Vote

It isn't a question of "what format" so much as "get rid of the deaf engineers, and teach the new generation of engineers to have some musical sensitivity." Educate the music industry about the joys of hi-fi recordings!

Like it or not, computers are a lot of people's hi-fi setup. The industry needs to get their heads together and figure out how to get the best quality out of them.

I want SACD downloads.

While I'm not against the developments of SACD and DVD-Audio, I fail to see the need for these formats. Present-day CD quality is excellent with some discs truly superb in their sonic attributes. I'm more concerned with having quality speakers and good room acoustics than with the source quality of my music.

You fellas can fret all you want about the lack of "high-resolution audio". But my CDs are more than enough to satisfy my sonic appetite!

Well, not really new. They should release 24/96 recordings on DAD (à la Classic Records). The masters are almost all in PCM anyway, so why SACD? High-rez downloads require file sizes that are still too large for most home connections (cable/DSL).

How many have ever really heard what's on a red book CD anyway?

I think the real question that should be asked is: What can the audiophile community do to ensure a long successful life for the CD format? The fact is, the industry along with much of the listening public, is moving to "low-rez" sound. Apple's iPod and other mp3 players are leading the way to lower quality sonics. The CD may end up being the best quality mass-market music medium that will ever exist. It's all downhill from here folks!

Audiophiles should work with Apple to improve the quality of iTunes, because downloadable music is the future. CDs are going the way of the LP.

They should focus on SACD as an audio only product (CD/SACD hybrid), providing your traditional redbook cd and the new high resolution format in stereo and multi-channel for a new breathtaking experience. DVD Audio should be marketed as video with high resolution surround sound. The reasons for this are simple. For over 20 years CD is associated with audio, if you have a product named Super Audio CD then don't overlook the obvious. Second, the DVD medium was originally marketed as video, and video superior to VHS. Don't make it rocket science here. Sure DVD had a tremendously fast and powerful growth rate and is now a standard, but let's not over estimate the common everyday joe's ability to understand that it can offer more. To sum it up, SACD high res 2/multi-channel audio and traditional CD. DVD, video and multi-channel surround. Make a player that plays both and well end of story.

If a bunch of high-end audiophiles want to get together and develop their own private little "high-rez" audio format, that is fine by me. But why should the music industry care about the "high-end"? By its very definition, "high-end" pertains to a small minority of music listeners. Admittedly, these listeners represent a "well-to-do" segment of the marketplace. But a small minority--not enough of a market to justify another mass-market audio format. Besides, audiophiles could never agree on a single audio format. Heck, there are still a number of Luddites out there who believe that the LP format is superior to CD! Perhaps it is just as well that DVD-Audio and SACD are not gaining wide acceptance. Because if they did, the "high-end audiophiles" would then have to start to look for something else. You see, the "high-end" cannot tolerate the idea of becoming mainstream. By their very nature high-enders want to be outside the mainstream. It's happened before. The CD was the ultimate format until the rest of the world adopted it. Then we started hearing all sorts of complaints from audiophiles about the format. The moguls in the music industry are not stupid. They will continue to cater to the masses. Which is as it should be.

Telarc, Chesky, Blue Note, Philips and all the other audiophile labels are behind SACD. DVD Audio, well it is better than CD, but that's not saying much.

All high-rez is good.

I'd like to see both current formats supported for the time being, but the writing is on the wall- both have failed. The heir apparent will be HD-DVD or Blu-Ray; indeed, MLP has been adopted as part of teh HD-DVD standard. The current formats won't "die", they'll simply migrate to a hi def DVD of some sort.

Why don't they just publish better more interesting WELL RECORDED music to start with. Everyone would hear the difference. Maybe, then there would be more interest in higher resolution formats.

So you're Stereophile. You've heard master tapes, you've done high grade recordings. So you know that SACD and DVD-A can both do a pretty damned fine job of getting the home listener ALMOST there. But that's not what we get to buy. What we get is compressed, multi-miked hash. The problem is not in the format, it is in the recordings. Quality recordings in both analog and Red-Book CD easily trump the typical hi-rez releases (stereo or milti-channel). What we NEED are better recording engineers, not better formats. But, of course, that would require producers who could actually hear so, obviously, I'm dreaming.