US Sony Music dumps SACD

Danny Tse

For the last couple of years, US Sony Music's SACD output has been limited to a couple of "re-performance" SACDs and some RCA Living Stereo SACD titles. Looks like the Living Stereo SACD series is done since no new releases are planned (and I'd encourage SACD fans to pick up these wonderful sounding SACDs). Just now, I received an e-mail from Zenph Studios, which produced the 2 "re-performance" SACDs (Glenn Gould and Art Tatum) with Sony, that its next "re-performance" release, "Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff", will NOT be on SACD. This is apparently Sony's decision, although the e-mail indicated there may be room for negotiations. I guess US Sony Music is done with SACD....which is strange since US Sony Electronics just introduced its new $1,500 CD/SACD player (the 5400ES), not to mention several other manufacturers have announced new Blu-ray players that will include SACD playback.

wingnut4772

Shocking news. Not. Who dodn't see it coming? People are happy with their crappy little mp3s.

Fongolio

Sad. One more nail in the coffin of hi-res digital music.

hoosier21

Let me take a guess here, we will have the chance to buy everything again in Blu-ray HD sound.

dkg999

hoosier21 wrote: »

Let me take a guess here, we will have the chance to buy everything again in Blu-ray HD sound.

ding, ding, ding .......... folks we have a winner!

Vanna - show the man what's under your skirt :eek:

Gaara

Dejavoo, just read about this on AudioCircle.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/05/sony-turns-cds-blue-with-new-blu-spec-cd-standard/

treitz3

Damn shame.

Danny Tse

Gaara wrote: »

Dejavoo, just read about this on AudioCircle.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/05/sony-turns-cds-blue-with-new-blu-spec-cd-standard/

Blu-spec CD is an entirely different "can of worms". Basically, Blu-spec CD is just a different method of manufacturing regular CDs; any regular CD player can playback these new Blu-spec CDs. On top of that, Blu-spec CDs are intended to be sold only in Japan, not in the US. In my original post, I specifically mentioned "US Sony" because Japan Sony is still releasing SACD, in additional to releasing regular CDs and Blu-spec CDs.

Btw, one thing that makes these Sony/Zenph "re-performance" SACDs special is that they contain a dedicated binaural mix intended to be heard on headphones.

dkg999

Danny Tse wrote: »

Btw, one thing that makes these Sony/Zenph "re-performance" SACDs special is that they contain a dedicated binaural mix intended to be heard on headphones.

Would that be called the "head-spec" CD format

Gaara

Danny Tse wrote: »

Blu-spec CD is an entirely different "can of worms". Basically, Blu-spec CD is just a different method of manufacturing regular CDs; any regular CD player can playback these new Blu-spec CDs. On top of that, Blu-spec CDs are intended to be sold only in Japan, not in the US. In my original post, I specifically mentioned "US Sony" because Japan Sony is still releasing SACD, in additional to releasing regular CDs and Blu-spec CDs.

Btw, one thing that makes these Sony/Zenph "re-performance" SACDs special is that they contain a dedicated binaural mix intended to be heard on headphones.

Thanks for the clarification, I guess I need to get my read on.

billbillw

Bummer indeed.

Motzart

Bout the time I get into it.....they retire it. :mad:
My bum luck.....next MFSL will announce they will follow suit.
I figured this was gonna happen and I was told other wise.

hearingimpared

It would seem the leaders of Sony have their heads so far up their a$$es that it is coming through their shoulders again.

mmadden28

Well this doesn't mean the death of SACD right? Like you said Sony had very little to release. This shouldn't have any impact on Telarc or MF , etc right?

Motzart

mmadden28 wrote: »

Well this doesn't mean the death of SACD right? Like you said Sony had very little to release. This shouldn't have any impact on Telarc or MF , etc right?

From what I have seen with my years of dealing with Audio and Music.....
Sony seems to set the pace for the other companies.

Maybe I'm wrong here but wasn't Sony the founders of SACD?
If so......no more SACD Music......no more SACD players......thus everyone else will follow in the shadow.

