"Arny Krueger" wrote in
:
"R" wrote in message
. 1
"Arny Krueger" wrote in
:
If you check the records of Usenet groups, you will see that it has
long been known, based on ABX and other blind listening tests, that
so-called hi-rez audio formats such as HDCD, DTS, SACD, and DVD-A
offer little or no sonic advantage.
So what is the box score for the market sucess of these formats?
Well, HDCD is now reduced to being a subfeature of the Windows Media
Player, DTS is no longer in the news, and DVD-A and SACD are dying on
the vine sales-wise.
For recent information about the latter two formats, check the RIAA
sales statistics posted at
http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/...midYrStats.pdf . What
they show is that same-half-year sales of SACD recordings has
dropped by more than half from 2003 to 2004. DVD-A sales increases
failed to take up the slack. Total first-half 2004 sales of
recordings in both formats were about 600,000 units. which is about
0.2% of the sales of CD-Audio recordings. Even cassette and vinyl
which are even more lower-rez than CD-Audio vastly outsold the two
latest so-called Hi-rez formats!
While the so-called hi-rez formats were struggling to sell mere
recordings at an annualized rate of 1.2 million units, lower-rez
formats such as MP3 and AAC were responsible for sales of millions
and millions of players. Sales of low-rez format recordings over the
web are also booming.
There seems to be a lesson here, being that audio technology that
can't prove itself in ABX and other DBT listening tests, can
resaonably be expected to do poorly in the marketplace.
Arny,
You might want to look at the numbers again.
I prefer to look at number of units sold - not dollar amounts. It
tells a more accurate story and reveals additional information when
compared to dollars.
DVD-A units went up over 100%
DVD Video unit went up by over 100%
CD units went up by over 10%
Vinyl went down 8.4%
SACD went down by over 54%
Cassette went down over 68%
CD singles went down over 55%
While the clear loser in the DVD-A vs SACD war was SACD,
No problem there SACD took a big dive in both dollars and units.
Regrattably the unit volume AND dollar increase in DVD-A failed to make
up for the SACD losses.
Hirez 1H 2004 dollar volume: $11.53 million
Hirez 1H 2003 dollar volume: $15.66 million
Year-year loss in dollar volume for Hi Rez formats $4.13 million
SACD vs. cassette shows analog tape the loser which is no surprise to
me.
IMO a totally ludicrous comparison.
Not really. Cassette, LP, and SACD all went down. However DVD-A when up
over 100%. Who in their right mind would pull the plug on DVD-A when they
just saw 100% growth? Hi-Res is far from dead and it isn't even feeling
poorly.
I think your assertion that "HDCD, DTS, SACD, and DVD-A offer little
or no sonic advantage." should be tempered with the following article.
http://www.stereophile.com/digitalso...fth/index.html
Sony/Philips may need to enforce some sort of quality control over
SACD.
Stereophile doesn't seem to believe in doing time-synchronized,
level-matched, bias-controlled comparisons. IOW their opinons are
meaningless. Furthermore, it is well known that as a rule, hi-rez
re-releases are remastered, which means that they are essentially
different artistic works.
You didn't read the article dammit. It was a implied test where even
sighted expectations were contrary to the truth.
I suggest the following:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...,114731,00.asp
"Once I heard SACD, I knew I could never go back to regular CDs."
"SACD and DVD-A make normal CDs sound like AM radio."
Bash the Hi-Res formats all you want, but the fact of the matter is many
people do hear a difference and a big one at that.
If SACD is dying so horribly, why did McIntosh introduce their first
universal (read SACD too) player this year?
Because it took them way to long to come to market with that product?
Maybe they waited for the royalties to drop in price. It has just
recently that the price to get SACD player to market has been attractive
to manufacturers.
It wasn't because they felt it would be a waste of time and money.
Since McIntosh is a vanity subsidiary of a large conglomerate, who knows
what money counts for them.
Do you think they are in the business to lose money? No. McIntosh is
very much alive and well and making money, thank you.
Putting all that aside, the interesting fact is that while the number
of DVD units went up 100%, the total dollars went up a bit over 50%.
