average CD, then folks would listen. To the industry: ONE FORMAT = LOTS OF MONEY!

remember vhs and beta ? Or "perfect sound forever?" The product with the best format as far as quality is concerned doesnt always win. In fact the product with the best marketing usually prevails.

Come on. . . I mean, really. . . They are never going to improve on the warmth, presence and dynamics of really good vinyl on a top analogue system. Are they? Naaaaaa, didn't think so. :-)

My initial reaction is format wars are bad, until the secondary issues began to emerge. I so clearly remember Macrovision, which could never be detected. Simply going from a VCR into a monitor you could clearly see the image getting darker and lighter. No, they can claim what they will, but if, through watermarking, these companies try to throw a little toxic slug into the mix, I as a consumer can throw a little wrench in the works and choose a more suitable format. If this is going to plague the DVD-A format, we do have the power to carefully step back and say "NO."

Most will wait til what ever "wins" is out on the market for awhile and more "proven".I use Sony's mini-disc for a small walkman to have tunes on my motoecycles.Not actually great sound but small and affordable for the aplication.Years back I laughed at the mini-disc as a Hi-Fi medium,(definately no more hi-fi than a cassette)just smaller and trasportable.I won't buy dvd-a or sacd til the software(Recordings)become stable and more available as far as artist choices.