Just what we need drop a music format just to start another.
Gets kinda fusterating IMHO

Refresh my memory but wasn't it Sony/Philips that invented CD to begin with?

shack

Motzart wrote:

Refresh my memory but wasn't it Sony/Philips that invented CD to begin with?

Yes

Motzart wrote:

From what I have seen with my years of dealing with Audio and Music.....Sony seems to set the pace for the other companies.

Betamax VHS, DAT, MMCD (multimedia Compact Disc - which lost out to Toshiba's SD which ultimately became DVD), Minidisc, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (competor to Dolby 5.1), memory stick, Hi-8 video, etc...are all formats Sony tried to set as industry standards but lost to other formats.

SACD along with 3.5" floppy disc, CD and BR (apparently) are the formats pioneered by Sony that have been accepted by other mfgs as a standard. Granted, the 3.5" floppy disc, CD and Blu-Ray are winners. Sony has had more format losers than winners. That is probably because they tend to push the envelope to try and dominate a segment, but have no problems getting out if it doesn't meet their expectations. Like I said, SACD has been embraced by other companies as a niche format where Sony is unwilling to do so.

Motzart wrote:

Maybe I'm wrong here but wasn't Sony the founders of SACD?

Yes.

Motzart wrote:

If so......no more SACD Music......no more SACD players......thus everyone else will follow in the shadow.

No. Most of the SACD releases in the last couple of years have been companies other than Sony. I assume this is a cost cutting measure on Sony's part as they are a "mass market" company that needs to deal in volume to profit. Also, most of the universal players by all mfgs. sold today include SACD as a format. SACD does not need Sony to survive.

Danny Tse

mmadden28 wrote: »

Well this doesn't mean the death of SACD right?

I seriously doubt that will happen.

Motzart wrote: »

From what I have seen with my years of dealing with Audio and Music.....
Sony seems to set the pace for the other companies.

Maybe I'm wrong here but wasn't Sony the founders of SACD?
If so......no more SACD Music......no more SACD players......thus everyone else will follow in the shadow.

Yes, while it's true that Sony/Philips came up with SACD (and CD as well), SACD has been kept afloat by independent labels during the last several years. In particular, US Sony Music has pretty much "abandoned" SACD the last couple of years, especially in light of the stoppage of releases from the RCA Living Stereo SACD series. Therefore, in the US at least, it's labels like Telarc, MoFi, Chesky, etc. that kept the format going. Overseas, Sony Music has been releasing a good amount of SACDs in Japan (from Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Leonard Bernstein, Nancy Wilson, Steve Gadd, etc.) and in Hong Kong. In general, SACD activities outside of North America is still going strong....which resulted in over 600 new titles added for 2008 at sa-cd.net. While the 600 titles marks a drop in releases when compared to previous years, it's still very healthy for an audiophile format that the general public never heard of.

Btw, 2009 marks the 10th anniversary of SACD.

dorokusai

No real loss on this end.

mantis

If you have a higher end cd player, you can achieve almost SACD quality 2 channel. No it's not the same but it depends on so many factors. Telac disc's as well as many others are recorded so well.
I have been getting back into 2 channel and I'm planing on adding a higher end cd player to my rig. Rega and Cambridge are on top of my list. I really like both.
SACD has always had a special place for me. But have also have been mad at it since day 1.

Dan

dkg999

Agree with Dan! I own a lot of SACD disks but don't have an SACD player in any system. The CD layer is usually of excellent quality and is worth the extra price for the SACD disk. There's a few SACD disks without the CD layer, and I don't buy unless I know for sure.

I-SIG

dorokusai wrote: »

No real loss on this end.

Same here. Once I heard BR won, I kinda figured BR-Audio would be next. True or not (for BR-Audio), this news really cements the Cambridge 840 in the system now, not that I was looking for a new source besides the Wadia iPod dock.

Wes

lumpy

personally I do not see this as an issue - provided that another better than red book cd format is released. I have an sacd player, a dvd-a player and a blue ray player already. there are still 100's of SACD and DVD-A titles that I am interested in buying, and I would buy a blue ray format disk in a heartbeat.

the only draw back is having another component on your rack unless you buy a multi format player.

for all you manufacturers out there - I do buy my music in disc format and will continue to desire this. I buy cd's to downloat onto my computer/ipod (I prefer the hard copy back up), and I buy the sacd and dvd-a for better quality at home.

mmadden28

lumpy wrote: »

personally I do not see this as an issue - provided that another better than red book cd format is released. .

