Universal Music Japan's possible return to single-layer SACD (with Steely Dan's Aja)

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  • comfortablycurt
    comfortablycurt Posts: 6,745
    edited April 2010
    F1nut wrote: »
    These are very limited releases. If you don't get one now, chances are you never will or at least not without forking over a lot more than they are going for now. Hence, my previous post.


    Ehh...looks like I'll probably never own one then.

    I don't like Steely Dan enough to fork over $50 for an SACD.


    Oh well, I look forward to hearing everyone else thoughts on it.

    I'll just keep listening to my vinyl version. It's nearly pristine, hardly a trace of background noise and sounds absolutely fantastic.:)



    The SACD format is pissing me off. It sounds great, but I keep realizing how insanely expensive some of these releases are. How much did it cost to produce it? About two thirds of a cent or so?

    Things like that are one of the main reasons that SACD was a huge commercial failure. What normal, average person is going to fork over $50 for a CD, when the Redbook version is going to be sitting right in front of it for $11.99? Audiophiles will...but audiophiles are hardly normal people.

    If they're going to try and keep the SACD format alive, they need to do it in a way that the average person can afford. $50 is a LOT of money to some people...myself included.




    Is this a different version of The Allman Brothers: Live at Fillmore East that you mentioned earlier in the thread? I already have that one on SACD, and it sounds fantastic. Is there a new remastering of it coming out? I can't imagine it sounding much better than it already does...it's one of my references to show just how incredible a live recording can really sound.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,729
    edited April 2010
    There are and have been plenty of SACD's that retailed for the same price as a CD. These are more money....limited edition, that sort of thing.

    Guess you'll have to work a little harder for those material possessions, eh? :D
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  • comfortablycurt
    comfortablycurt Posts: 6,745
    edited April 2010
    Keiko wrote: »
    I see them as an investment. Like I told ya, Curt. They usually only go up in value. Once they're OOP, the prices go up. I'm sitting on a small gold mine now just in the past few years since I've been hoarding them. Many that I've gotten are getting harder and harder to find now. And if you do get lucky you're going to pay out the ying yang for it.

    Case in point; I bought 2 SACD copies of MJ's, Thriller for 40.00 right after he passed. Turned around and sold one for 85.00 on ebay. The other is still sealed sitting in my CD rack just waiting to be cashed in on in a couple more years. ;)

    The Alison Krauss SACDs are another example. Can't touch any of those even used for under 100.00. I've seen some costing well over 200.00.

    http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=alison+krauss+sacd&_sacat=See-All-Categories


    I see your point, but I don't look at music as something that I'm going to resell eventually. I buy music to add it to, and keep it in my collection. Like I said, I don't like Steely Dan anywhere near enough to drop $50 on one CD.

    Summer's coming up, and I need to save up a lot of "fun" money. Part of that fun money is going to be in the form of a new acoustic guitar that's going to travel to the east coast with me this summer. That's not going to be cheap, unfortunately.:)




    I've gotta admit though, seeing things like this makes me further lose faith in the SACD format. How is it ever going to take off, if some of the best examples of it are ridiculously overpriced, and not even available to the general public? They're only being sold on a preorder basis? Way to expose it to the public.:rolleyes:

    The only SACD that has really had any kind of real commercial success is DSOTM...and that's because it's readily available, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

    Aja is a very popular album, and selling it at a price that normal people will pay, and making it more available to the public, would probably bring it great success. Instead, they're selling it to a few select people, at a hugely inflated price. I don't get it. Your average person isn't going to go to the trouble of preordering an SACD, especially for $50. They're going to go to FYE, Best Buy, Sam Goody etc..., see it, and buy it on an impulse if it's reasonably priced...as in $20 or less.

    Like I said...I don't get it.
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  • comfortablycurt
    comfortablycurt Posts: 6,745
    edited April 2010
    Keiko wrote: »
    And you've been here how long? :D;)


    So...they just don't want SACD to become any kind of a commercial success? I see.

    I get it now...The people that are running Universal Music Japan are complete idiots.:p Makes total sense now...lol


    Oh well. I ain't dropping $50 on an SACD, when it's completely unjustified...you guys have fun with yours though. I'll keep listening to my crusty old(read:fantastic sounding) vinyl copy of it.;)
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  • comfortablycurt
    comfortablycurt Posts: 6,745
    edited April 2010
    Keiko wrote: »
    I don't think the 50.00 price is unjustified. As Jesse pointed out already, these are limited edition copies. As far as the commercial success of SACD goes, I blame that on Sony. They dropped the ball a few years ago. It's only because of labels like MoFi, Telarc and a few other independent labels that it's still surviving. The same thing can be said for vinyl these days. Like I said, it's a niche market aimed at audio enthusiasts that want more than a crappy sounding mp3 download.


