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kexodusc
12-14-2006, 12:25 PM
I'm still waiting for the demise of both these formats. While browsing my music collection I noticed I purchased more DVD-A/SACD's this year than any other format.
Seriously. That shocked me. I bought a mere 22 albums this year. But, majority were not CD (I'm lumping the hi-rez/multi-channel formats into one category).
I'm guessing I'm in minority on this, anyone else buy more SACD/DVD-A than CD?

paul_pci
12-14-2006, 12:34 PM
I bought a Denon 2910 back in Sept. and since, have been buying some SACDs since I already had a DVD-A player and pretty much bought all the DVD-As I want thus for. While I have that impluse, "I'd rather buy teh SACD" that just isn't always the case, so I still buy regular CDs.

markw
12-14-2006, 01:56 PM
I reluctantly chose your first choice, but a little more clarification would have made my choice easier.

Your "I don't own a player" should have been two categories, the first saying "and I don't intend to" and the second that says "...but I will when the format wars die down".

kexodusc
12-14-2006, 02:06 PM
I reluctantly chose your first choice, but a little more clarification would have made my choice easier.

Your "I don't own a player" should have been two categories, the first saying "and I don't intend to" and the second that says "...but I will when the format wars die down".
No. This poll is intended to satisfy my curiosity of your actual buying habits, not your potential future purchases in scenario x.
Maybe you could do that poll? But I'm guessing a lot of people are in your situation.

bobsticks
12-14-2006, 02:07 PM
I'm just guessing but I would imagine that I buy maybe 60% hi-rez format. Of course, my main areas of interest are classical and jazz so my preferences are more readily available than for those who generally stick to the heavier fare,

That said, I'm buying maybe ten-fifteen titles a week so that's still a lot of RBCDs.

kexodusc
12-14-2006, 02:16 PM
I'm just guessing but I would imagine that I buy maybe 60% hi-rez format. Of course, my main areas of interest are classical and jazz so my preferences are more readily available than for those who generally stick to the heavier fare,

That said, I'm buying maybe ten-fifteen titles a week so that's still a lot of RBCDs.
10-15 a week? Crap, that's a car payment.:yikes: :yikes:

Dusty Chalk
12-14-2006, 02:51 PM
I bought a snotload of SACD's this year (including one box set -- Sibelius symphonies), but still bought more redbook.

topspeed
12-14-2006, 03:26 PM
I'd buy everything in hybrid SACD if they'd friggin' promote the format! Unfortunately, it's near impossible to find new music in hi-rez. Shoot, I even ordered The Police Synchronicity on Amazon thinking it was SACD but when it arrived, it was merely rbcd. I had to send it back!

kexodusc
12-14-2006, 03:40 PM
I found 7 more albums I forgot I bought, mostly my wife's stuff, George Winston, David Arkenstone, Diana Krall etc, and a few jazz titles's I ordered on ebay last week that I don't even have yet. 4 CD, 3 SACD/DVD-A.
Total now is 29 discs for 2006...redbook is down by 5. I kinda suspect there's a few CD's I'm forgetting, but maybe not. 2006 was really a crappy year for new releases, IMO.
I bought 8 concert DVD's too. But I didn't consider those.

I know there's a slew of Genesis SACD's on their way out in 2007 I plan to get too.

I bought a lot of older music this year, if anyone's wondering. 29 is probably a high number for me, I'll top 30 by Christmas for sure. I'm usually pretty fussy about what I pay money for when it comes to music. I have too many albums as is.

L.J.
12-14-2006, 04:58 PM
I'm in the same boat as Topspeed. I would buy alot more if it were available.

StanleyMuso
12-14-2006, 06:01 PM
but recently bought a player capable of playing DVD-A and am curious how it would sound. My problem is that I live in a small city, and my local music stores have an extremely limited selection of SACDs and DVD-As. Certainly nothing I'm interested in. Guess I'll have to start looking for music on-line.

Don't you find that generally, selections at stores are getting more limited as time goes by? Most stores seem to stock only the mass market crap that will turn over quickly. I feel upset by this, because I believe that this is part of a general dumbing down of society (and this is not just limitted to music).

Woochifer
12-14-2006, 07:49 PM
I indeed spent most of the past year populating my SACD collection, given that I only bought my SACD changer about a year ago. I now have around 40 SACDs. My CD purchases have curtailed quite a bit since in a way, I'm in a rush against time to snap up any remaining SACDs that I might want. Whenever I faced a dilemma between a SACD and a CD, I've gone with the SACD.

My local Best Buy stores have not restocked their SACD sections, except for the occasional new release like Michael McDonald's Motown Two. Titles that ran out have not come back in. Fortunately, I don't get the impression that too many other people are clamoring for those remaining SACDs, so I can still make my purchases without getting into a panic buying mode.

Fry's Electronics probably has the biggest SACD selection in my area, but they too have not been doing a lot of restocking (some of the SACDs I got from Fry's have inventory tags dating back to 1999!). Still, they have a lot of titles in the bins, and have made a point of carrying items from specialty labels such as Chesky and Mobile Fidelity.