My figures show that total hi-rez dollar sales dropped significantly
when as a new format, they should be growing dramatically.
My point was that in the grand scheme of things, people spend a certain
amount of money for entertainment. If they get a bigger bang for their
buck with a DVD, guess where the dollars go? Straight to DVD with little
left over for other forms of entertainment. Why spend $15.00 or more for
audio only when one can get audio and video for $10.00?
That means that retails prices have dropped significantly. It is
apparant that DVD certainly is becoming more attractive in terms of
price. Make it cheap and they will buy.
Except that cutting prices didn't help increase sales in dollars or
total Hi-Rez sales in units.
It is apparant that price cutting only occured in the DVD area, not
others.
Speaking of prices, have you compared the prices of DVD, DVD-A, SACD,
and CD lately? It would appear that Sony/Philips actually wants to
kill off the medium. Until Sony/Phillips actually makes it
attractive to produce hybrid CD/SACD, the format will likely fade
away. As it is right now, the retails prices are about $1.00 more
for the hybrid over a plain CD.
If there was a widely-perceived sonic advantage, $1 of more than a dozen
shouldn't matter.
But most people don't care. The average consumer is lucky to be able to
tell the difference between a 128k MP3 and a CD. Why do you think Bose is
still n business? The average consumer is either ignorant or stupid.
Who will be the first to put a multichannel system in a car? More
importantly, will it be a universal player that plays all formats?
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/art...=7&article_id=
477
&pa
ge_number=2 says "...at January's Consumer Electronics Show, three
companies - Eclipse, Kenwood, and Pioneer - announced DVD-A-ready
heads ...." "Sony tells me there are no current plans to introduce a
car-specific SACD player. The company says it will someday, but
there's no official timetable yet." This begs the question why?
Probably because Sony is about ready to $#!#-can the format.
That is not apparant nor obvious. If they fail to market the format any
further over the next 12 months, then it will become clearer. DVD-A had a
much larger head start. As a matter of fact SACD was the solution that
Sony/Philips came up with in response to the DVD/DVD-A.
What is Sony/Philips doing? Why wait?
Why spend good money after bad?
That certainly is one conclusion. Maybe there is a completely different
plan in the wings. I do know of several people who would know, but they
aren't talking, so anything you and I may say would be pure speculation
based on little or no facts.
Why not push for SACD/DVD-A/etc in the car?
They've pushed but there was a lot of resistance.
The resistance isn't at the consumer level I assure you.
It does make someone wonder what the hell
is going on at Sony and company.
They're thinking of treating hi-rez audio like it was a business?
Maybe, they are rethinking things. Maybe Blu-ray is going to be the
proverbial "IT". One format for all. CD/DVD/Hi-Res-Audio all on one
disc. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Until we have either a good working crystal
ball or some inside info because someone blabbed, we won't know for sure
what is going on at Sony/Phillips.
Compare the numbers on the link you gave to the numbers at
http://www.riaa.com/news/marketingda...d_yr_chart.pdf
which is the 2002-2003 mid year stats.
SACD isn't there at all. What does that mean? It means that 2003
was the first year that SACD was included.
So what, the point here is to compare comparable stats.
But is it fair to make a supposition based on the stats whike a format is
in it's infancy?
My assesment? It is a bit early to tell. It all depends on what
Sony/Phillips does. SACD the next BetaMax? Could be. Maybe it will
become ubiquitous like the CD. Maybe it will all become a moot point
if the new Blu-Ray format takes off.
Here is another tidbit for those TV addicts. You may be watching more
commercials than you are now, TIVO or not.
"... Congress is getting ready to vote on the omnibus Intellectual
Property Protection Bill which has provisions tacked on that, if
passed, could prevent users from skipping commercials on DVDs and
recorded broadcasts [read TiVO], according to Public Knowledge, a
public-interest advocacy group."
http://www.tvtechnology.com/dailynews/one.php?id=2508
Being forced to watch commercials is just what everybody wants! ;-)
I appreciate your sarcasm. Personally I think that if they keep it up,
both video entertainment and the internet will turn into a advertising
wasteland like broadcast radio unless the people speak up.
r
--
Nothing beats the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with DLT tapes.