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SACD? DVD-Audio? What's that? (Paraphrasing the employee at my favorite "record" store.)

Thankfully, I don't own a SACD player. I recall all of the hoopla about the high resolution sound and the lack of available titles on SACD. It was marketed as if it was some sort of experiment. From my perspective, I think most people have written it off, but it seems to be because Sony and others wrote it off first.

DVD-A is dead and buried and, as far as the mass market is concerned, so is SACD. SACD is only alive among enthusiasts. What was the last time there was a major label release of an SACD?

Gone to Elusive Disk. Gone underground to Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct, et al. In other words, available on the web, if you know where to look. Gone from brick and mortar, though.

It was DOA for me. I agree with my co-respondant "audio-sleuth" in his assessment of its overall value. Every time I went to my dealer's to listen via Esoteric, Ayre, or other very reputable players, the format failed when tested against vinyl.

The general public couldn't care less about sound quality anyway. And there are still a fairly small number of models available from companies with proper high-end credentials. So it looks like SACD and DVD-A will soldier on with their own niche communities.

Very sad, hopefully new high-rez video formats will keep some interest in surround alive.

Mortally wounded and dying a slow, painful death. Stores stopped selling high-rez discs in my area three years ago. The shrinking niche market of high-end audio is not sufficient to sustain it, IMHO. Overpriced, overrated, and an answer to a question no one really asked. Standard CD is sufficient.

DVD-audio seems dead, but SACD seems to be hanging in—barely. It's definitely an audiophile nitch market, much like expensive audiophile vinyl.

Like a wounded animal, still dangerous enough to hurt/confuse the market. Next the death of HDTV .It's doing too well. As soon as everyone has one, they (Japan) will pull the carpet out from under the retailers. Heaven forbid we have a stable marketplace.

Most people never cared about these formats, so there was never enough buyer support to get sales off the ground. For a new medium to survive, there must be a demand—it's as simple as that. Remember DAT and minidisk? Same scenario.

I do believe that the vinyl revival is beginning to take its toll. Isn't it wonderful?

The feature is non-disc orientated and multi-format download/hard-disk stored in various qualities. Maybe that is the revival of high-rez formats: stand-alone DAC's with wireless/ethernet/digital inputs will rule (like the Linn Klimax DS or Logitech Transporter, and I already asked Mark Levinson to revamp their No.360S DAC by adding the aformentioned inputs).

There needs to be a critical mass of disc players out there in order to interest the disk producers. Since SACD and DVD-A never had a market other than some audiophiles, they're dead, and were never really alive in the first place. The hopes for hi-rez audio lie in piggybacking on a mass-market media, which is likely to be the winner of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war.

Most PS3 owners do not even know that they can play SACDs on their machine.

My guess is it will remain an audiophile option while becoming more obscure to the general public with each passing year. I'm a little rueful and a lot ambivalent about digital high-rez, having consciously avoided it to some extent because I cannot afford to do it at the level I would like, instead continually cajoling myself that CD is good enough.

DVD-A is dead.

There are enough machines out there and people (like me) who'd like software. But we won't be finding it in our local chain store.

I have never had an audio shop offer to demo either format.

Limited to the online, specialty, or enthusiast market now. The general public has no clue and never will—almost less than a footnote in the history of recorded medium will be the legacy. Hybrid SACDs would have had to replace regular CDs on the shelf at the same price as "normal" CDs to have a chance. The general public only cares about price and convenience, not quality, in consumable retail items as these—music, movies, & electronics. CD quality is better than "good enough" for everybody, save for us crackpots.

It's as dead as four-channel sound was 30 years ago. But at least back then, people appreciated quality components and quality sound. Today it's a video world and almost any kind of plastic amp/speaker box will do. People are no longer aware of quality but shop only by what is the cheapest. Look at all the junky brands that WalMart sells by the truckload.

Not enough titles to gain any momentum.

SACD and DVD-A both suffer from the self-inflicted wounds of their originating companies. Even though universal disc players are now common, most consumers have shrugged their collective shoulders and moved on. The lack of committment to put out a large variety of discs that were widely distributed and popularly priced closed the commercial viability coffin soon after the players hit the market. Despite the audible superiority, the masses just don't care and don't feel sorry for the manufacturers who marketed the players in such a careless manner.

Dead. Dead. Dead. Enough with playback limitations and digital restrictions management.

With the release of Blu-Ray and Hi-Def DVD, both DVD-A and SACD seem to be going the way of the BetaMax. I have been eyeballing SACD players of one sort or another for years now, but have held off on purchasing one. Mostly because many do not sound any better than my current Red-Book player. Those that do, have an price tag that makes my heart skip a beat or two. I hate to spend $6,500.00 on a player that I will no longer find software for five years from now. So in the meantime I will save my money, and happily focus on adding to my record collection.

SACD is great!

It seems SACD is hanging on as an audiophile format. I don't really know how well they are selling, though. DVD-Audio seems nearly dead. For what it's worth, I think multichannel audio will only thrive as a soundtrack for music video. And as for high resolution two-channel, whatever formats survive will be remain what SACD is today; an audiophile-only niche product.

Am about to purchase an universal player. Wouldn't do so if there wasn't enough high-rez music to play. Am concurrently adding to my vinyl collection!

Plenty of classical SACD recordings are being released at the moment. Mainly with the smaller labels, but the David Zinman Mahler cycle on RCA Red Label is also a promising sign.

They will join VCR, CC, and 2-stroke engined cars in never-neverland along with negative film for photo and tubed TV's. Anyone remember society without computers and cellphones? It was when all soda had sugar in it!