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Software prices must come down. Even for CD'! Best anti-piracy tool going—low prices, high quality. End the greed of the music business.

SACD or DVD/Audio may sound better then standard CDs. However, I'm not about to repurchase the 300 CDs in my collection for a small improvement in sound. In addition, since neither DVA-Audio or SACD have digital outputs (so that bass management and time alignment can be done), they are doomed to be a "niche" audiophile product. Any format that fixes the sampling frequency, bit-rate, and number of channels from is GUARANTEED to be obsolete by the format following it.

If people really want SACD and/or DVD-A to succeed, they need to do two things. First, make an inexpensive chip, so the technology goes mainstream. Second, make the software affordable. No, it doesn't have to be quite as cheap as Red Book stuff, the market will bear a buck or two more. But they'll make more because the disks really cost no more to produce. And the mainstream will buy them because they can play them and they're high tech, even though their boombox can't even do a Red Book CD properly. Audiophiles alone cannot support these new technologies, we need the masses.

The few SACD's I have sound almost as good as vinyl(VPI HW19 MkIV/Clearaudio Gamma S Gold) and better than CD, even HDCD. But my Sony DVP-S9000 ES also plays DVDs (progressive video) and DADs, as well as CDs so I think I'm covered. DVD will be around for a while, as will CDs. SACDs need to drop in price and expand in exposure to sell well. At the local Media Play the manager had not even heard of SACD, but they did have a DVDAudio display with ten different discs on display. Me, I'll find my software on the Internet.

I'm sorry to say there are several issues listed above that are holding me back . . . but I choose lack of software as the main reason because there's no point in owning a player when there's no SACD/DVD music to play.

I like my BMG membership with thousands of CDs to choose from at decent prices. The people behind SACD and DVD-A are putting a half-assed effort at superceding the inferior, but still entirely viable CD.

I NEVER buy into new formats right away. The prices are always too high for us average joes. I'll wait a few years and see how the market accepts the new format first, plus I need more of a selection of software to play since my musical tastes are more narrow than the average listener.

My current setup wouldn't allow for DVD-A. Maybe when I can set the stereo for more serious intensions, then maybe.

Someone is going to have to convince me that one or both of these of these formats is going to be around in three years before I retire my perfectly good Rega Planet in favor of an SACD or DVD-A machine. Also, I'm waiting for a multi-format machine that isn't a $300 piece of plastic. Lots of uncertainty at this point . . .

HArdware prices, software availability, and format viability are all way up there, too.

I do not trust Sony and Philips any more. They are just trying to make an extra buck re-issuing all over again their entire catalog

Please make up your mind!!

It'd be swell if they threw in an upsampler, too! I feel they owe me that much after 20 years of CD.

If I was in the market for a new CD player I'd certainly consider a Sony 777 SACD. But with limited software at present and a few hundred CDs and Vinyl LPs stacked up at home waiting doesn't feel too bad at all.

I truly hate the term "software" for recordings—they're NOT software and the constant overuse of this term betrays true mental dullness. Lose it. That aside, the paucity of RECORDINGS is the obvious reason I'm not even in the slightest revved up about SACD. In fact my entire interest in Hi-Fi is really declining—I've been concentrating on my jazz collection instead. It makes me happier.

I want to have both new formats in my home theater so that the software will determine which one is the best.

First 5, and 5,000,000 LPs.

In South Africa, Sony is currently not even providing hybrid CDs. I went to a Hi-Fi show recenly and Sony did not even bother to set up a SACD demo. There is no chance of even thinking about the format with such a disregard for audiophiles, and of course the lack of software.

I like the stereo format, and have music enough on cd and lp. I dont want to buy the same stuff again.

Just as in the video war in the seventies/eighties, where the Sony Betamax and Philips Video2000 lost out to VHS after a couple of years, we're going to see a similar thing. Which one will stick? We'll see in the end. I just bought a new CD-only player half a year ago, and by the time that I will consider upgrading that, I hope that the new formats will have ended their battle. And then I'll choose!

I think that CD sounds good and has a lot of unexplored potential. If proper care was taken in recording, mixing, mastering, and disc production, SACD and DVD-A wouldn't stand a snowflake's hope in hell of succeeding in the marketplace. Sorry manufacturers, you aren't marketing a great leap forward in convenience, durability, reliability or any of the other mass-market advances that CD represented over vinyl. I sure won't be spending even higher prices on software that has the same mediocre production and manufacturing values as what it is trying so vainly to displace.

I've no confidence in either format. With such a limited software availability, I will wait and see. I will by my CD and listen to music insted. As for quality, listen to a Mark Levinson n

I've just purchased the Philips SACD1000, and i've already a Meridian 200/263,the sound of SACD's is better but the problem is the limited catalogue of Sony Clasical and the others labels likes:DG, EMI & Decca have not released any titles,the are just waiting.

I have an S9000es but geez, how about some damn software? There are more players being released every month than titles. Only Sony could screw up something this good. Next thing you know Barney's greatest hits will be released but still no decent rock.

Already spent a lot on CD player and CDs.

universal player was second, but i don't think that both formats can survive. somewhat of a vhs vs beta situation.

To get the best in sound, one must pay $5000 for a Marantz SACD. If this is the case then why bother with it. I own a Marantz CD-80 and have tweaked to to deliver a great sound. so NO SACD for me.

I was just about to buy a SACD player when SONY announced SACD multichannel. I'm not going to have two multichannel systems in my house. When there is enough software, I will upgrade my home theater system to DVD-A.

I've been pleasently surprised with DVD-Audio on a high quality player (Toshiba SD-9200). I had tried it on a JVC XV-723 and was unimpressed. SACD has sounded good on everything I've heard it on. I'm quite undecided on the multichannel mixes. I think that has to do a lot more with the production decisions and less with the equipment.

Recording engineers can't get 2-channel sound right, what makes you think that recordings will be good multi-channel. When a quality 2-channel stereo player is released in format supported and stocked, I'll pitch my standard CD player...otherwise, FORGET it.