What audio brands are you not attracted to?

[Ajani]

I seriously doubt that vinyl-o-philes are responsible for the relative lackluster support of the hi-rez mediums. I think a far more likely cause is due to the availability of inexpensive "singles" usually packaged in the opposite fidelity medium - low bit rate MP3s found on iTunes, etc.

If all the Vinyl lovers were to suddenly switch their support to SACD, then that medium would still be a niche market product...

Non-Audiophiles determine what sells well, as Audiophiles are only a small fraction of the market for music...

Neither SACD nor DVD-A offered non-audiophiles anything that they really cared about... Those formats offered no new convenience or durability... they had higher quality but were also more expensive, which was not appealing since CDs were already overpriced....

MP3s and AAC took over the market because they offered non-audiophiles what they wanted: convenience (iTunes playlists etc..), portability (iPods & other MP3 players), lower prices (able to buy tracks individually for a $1 OR steal them for $0 if you so desired).

The goods new for Audiophiles is that MP3 was just the start of it all... and is low quality due to space limitations and internet speeds... but now that we see more audiophile brands taking an interest in music servers & downloads, we are also seeing high resolution download sites popping up to cater to that Audiophile market...

Give it time and you'll be able to download Stereo or MC recordings in higher resolution than SACD...

[E-Stat]

MP3s and AAC took over the market because ...

I agree completely with your summary.

Give it time and you'll be able to download Stereo or MC recordings in higher resolution than SACD...

My understanding is that virtually all recordings today are captured at higher resolutions than Redbook CD, either SACD or 24/192 PCM. My brother just got fiber delivered to his house in Dallas. He gets 40 MB / sec download speed capability! Such bandwidth would make getting your favorite hi-rez album a quick task.

rw