Tower was the best at supporting SACD, but they eliminated their SACD sections almost a year ago and filed the discs alongside the regular CDs. There too, I think they stopped restocking the items.

But, I have a feeling that 2007 will be the year that I go back to buying CDs, since I will have most of my "must have" SACDs sitting in my collection by then, and outside of the Genesis releases, I don't see a lot of SACD releases of interest to me coming out next year.

I originally bought my SACD changer as a replacement for an 11-year old CD player that finally wore down last year. And the only over-the-top "must have" SACDs on my list when I first bought the SACD player were the SF Symphony Mahler discs, which I already owned but absolutely had to hear in full DSD surround because they already sounded spectacular on the CD layer. Anything on top of that was a nice little bonus, and those bonuses keep piling up in my collection.

Woochifer
12-14-2006, 08:10 PM
Don't you find that generally, selections at stores are getting more limited as time goes by? Most stores seem to stock only the mass market crap that will turn over quickly. I feel upset by this, because I believe that this is part of a general dumbing down of society (and this is not just limitted to music).

Has more to do with a "perfect storm" hitting the music industry all at the same time. Nothing new on the musical horizon to spark sales, illegal downloading, radio station ownership consolidation, shortening of radio playlists with declining airplay for new artists, etc. have all contributed to the precarious position that the industry is in right now. (Not to mention that all of the major music labels have been purging artists and CD titles from their catalogs)

On the retailing side, the "deep catalog" music stores have been nailed by all of these trends PLUS the shifting of music retailing away from standalone music stores towards discount general merchandise stores (i.e., Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) and other big box stores (i.e., Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.) that treat music as a loss leader intended only to drive customers into those stores and hope that they buy something else. And what sells quickly? The new releases, the mass market crap, etc.

It's not a "dumbing down" of society, but more a conscious choice with most consumers to decide their place of purchase based on price, and these huge conglomerates treating music as but one cog in a synergistic corporate strategy. Even the standalone music stores with the deep catalog selection like Tower Records needed to sell a lot of music from mass market artists in order to keep the doors open and the lights on, AND subsidize all that shelf space for less mainstream artists whose CDs might not turn over as quickly. But, once the Wal-Marts and Best Buys of the world started selling CDs and videos as loss leaders to drive customers into their stores, the standalone music stores got a huge chunk of their revenue stream undercut.

When a chain that was committed to carrying a wide selection like Tower goes out of business, you know that the state of music retailing is not very healthy at all. The best hope right now is that independents can hang on. Sales from used CDs are keeping those stores alive, because consumers have already shifted their purchases for best sellers over to the big box discounters.

PeruvianSkies
12-14-2006, 08:22 PM
I own just about every SACD out there that I have interest in, even to the point of importing SACD's from all over the world just to have the titles that I love. However, I have had to buy alot of CD's this past year because that was the only way they were available, but would have easily bought them all on SACD instead if I had the choice.

jrhymeammo
12-14-2006, 09:17 PM
I think the key is to get a player that will play RBCD better than your existing CDP. I'm continued to be amazed with SACD, but dont regret playing CDs after some incredible SACD. With over 4000 titles in SACD(dunno anything about DVD-A) we would think there are plenty of selctions. But as bobsticks said, more title offered are Classical and Jazz(no need to repurchase albums I have on wax) so some of us are not too thrilled. For me, I need to find recent recordings and that's where Hi-Rezz shine. How about the last 3 TOOL albums and Amused to Death on SACD? Even if the format extincts, if I can get those I wont be devastated.

JRA

Feanor
12-15-2006, 03:53 AM
I'm still waiting for the demise of both these formats. While browsing my music collection I noticed I purchased more DVD-A/SACD's this year than any other format.
Seriously. That shocked me. I bought a mere 22 albums this year. But, majority were not CD (I'm lumping the hi-rez/multi-channel formats into one category).
I'm guessing I'm in minority on this, anyone else buy more SACD/DVD-A than CD?

Kex, I was constrained to select, "Own a player and still buy a bit". SACD selection has increased and I buy more than ever though still few than CDs. As I've said on previous occassions, I buy SACDs maily for the multi-channel potential and I always buy that version of large-scale orchestral or choral works. Dang! yes! I listen mainly to classical music with a little jazz now and then. (I have nothing against other music, but in my case, life's too short to spend time listening to it.)

I would buy more SACDs than I do if there were a larger selection, but cost is a factor with me. I will often select the lower cost, but still well-reviewed, version of a composer's piece though there might be an SACD of another version. E.g. I buy a lot of Naxos recordings and they have a very restricted SACD selection

Feanor
12-15-2006, 04:06 AM
but recently bought a player capable of playing DVD-A and am curious how it would sound. My problem is that I live in a small city, and my local music stores have an extremely limited selection of SACDs and DVD-As. Certainly nothing I'm interested in. Guess I'll have to start looking for music on-line.

