I hate the feeling that I missed something. In this case, a music format, or should I say, two music formats passed me by. They passed most people by, but that is little consolation. DVD Audio and Super Audio CD were two advanced audio formats that came out in around 2000. The music companies and hardware makers were looking for the replacement for the CD, and were sure that they had found that replacement. Oh were they wrong.
These formats were high resolution audio recordings on optical discs. The discs could contain high resolution two channel (stereo) mixes, high resolution surround (5.1) mixes, or both. Better sound quality, in other words.
There were numerous reasons why they failed. Starting with the obvious, the format war between DVD Audio and Super Audio CD made it difficult for the consumer. Each format required its own expensive hardware, and each format had different music companies in its corner. So if you wanted to buy into one format, you were stuck with the software that was released in that format. You could buy into both, but at the beginning the hardware was quite expensive.
The cost was a major detriment. At a time when people were downloading their songs for free, and CDs were pushing $15, DVD Audio and SACDs were even more expensive. The popularity of downloading was partially the result of the price gouging in the music industry. People listened to MP3s, which were generally much lower quality than even CDs, and liked what they heard. The price was right, and eventually downloads began to dominate with the Ipod leading the way. CDs became archaic. DVD Audio and SACD didn't stand a chance. It was the wrong technology at the wrong time.
In retrospect a high resolution format might have been more successful if it had been a part of the DVD spec from the beginning. If any DVD player could play the disc, it would open up the disc market to tens of millions of households. The big detriment of having to buy a player would have been eliminated.
Both formats are pretty much done for. The music releases have dried up, with the vast majority of releases being limited to classical. There never were a lot of rock and pop releases. For example, groups like U2 and Radiohead never were released in the formats, and rarely was an artist's entire catalog released in the format, with one or two releases being the norm.
I had been waiting to upgrade my sound equipment before buying into the formats. Right now I have a barely adequate sound setup. That was another problem with these formats. To really hear the improvement, you need to have good speakers, and a good receiver or amp/processor. Well, I still have some upgrading to do, but what I have will do for now. It took several years before a decent priced ($160) universal player became available. When I say universal, I mean a player that plays both formats. Secondly, it has an hdmi connection, which means all I need is one cable to hook between my player and my receiver. Before hdmi you had to hook up six! cables between the player and the receiver. Talk about a pain in the ass!
I haven't ordered the player yet. It can wait. Right now I am scrambling to buy the few releases that I really want before they disappear from the market. Well, they won't disappear entirely. They will always be available for upwards of $100 on ebay. Luckily (and somewhat disappointingly) there aren't that many DVD Audio or SACD that I am actually interested in. I already own the three Nine Inch Nails releases. Most of R.E.M.'s catalog is available in DVD Audio, so I will eventually pick up those. Same with The Talking Heads and Depeche Mode. Fleetwood Mac's release of Rumours is already going for $40-$50 on Ebay. Ugh. Thankfully that is the only release that I really want that isn't available at a reasonable price. The Beatles' Love compilation is also available, and is supposed to sound fantastic, which is somewhat surprising, considering its age.