    Exactly. Apparently they simply don't want the SACD format to have any kind of real commercial success.

    I guess they'd prefer it to remain an extremely(extremely) small market niche.

    How is that price justified? Simply because it's a limited edition? I understand that, but for that matter...why is it a limited edition? In order to achieve commercial success...something has to be made available...commercially.


    New vinyl has a MUCH larger market niche than SACD does. Why is that? Because you can go into stores like Best Buy, and they have a whole aisle devoted to vinyl. The nearest Best Buy to me has a TON of vinyl. It's pretty reasonably priced too...$20-30 per LP generally. Many SACD's are twice that price. Where's the SACD section at anyway? Apparently it's occupying a 2'x4' shelf somewhere in Japan.:rolleyes:


    Oh well. The SACD format will probably fizzle completely out of existence soon enough, so I suppose these SACD's would be a good investment.

    Either way...If this is any indication of how much SACD's are going to cost in the future, it looks like my SACD collection is about as large as it's ever going to get(4).:rolleyes:
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  • comfortablycurt
    comfortablycurt Posts: 6,745
    edited May 2010
    Keiko wrote: »
    Plenty of SACD titles out there priced <20.00, Curt. That one I linked you to earlier in PM for example. Take a look at what's available on amazon. Lots of decent titles out there in the 20-30 $ range. Some even less. There's a few titles still left on yourmusic.com that can be had for 6.99, shipped. They used to have several pages when more were available, but have since sold out.

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_i_0?rh=i%3Apopular%2Ck%3Asacd&keywords=sacd&ie=UTF8&qid=1272702883

    http://www.yourmusic.com/search/index.html?search_type=albums&search_text=sacd&do_search=1&go_submit.x=0&go_submit.y=0


    Yes, but those are all older ones. There are quite a few that I've gotta pick up yet. I do plan on buying the Bob Dylan SACD box set...along with all of the Clapton SACD's. the CCR SACD's. I'd like to get the Stones SACD collection...I'd love to pick up the Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders Live At Keystone SACD, as well as Phil Lesh's there and back again. Also, the couple Roger Waters SACD's.

    Aside from those though...there aren't really any other SACD's that interest me at all. The SACD rock selection is pretty dismal for the most part.



    That being said, what about the newer ones that are yet to come out? That's more what I was referring to.

    Are basically all new SACD releases going to be "limited editions" that cost an arm and a leg? If so, all I can picture the SACD format doing is continuing it's rapid downhill journey. If that's the case, I probably won't be buying any new SACD's. I'll pick up the older ones that I mentioned above, but that'll be about it. I just don't see how they can justify charging $50 for a piece of plastic with a data file on it. Limited edition or not...it cost roughly two thirds of a cent to actually produce that disc.


    Hopefully this Blu-spec audio or whatever will take off at some point. It won't though. People these days just don't care enough about sound quality.


    Oh well. I'm not too worried about it either way.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,729
    edited May 2010
    I just don't see how they can justify charging $50 for a piece of plastic with a data file on it.

    If you want to rail against something how about the $150.00 limited editions of Led Zepp on vinyl who's sound quality diminishes every time it's played?
    Political Correctness'.........defined

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  • DForeman
    DForeman Posts: 468
    edited May 2010
    I've ordered two from CDJapan.

    Have never ordered from Japan before - anyone know how long it takes for delivery (from release date)?
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  • Erik Tracy
    Erik Tracy Posts: 4,673
    edited May 2010
    F1nut wrote: »
    For anyone that's on the fence, according to CDJapan a lot of these are selling out fast. For example, on their site there are only 3 The Allman Brothers Band/At Fillmore East left to pre-order.

    I jumped off the fence - picked up Aja (only 20 left) and Who's Next.

    Thanks for the 'push'! :D

    H9: If you don't trust what you are hearing, then maybe you need to be less invested in a hobby which all the pleasure comes from listening to music.
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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited May 2010
    Just pre-ordered The Who and Steely Dan from HMV.Jp
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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited May 2010
    comfortablycurt wrote: »
    Are basically all new SACD releases going to be "limited editions" that cost an arm and a leg?

