Quote Originally Posted by Feanor
It's a good sign that some are issuing only hybrid SACDs vs. CDs. I don't see why this shouldn't be the case for all CD production, unless perhaps it has to do with the perception that SACD must necessarily to have a multi-channel layer. The M/C supposed requirement will raise production costs.

Although I like multi-channel, I would definitely still prefer to have SACD stereo only rather than no SACD at all. It is difficult to believe that the cost to press a physical SACD today is significantly more than that of a CD.
A good friend of mine is a Grammy Award-winning audio engineer for the work he did on the Teldec lable for the "St. Matthew's Passion." He also runs a professional recording studio, but does all his work at 96KHZ instead of using the DSD medium because the studio can't afford the far more expensive DSD recording devices. He then has to "dumb down," to use his own expression, his 96KHZ efforts to the 44.1KHZ CD standard, as the studio is unable to afford the necessary equiment to manufacture SACD's either. So, there is a cost incurred in the manufacturing of stereo-only SACD's, and not just multi-channel.