Doubt it would happen. Closet thing there is a remastered Redbook CD or the Gold layers CDs, but a new Redbook format?? SACD is the better than redbook format. I think there was/is also HDCD, and isn't there another one or two out there?

It seems apparent anymore in this industry that standards are hard to set/create anymore without another competing format rising up to challenge for supremacy (like the Bluray/HD-DVD wars).
I think Bluray based audio is next. Its already won the Home Video war so its likely to moev forward now-I think once the industry can provide High Resolution audio (esp in a bit for bit perfect copy to the studio master) but in a non-DRM format and with the ability to prevent easy pirating, it will move forward with it.

obieone

So, does this mean we're free to pirate the technology and burn our own:p:rolleyes:

F1nut

Blu-ray has a LONG way to go before standard DVD's go away.

DVD video couldn't make DVD-Audio fly, what makes anyone think that Blu-ray video could get Blu-ray audio to fly!?!

I-SIG

F1nut wrote: »

Blu-ray has a LONG way to go before standard DVD's go away.

DVD video couldn't make DVD-Audio fly, what makes anyone think that Blu-ray video could get Blu-ray audio to fly!?!

I don't necessarily, but if Sony USA is essentially dumping SACD then what's on the horizon besides 32kHZ MP3 variant's ready to download in 2 shakes of a lamb's tail?

Somebody somewhere is thinking if all these folks are buying into BR, then they may want their favorite songs in the same format.

I'm not saying it will catch on, I'm just saying that someone will be pushing that hi(er)-res format somewhere and we already know what that format is gonna be based off.

You can't deny that much.

Wes

ben62670

I would love a solid digital format, but till then vinyl is final:)

F1nut

Sony US hasn't been putting out much of anything on SACD for years now, so I'm not sure they have anything on the horizon.

All what folks buying into Blu-ray? One cannot judge what the general public is doing by the folks in places like here. Face it, we're all freaks in the general public's eyes.

Sony is suppose to be releasing Blu-spec CD's, if they haven't started already, but they are not hi-rez.

ben62670

The one thing I am hoping for is that BR will release HiRes. It certainly has the capability, but like you said we are a a small minority that actually cares about music reproduction:(

BlueFox

mantis wrote: »

If you have a higher end cd player, you can achieve almost SACD quality 2 channel. No it's not the same but it depends on so many factors. Telac disc's as well as many others are recorded so well.
I have been getting back into 2 channel and I'm planing on adding a higher end cd player to my rig. Rega and Cambridge are on top of my list. I really like both.
SACD has always had a special place for me. But have also have been mad at it since day 1.

Dan

Instead of buying a "higher end cd player", just get a good DAC, and use any CD/DVD player as the transport.

comfortablycurt

Figures. I'm getting ready to buy an SACD player here pretty soon...and Sony dumps SACD. Gotta love it. Oh well...there's still several hundred SACD titles I'd love to get my hands on. I think I'll still go ahead and get it.

I don't know if BR audio will take off or not. It's the same as with SACD and DVD audio. It appeals to a certain market of people, i.e. audiophiles. Most people out there don't even know what an SACD is. Like F1 said too, Blu-ray has a LONG way to go before it replaces DVD. I still know very few people that even own Blu-ray players. Most people don't. A lot of the people around this message board own them, but this is a board full of audiophiles...so it would make sense for a lot of the people here to have them.

In general though, most people still don't have Blu-ray, or even have any plans of getting one anytime soon. I still know plenty of people that are on the "I don't want a Blu-ray player bandwagon". Obviously Blu-ray is the way of the future, but it's still going to be a long long time until Blu-ray players are common household items. Most people are still perfectly satisfied with their DVD players, and don't even feel the need to go spend 300-1000 dollars on a Blu-ray player.

When you can go to a store and pick up a bottom shelf Blu-ray player for 50 bucks? That's when you'll know they're here to stay.