    When compared to the US, Japan has much higher prices for even regular CDs. It's just the nature of that market, which happened o be the second biggest music market in the world.

    I'd consider any SACD release to be "limited edition" because of the relatively few copies that are pressed. There're very few SACD reissues of previous SACD releases.
    DForeman wrote: »
    I've ordered two from CDJapan.

    Have never ordered from Japan before - anyone know how long it takes for delivery (from release date)?

    Haven't ordered from CDJapan, but my orders from HMV Jp usually arrive from Japan within a week once the item is in stock.
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  • DForeman
    DForeman Posts: 468
    edited May 2010
    Danny Tse wrote: »


    Haven't ordered from CDJapan, but my orders from HMV Jp usually arrive from Japan within a week once the item is in stock.

    Thanks Danny. The Who and Steely Dan for me too.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,729
    edited May 2010
    DForeman wrote: »
    I've ordered two from CDJapan.

    Have never ordered from Japan before - anyone know how long it takes for delivery (from release date)?

    If you selected EMS shipping, usually a few days.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

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  • DForeman
    DForeman Posts: 468
    edited May 2010
    F1nut wrote: »
    If you selected EMS shipping, usually a few days.

    I selected SAL which was the least expensive. I guess it will take a couple of weeks or so (I will just have to be patient).
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,729
    edited May 2010
    Update: All releases have been pushed back from 6/23 to 6/30 except for The Who - Who's Next, which has been pushed back to 8/25.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • Erik Tracy
    Erik Tracy Posts: 4,673
    edited May 2010
    F1nut wrote: »
    Update: All releases have been pushed back from 6/23 to 6/30 except for The Who - Who's Next, which has been pushed back to 8/25.

    I was beginning to wonder when these were going to ship.

    Dang...

    H9: If you don't trust what you are hearing, then maybe you need to be less invested in a hobby which all the pleasure comes from listening to music.
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  • vmaxer
    vmaxer Posts: 5,117
    edited May 2010
    very interesting thread...looks like I am about to be even poorer:o
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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited June 2010
    Possibly coming at end of August 2010 on SHM-SACD....both HMV Jp and cdjapan are taking pre-orders

    Kiss - Destroyer
    10cc - Original Soundtrack
    Dire Straits - Dire Straits
    Blind Faith - Blind Faith
    Black Sabbath - Paranoid
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  • headrott
    headrott Posts: 5,496
    edited June 2010
    Wow, Blind Faith would be good to have. We'll have to wait and see though.....

    Greg
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  • DForeman
    DForeman Posts: 468
    edited June 2010
    Sabbath and Dire Straits for me. Thanks Danny (again) for the heads up.
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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited June 2010
    It's coming soon....

    sacdshm.jpg
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  • Erik Tracy
    Erik Tracy Posts: 4,673
    edited June 2010
    DForeman wrote: »
    Sabbath and Dire Straits for me. Thanks Danny (again) for the heads up.

    Sabbath and Blind Faith for me.

    I just hope they don't make the Sabbath mix 'hot' - no need for it to be! :D

    A clean dynamic Paranoid album on SACD would be killer!

    H9: If you don't trust what you are hearing, then maybe you need to be less invested in a hobby which all the pleasure comes from listening to music.
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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited June 2010
    Steely Dan's "Aja" SACD is a "GO"

    attachment.php?attachmentid=149651&stc=1&d=1277752367
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,729
    edited June 2010
    Danny, the pic isn't showing.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited June 2010
    How about now?

    UIGY-9026.jpg
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    UIGY-9030.jpg
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  • Polkitup2
    Polkitup2 Posts: 1,623
    edited June 2010
    CDBANQ sent me an e-mail today saying my order for the AJA SHM-SACD has been fullfilled and will ship shortly.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,729
    edited June 2010
    Danny, yep and looking good. :)
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • vc69
    vc69 Posts: 2,500
    edited June 2010
    Polkitup2 wrote: »
    CDBANQ sent me an e-mail today saying my order for the AJA SHM-SACD has been fullfilled and will ship shortly.

    Ditto here.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,729
    edited June 2010
    I ordered mine in April and Mike gets a notice that his have shipped while I'm still waiting. That's just wrong. :mad:
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited June 2010
    Looks like there will be four rounds of SHM-SACD releases....

    http://www.universal-music.co.jp/u-pop/special/sacd/index.html
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