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I also use my SACD as much as I can, but there's not enough software available yet.
As we transition from one format to another, some components hang on as our main source of music. What is the source component you use most in your home system?
The likelihood of migrating from CD to SACD became more remote for me when I received a Sony evolve summer 2003 catalog in the mail recently. Its a 96-page catalog on glossy paper, with a wide range of Sony products from digital cameras to plasma TVs. But there was no mention of SACD. If Sony is not pushing SACD to the masses, then who will?
My listening is 99% vinyl. With sound quality this great, why listen to anything else? Vinyl clearly continues to be the highest-resolution source material. Of course, having a software library of over 6000 LPs and only 50 CDs may influence my listening choices. But then, vinyl is what I continue to buy.
I just moved to a new home and decided to not even set up my very decent turntable. I just don't listen to them anymore. And I don't want to bother cleaning them and getting up to change sides or retrieve the tonearm at the ends of an allbum. I enjoy the convenience of CD and dislike the inconvenience of LP's. Plus I don't sit in a sweet spot for music listening. I sold practically all of my LP's and have gone completely digital. I haven't purchased SACD or DVD-Audio yet and am waiting for you guys to review a very good universal player (like the new Lexicon). In the meantime I derive all my musical pleasure from making compliation CD's (using pro cd recorders)from my favorite Cd sources which I purchase. I have the MSB "Full Nelson" DAC with oversampling and my CD's sound quite good. As mentioned above, I will invest in a good univeral player purchase a SACD once you identify one and I will continue to oversample Red Book CD's on my existing set up [The Musical Fidelity player looks great but is way too expensive. I can afford it but it is not a good value in my judgment).
I own around 4000 CDs plus I can get anything which has been recorded on CD. There are bad CDs and there are those who just blow vinyl away (also valid vice versa). With the right CD/DAC combo, you won't miss any of the "new" formats.
My turntable and my reel-to-reel recorder are my most important sources. I buy 180g and 200g reissues and then tape them onto reel-to-reel, that way I can enjoy the fidelity of the record and keep it in pristine condition. I also do this with 78s so that I don't have to handle them.
About 98% of my software is in the LP format. There are so many affordable and great used records out there (I'm not interested in the pricey 180g reissue game) that I just can't justify spending my limited music dollars on CDs. So, my Rega 25 reigns supreme in my system while my Naim CD5 doesn't see very much use. If I had more CDs, I'd probably listen to more of them; the CDs I do have are more recent recordings I really want to listen to but which are not available used as LPs. Indeed, I will buy used CDs too, but there just isn't the selection of them that the LP back catalog offers. I'm not really into the "vinyl is better than digital" war: in my opinion CDs and records sound "different" from each other (rather than one sounding "better") and each offers advantages and disadvantages. I just happen to have a lot more records than CDs.