Vote

Actually, more than 10,000 titles. This time, I want to be the last adopter.

Even if there are many reissues on the new formats, my buying stategy will be more toward finding new music that is enhanced by the new formats.

Let me see. Count all of the admittedly overpriced (by the Big 4) CDs that contain my favorite music. Now figure that to hear a little more ambience, air, and what-not, I'm going to have to pony up the normal over-inflated price, plus 40% for the privilege. And the end result will be . . . a wall full of duplicate media. Not a snowball's chance in hell! Here's how you get my business, money-grubbing bastards: Offer me a trade-up incentive. That's right. I bring you my old, overpriced, inferior, perfect-sound-forever media, and you make it worth my while to trade up to your new, over-priced, even-more-perfect-sound-forever media. How's about my old CD and five bucks gets me a new SACD or DVD-A? No? That's why I'm not holding my breath.

I know exactly what I will get and when. I will wait until I have collected a fair amount of titles, and I get sick of not using them. Then I will choose the right option for a player. most likely a wadia dvda player. I am sick of replacing media that should have been good to start with.

The most important thing for me is that any new format should be back-compatible. I have already scrapped my LP collection to buy CDs, but I will not part with my CD collection so easily!

It's a bit like the situation for renting DVD-Videos. Also, this rumor of being able to hear the analog watermark is a concern.

I don't care what format my favorite music is issued on. I just want to get a player that plays all formats, and is also able to process any lower format to a higher one.

I hope they hurry...

None. I ordered a Technics DVD-A last December. Now that July is finally here, hooray! Bring on the discs.

They have to put out enough titles to show that they're serious. I cannot afford any orphans.

I am looking forward to DVD-Audio, but I hope the mixing and engineering is of high quality and reasonable miking is used. I don't want to hear a Jazz piece from the inside of a guitar!

There is an obvious paradox here. If everyone waits for x number of titles to be reissued, then the new player will never come to the popular market. Also, I'm not sure reissues of some of my favorites will yield any improvement. The Angel/EMI recordings of Klemperer actually got worse when moved from vinyl to CD, as did early Cat Stevens, to name a few.

I actually need to see which format is preferred by producers, because it is that decision that will lead to success or failure of a format. I don't want to end up with a Divx or Betamax machine.

The copy-control requirements for DVD-Audio make the format worthless! Players can't digital transmit the audio unless it is down at CD quality or worse. This completely precludes the use of external DACs, sample-rate converters, upsamplers, and more. Without the ability to properly play back this high-bit-rate audio, what is it worth?

It's not so much "How many?" as "Which ones?"

Needs to be versatile. They can't just shoot at audiophiles who want opera. We need to see Hendrix, Elfman, Garth Brooks (old), Metallica, jazz, etc. You get the picture.

I don't really care how many titles are available, but I do care about the price of the DVD-A players.

I bought a 24-bit/96kHz–compatible player and have about 20 DAD discs. I jumped in early on that format but haven't been disappointed. Even if that format is discontinued, my CAL CL-25 is a great player and I've not been disappointed at all. Come on in, the water's fine!

Unless and until 5000+ titles are available, it's difficult to tell whether or not the format is viable. Conversely, next-generation players with back-compatibility, regardless of format, would likely hasten public acceptance. My sense is that such a player would have to be more universal in its application: CD, SACD, DVD-A, etc. For now, I'll keep buying chrome doughnuts and licorice pizzas!

You are asking a question based on quantity when the real issue is quality. I'll be interested in buying a new player when I'm convinced the new format offers a substantial improvement in quality over the current format. If, however, the turntable-to-CD "transition" is any guide, I wont be given a choice: CDs will simply be taken off the shelves and I'll be FORCED to buy a new player. Then Michael Fremer can write articles in Stereophile about how to get the last ounce of performance out of my CD player.

Man, they'll have to bring out a lot of titles at a VERY reasonable price before I even bother buying one. With CDs still pricey for what you get (i.e., crap!), and MP3 files still music to my ears, it will be a while before I even bother switching audio formats.

Needs to be reissued, actually sound better, and have hardware that will still play my 800 or so CDs (making them sound better), AND come in home ($2000), car ($600), and portable ($200 DiscMan) units. Until that happens, I'll be holding onto my Micromega Trio and dual-bitstream Sony D-E905. In the meantime, I wish SOMEONE would make car and portable HDCD players (over 6000 HDCD titles)—like maybe with Burr-Brown 1732 chips.

The real concern is the quality of the recording and the hardware to play the new remasterings. I like the sound of SACD. I have heard that DVD-A sounds better than CD, but not better than SACD. Can DVD-A sound better? Either way, I am still going to continue playing my CDs and LPs.

I'm more concerned with new stuff coming out that supports the new format. My current player isn't going anywhere, so all I will do is add a new one to the rack. But I won't be adding anything until the music companies and hardware manufacturers get it together on a player that supports most of the new formats. I think that most of the general population will agree with me.

Besides the number of titles available, the cost of hardware and software, and the long term vianility of the format must be considered.

I'll buy a player only if the build quality is decent. The transports of current DVD players suck. Also, the players have to have digital outputs so I don't have to keep buying a new transport whenever I would like to upgrade my system. An SACD/DVD-A combi player would probably get me to shell out my hard-earned dollars even sooner.

The software must be widely available and the cost of the hardware more budget friendly.

There are already enough titles to make an SACD or DVD-A player a good purchase. I'm holding out for a dual player.

Since I would be interested in surround sound, a fundamental issue will be not how much, but how well the music is recorded.

I'd like to see close to at least 5000 titles with a WIDE variety of selection. Make them very affordable and available, and audiophiles will definitely give SACD and DVD-A a try. And as much as I love classical and jazz, we will need to see a good amount of rock,blues,world music and so on to really make TODAYS audiophile take notice.