Don't you find that generally, selections at stores are getting more limited as time goes by? Most stores seem to stock only the mass market crap that will turn over quickly. I feel upset by this, because I believe that this is part of a general dumbing down of society (and this is not just limitted to music).

I live in a small city too. There is a grant total of one serious store selling classical/jazz. I patronized the place, but they have maybe one in four or five of the recordings I'm looking for.


Instead I shop on line. I shop mainly at Amazon.ca if they have stock -- which is not usually the case, or at Arkiv Music. The latter has a huge selection, most of it in stock. Many people recommend MDT which is located in the U.K.
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/main.jsp

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/pages/home/default.asp

kexodusc
12-15-2006, 04:41 AM
The reason I posted this was to just gauge a few of your buying habits, and compare them to mine. Not too dissimilar.
I spoke with a Sony rep who was visiting my favorite store yesterday. She knew a lot about SACD, DVD-A etc. She swore to me Sony has no plans to abandon this format and that in fact, more releases are hitting the market than ever. I kind of suspect what she meant by that is that more "new" releases are being released than ever - once you've exhausted the back catalog's prime candidates, that's all that's left. I have no way of confirming this, maybe it's true, maybe not.
She continued to babble about future DVD's (BluRay, etc) using DSD and being readable in SACD players, and that SACD isn't going anywhere. She mentioned CD was around for years before new albums were released in CD simultaneously with Cassette or LP.
She didn't think DVD-A was going anywhere either. Maybe they'll both just continue to exist as niche market products?

This is contrary to almost every internet opinion I've ever read - even magazines are predicting the slow demise. This is what prompted a small examination of my catalog - and I noticed I've been buying more non-RBCD than RBCD releases. Like you folks, I prefer them to RBCD, and buy what I can. I haven't gone on a panic spree trying to snarf up the last SACD's, though.

Maybe the predicted demise was premature? I'd love to see some sales info for the last while, and to learn Sony's plans for the format.

bobsticks
12-15-2006, 05:31 AM
10-15 a week? Crap, that's a car payment.:yikes: :yikes:

Lol, it's not always as much as you think. When I have a week that I splurge on SACDs it can get rather expensive but when I'm buying RBCD and "filling out a catalog" I tend to used.

There's one of those strip mall used bookstore places on the northside of town that has a killer used section. I would almost bet money that someone up that way reads every one of Davey's posts and most of Slosh's and Swish's, religiously buys all recs, hates 'em and trades them in. I've picked up entire catalogs of Built to Spill, Deadstring Brothers, Neko Case and Willard Grant Conspiracy fo rthree or four bucks apiece...so keep them coming guys and keep buying crazy-indie-hatin' person :cornut:

bobsticks
12-15-2006, 05:37 AM
[QUOTE=kexodusc]
She didn't think DVD-A was going anywhere either. Maybe they'll both just continue to exist as niche market products?[QUOTE]

My suspicion is, yes, they will continue on as a niche market. As Wooch mentioned with outfits like Chesky and Telarc (and I would as B.I.S.) continuing to put out quality releases hopefully one will still be able to find some rare gems for some time.

Feanor
12-15-2006, 06:47 AM
The reason I posted this was to just gauge a few of your buying habits, and compare them to mine. Not too dissimilar.
I spoke with a Sony rep who was visiting my favorite store yesterday. She knew a lot about SACD, DVD-A etc. She swore to me Sony has no plans to abandon this format and that in fact, more releases are hitting the market than ever. I kind of suspect what she meant by that is that more "new" releases are being released than ever - once you've exhausted the back catalog's prime candidates, that's all that's left. I have no way of confirming this, maybe it's true, maybe not.
....

I bought Gramophone's "Awards" issue for 2006 and noticed much more presence of SACDs: these are mainstream releases that happen to include an SACD version -- not re-releases or remasters of older catalogue presumably aimed exclusively at the audiophile niche. Also, increasingly, it seems to me, releases are only on hybrid SACD with no CD-only version: this is a very healthy trend. :cornut:

For it's part, Gramophone now routinely comments on the fact that a release is available on SACD and endorses the sound quality. For several years after the introduction of SACD, Gramophone typically made no mention of the fact that an SACD version was available.

For the future, if SACD players vanish but Blu-Ray or whatever will read the discs, I see no issue with format obsolecence.

hifitommy
12-16-2006, 01:13 PM
that will have to go to net purchases though because of BBs eschewing of the format (but they dont drop the prices on the VERY old selections still left) and fry's doesnt update much.

most music is only available on rbcd and i usually buy those used as i do the bulk of my music purchases-LPs! the used LP market in big metro areas like LA and NY are a godsend. i just found another copy of was not was' 'what up dog' for a buck, spent 5 on the last one. never have seen a vinyl copy of 'are you ok?' but would jump on one quickly if found. i dont do ebay.

i figure to have about 100 sacd titles, maybe one dvda so i may not buy the oppo player. my sony ns500v serves well.

if all digital releases were hybrid sacd/rbcd, i would buy new product WAY more often. well, off to the sota tt and my recent snags.