Vote

I will wait till the market shakes itself out; some of my 16/44 recordings are excellent. One advantage of the "better" formats should be better recordings on traditional media. Perhaps the gap from conventional to "better" formats will be reduced 'cos of this? At any rate , I have learnt thru being burned not to be an early adopter of formats that might just be "flashes in the pan."

This is so great—think of all the vinyl that will be made available to collectors like me. How many formats can one man use in an average adult lifetime? Vinyl will still be alive and well when I'm past my sell-by date, and then some (other) lucky bastard will buy my collection cheap at a garage sale. From what I hear of the "new" music, no format will make it listenable.

Look.... I've got 1600 LPs and nice toobes in the living room. I got tickets to the local Philharmonic. I got a DVD and laserdisc in my video system. As much as I like 96/24, I didn't get to be rich per Arkansas standards (duh!) by throwing my money away. I'll wait 'till I can either get a reasonably priced (per high end standards) universal player, or I'll buy a PC, put in a universal drive and have one of my analog friends build me the mother of all PC power supplies -which will no doubt cost more than my Linn LP12 in parts alone!

A universal player is the only thing that makes sense.

I'll get a new phono cartridge.

Seems to me that the best bet is to wait for a player that handles both DVD-Audio and 6-channel SACD. I'm also interested in a player that offers a digital output so that the 6-channel decoding happens in the processor, not a player with 6 analog outputs where the quality is dependent on the player vs. the processor.

wait till the format war is over and hope for good 2 channel audio

I'm going to pull a record from my cabinet, put it on the turntable, and play it. I'm going to do this over and over again until the powers that be decide on one system with disc prices that are affordable, not the price gouging that is happening now. I think that audiophiles are being led down a garden path, at least right now, and I'm afraid that Stereophile, TAS, Ultimate Audio, and the rest are somewhat to blame for this. You all have been touting these new standards for so long that the anticipation may be greater than the results. And the prices that they are talking about, $20 to $30 per disc—sorry, if they think that I'm going to pay that much, they're nuts. For those prices, I'll buy tickets and listen to music live, a sound no reproduced music can ever come close to.

If the designers would listen to what we the consumers want, there might not be any confusion about format. Wake up and build what we want, not what you rhink we ought to buy.

I will be the LAST ADOPTER!

To be perfectly honest, I'm happy with all of the formats I'm currently using (CD, LD, DVD, DSS, AM/FM, etc.). I feel that any extra benefits offered by DVD-Audio and SACD are going to be useless in all but the most "state-of-the-art" listening rooms, of which, mine is not one. My mind could be persuaded if the record labels stop pressing CDs and only offer new music on the new formats. Until that happens, I will be on the sidelines.

Although I am interested in obtaining the best quality digital audio possible, I am not interested in becoming a victim of "format wars". I remember Beta vs VHS. I also remember four track reel-to-reel tape recorders, S-VHS, digital compact cassette and DAT. The success of DVD-Audio and SACD will depend on the availability of popular software, the cost of that software and merchants willingness to stock the formats (cost and space). I will wait until the dust settles, then buy a "high-end" machine.

Not interested in anything that won't play on my existing DVD player. The hi-fi industry seems to look with envy to the computer industry, which happily burns its customers every 3 years, rendering their hardware obsolete. From the few existing DVD-Audio 24/96 discs I've heard, I am not really too excited about DVD-Audio.

The race against obsolescence. When will we stop this stupid race?

I am commited to the LP

I think it will be a number of years until I get one of these new players. Once the indie labels come out with DVD-Audio discs, I will then need to pick one up.

As long as CDs aren't pulled from the shelves like LPs were in the '80s, I will wait. It took at least 10 years for the record companies to figure out how to properly remaster recordings for CD; why should it take them any less time to remaster to SACD or DVD-A? Probably by 2007, we will be downloading SACD/DVD-A code and burning our own discs at home. In the meantime, I intend to acquire an excellent two-channel system to make the most of my CDs and LPs.

I will wait until the dust settles, the prices come down and the software is not expensive. Until then, I'll upgrade my DAC and/or transport.

