I am worried-not enough SACD Titles

[spotlightkid]

You Know i spent some of my good hard earned money on a sony SACD player and am getting concerned at the amount of titles that are coming out in the new format-hardly any at all.i want
more classic rock and jazz.i think this format will fold before the end of 2002-what do you think?

[Sckott]

Economy is looking better, but nothing has exploded in a good way. Lots of conservitive spending.

I don't think either SACD or DVD-A is looking good specifically. We must wait out the storm.


http://msnbc.com/news/724600.asp?pne=msn

[jkerr]

I think its partly a manufacturing bottleneck. Seems like there's a number of titles announced or rumoured to come out soon. I've had sacd for over a year and I'm getting impatient too. But still there's been a lot of progress. There's more retailers (Best Buy, Circuit City, etc) than this time last year.

[Paul L.]

spotlightkid,

I'll bet you any amount of money SACD won't fold by the end of the year. It's barely getting started. Japanese businesses don't have, traditionally anyway, the short term view that American businesses have.

Everyone:

I took my machine over to a friend's last night, and he was sold on SACD after less than a minute. This is a guy with 3000 LPs and a wall of CDs and cassettes.

It'd be nice if fence-sitters waiting for either DVD-A or SACD to die would go ahead and buy a machine and some discs. But I realize some people are waiting for CCR or the Beatles before hopping on, so I can understand if you don't like any titles that are available.

But if you like some titles, there's no risk. Anyone can get a machine for $200 and if every SACD disappeared tomorrow, he'd still be able to play the ones he's already bought and all of his CDs on it.

[Paul L.]

jkerr,

Best Buy and Circuit City should be horsewhipped (if you can do that to a store).

Their staff are clueless, even at the store manager level. Their SACD displays are ill-maintained. The Best Buy here has only the subwoofer hooked up! Circuit City has about 12 titles available. Neither one replenishes stock. The Best Buy here has sold two thirds of their initial stock (from Thanksgiving) but say they can't order more, that they can only get drop shipments from the corporate level.

No one could possibly be impressed by the sound of their displays, out in the midst of the din.

Then I hear that high-end dealers, a lot of them, are just as bad. Of course there they don't want to sell a machine for a few hundred, or even a few thousand, that would sound better than their five-figure-sum CD units.

[Sckott]

I call Best Buy "The Zoo". Lots of pigs (sales staff) and sheep (consumers).

One big red flag, they had a pair of JBL speakers, bookshelf, that "looked" interesting. I was glad I took off the grills. All of the cones including the tweets were smashed in. Clearence for only $399.99!!

Groan.

[jkerr]

Oh no doubt that Best Buy, Circuit City etc is a joke. The last thing anyone would want to do is go in there with a question or
an expectation to demo anything.

But, it is significant that they've carried any sacd titles. I recently turned on a co-worker to sacd and he says he likes BB because of the selection & price. He doesn't like to wait for mail order. For me BB is out of the way and I'd rather order over the 'net. I have been to Circuit City and thier selection is slim and more expensive than BB.

Actually, you know I probably wouldn't have the kind of quality gear and software if wasn't for the internet and its access to all kinds of info you just can't get in stores. I wish I knew what I know now 25 years ago.

[bmoura]

Originally posted by spotlightkid
You Know i spent some of my good hard earned money on a sony SACD player and am getting concerned at the amount of titles that are coming out in the new format-hardly any at all.i want more classic rock and jazz.i think this format will fold before the end of 2002-what do you think?

Well, there are 90 Multichannel SACDs now available in the US and a total of over 570 SACDs to date worldwide. So the format continues to grow.

Check my list of Multichannel SACDs Now Available (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bmoura/msacdnow.htm) for a look.

[Metralla]

Just one point about Circuit City ... they had the best price on the Roger Waters "In the Flesh" double SACD. Better than any other store, and better than any Internet/mail order site. There is still one copy at my local CC - $28.99. It's a wonderful album. Any Pink Floyd fan would enjoy this.

So if they can do it once, maybe they can do it again. So I keep dropping in there on the off chance. I've cleaned out Best Buy of the ones I really want, but I visit every week in case they have restocked. But I only buy CDs and SACDs there. Same for CC.

Regards,
Metralla

[bmoura]

Originally posted by Metralla
Just one point about Circuit City ... they had the best price on the Roger Waters "In the Flesh" double SACD. Better than any other store, and better than any Internet/mail order site. There is still one copy at my local CC - $28.99. It's a wonderful album. Any Pink Floyd fan would enjoy this.

So if they can do it once, maybe they can do it again. So I keep dropping in there on the off chance. I've cleaned out Best Buy of the ones I really want, but I visit every week in case they have restocked. But I only buy CDs and SACDs there. Same for CC.

Regards,
Metralla

The Best Buy in East Palo Alto, CA has been restocking their SACDs. Last time I was there they had some of the newer Multichannel SACDs including Herbie Hancock's "Headhunter", Alice in Chains "Greatest Hits" and the Mark O' Connor "American Seasons" SACD.

And don't forget the Fry's Electronics stores in Sunnyvale and Palo Alto. They have a few of the Sony SACDs starting at $14.99 near the DTS Music CDs section.

[Metralla]

Brian,

I dropped in at Fry's Sunnyvale store last night and there was nothing new there. Just the usual suspects - Brubeck, MCC, Destiny, one Winter. Surprisingly, there are now more SACDs at the Campbell store. About time Fry's pulled in another disc.

I did go the the BB in East Palo Alto a couple of weeks ago after seeing one of your posts; I may head up there again today.

Regards,
Metralla

[bmoura]

Originally posted by Metralla
Brian,

I dropped in at Fry's Sunnyvale store last night and there was nothing new there. Just the usual suspects - Brubeck, MCC, Destiny, one Winter. Surprisingly, there are now more SACDs at the Campbell store. About time Fry's pulled in another disc.

I did go the the BB in East Palo Alto a couple of weeks ago after seeing one of your posts; I may head up there again today.

Regards,
Metralla

Interesting. Can't say I've ever been to the Fry's in Campbell. I assume it's probably near the Tower Records store there.

On Fry's, I also did see some SACDs at their Fremont store. They had some of the ones you list plus the Volodos for $14.99, the Three Degrees for $15.99 and the Ginuwine for $16.99.

[tomd]

You think there is a slim choice for SACDs try DVD-As! Believe me the selection is worse!I've had my player for just over a year now and I have only 3 discs!I've heard all sorts of artists and titles being thrown around for upcoming possibilities (the reissue of the Neil Young back catalog was one of the main reasonsof me going DVD-A).Also I've heard all sorts of excuses from major labels why we don't see more titles on shelves by now.Everything from technical reasons,to legal issues with artists,to copywright concerns.As everybody knows the only label to turn a profit last year was Universal.Cd sales are in a two year slump and it's probably going to continue.Labels such as Rhino/Warners need to wake up and smell the coffee -people are not going to keep buying unremastered crap sounding versions of albums as they did in the past when they know there is much better technology available.So if they want to keep their profits they HAVE to give us better and cheaper product!