I think it will be a while for DVD-Audio, or SACD players are free of new product bugs. I think that if I were to buy one of the products, it would be SACD. I am not an advicate of multi channel audio. Personally, I would rather have a truly hi-fi two channel system than a surround sound format any day. In the meantime, I just bought a LINN IKEMI CD PLAYER. I have got to tell you, I have sold high end audio equipment for eight years. I think it will certainly be a while before one of the new formats can compete with a high res cd player. You really ought to listen to this thing. It sounds great. Besides I just can't see myself buying a SONY anything unless it is a video product. I'll have to wait until a better brand jumps on the bandwagon.

Not interested in the new formats as far as 1.the number of releases in one of the format has not outpaced the number of new releases in the old CD format 2. when competition will have increased the quality of the new format player in the high-end. For the time being, I really do enjoy CDs and I really think much more musical excitement is a around the corner right now!

This is a classic example of a very short-sighted "lose-lose" strategy. I am interested in both formats but will buy neither. No one wins my dollar here. It seems to me that each camp is jockeying to control a certain platform at a time when the entire direction in technology appears to be a more open, universal platform. I would encourage all audiophiles to sit this one out and vote against control by withholding their dollars.

Waiting for a universal player makes sense to me.

I think that I will wait for a high quality univeral player. Having the best of both worlds appeals to me and my budget more than having one format and not the other. I'd love to see the SACD camp "win" because reports say that it is superior to DVD-Audio, yet I don't want to be left out when it comes to having more titles available to me because of "mainstream" DVD-Audio. When a high-end company puts out a universal player that's worth my hard-earned cash, I will be more than happy to oblige.

I like the sound of Sony's SACD player, but five grand for a player that will be out of date when Sony releases a multichannel version . . . ? I think I'll try out that Panasonic DVD-A player. Although I hope it supports HDCD, like Toshiba's DVD-V player.

Definitely more excited about DVD-Audio than SACD.

Just another ploy to sell more hardware and software. In the not too distant future, both systems will be obsolete. I predict that both will be financial busts!

Looks like two giants are going head-to-head. We will not see a clear winner for sometime. So I will try to buy a universal player if the price is reasonable. That way I will be able to enjoy the music that will be available in both formats. In time, the comsumers and the market will decide who will stay and who will go. Remember Beta Vs VHS? How about Mini-disc Vs DCC? It is all about making money. To do that, one must some how make the existing collections/format obsolete. So we select 96kHz sampling frequency instead of a multiple of 44.1kHz. So it has now been concluded that 96kHz SOUNDS BETTER THAN 88.2kHz. Did they try to compare 96kHz with 132.3kHz (3 X 44.1kHz)? Why even bother. 96kHz is good enough to make the existing CD collection obsolete. So looks like DVD-A is a clear winner and we are the loosers.

Divx, anyone? I will wait till the standards war is OVER! When will these idiots in the industry learn that the market can support only 1 (ONE!) format at a time!

Since I have been invited to countless weddings this year, all my money is going to other peoples joy and happiness (for at least 7 years). So with the odds against the couples marrying, I do not feel so bad giving my money to them, instead of spending it on a new unproven format (that may or may not outlast the marrage's)......

Until I hear the new formats, I can't say for sure. Even if they all sound great, I will have to wait to see which one wins out. (Don't want to get caught in the Beta vs. VHS thing, putting $$$$ into fleeting electronics and software.) I'm not going to be part of corporate wars and give them my hard-earned money if they can't sit down and come up with a standard format that that will take us well into the furture (more than 20 years). I believe if these new formats are not compatible with present-day CDs, they're doomed from the start. No one I know can afford to rebuild entire CD collections, especially if they cost big bucks. I don't believe the market can be bear multiple formats, and to trying to sell a new format to the mass market, where mid-fi rules, is crazy. Mid-fi users can't hear the difference in electronics or don't think it's worth the money; how can the manufacturers of these new formats think they're going to get people to spend their money on new equiptment and new software? There are going to be some big losers when this is all over. In the end, there can be only one. Don't get burned!