Re: [ARSCLIST] VHS and Beta (was Re: [ARSCLIST] Longevity)

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Don:

This is actually not true. Last I read, vast majority of DVD owners listen thru their TV speakers. 
No way "many people" have anything resembling a surround system. Very low WAF (wife-acceptance 
factor), even for two large, full-range speakers, in most homes.

Yes, SACD was developed as a superior fidelity system, but when that tack totally crapped out in the 
marketplace, the major backers switched to it being a surround system capable of "breathing new life 
into old masters." The AES show in 2003 NYC featured a Sony/Philips booth where SACD was 
"relaunched" as a multi-channel format. This was in reaction to the DVD-A alliance, who actually got 
multi-channel titles to market but then backed off quickly when no mass market developed. The SACD 
crowd tried "super-fidelity" 2-channel (Stones, Bob Dylan) and numerous remix/remaster multi-channel 
discs. As far as I've read or heard, none of them have been barn-burners with sales. So, now, it's 
evolving to a pretty small niche market. I'd bet it can be bigger and more profitable than, for 
instance, audiophile LPs, but certainly not a mass market and likely not something a large 
multinational record company would want to mess with much longer.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Cox" <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 12:33 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] VHS and Beta (was Re: [ARSCLIST] Longevity)


> On 04/07/06, Tom Fine wrote:
> > the reels were cooler. I borrowed a pile of them, transferred them to
> > digital and burned to DVD-A discs. Some of the quad mixes were pretty
> > hokey but some were excellent, and the reels were later-era, so they
> > used decent tape, had less hiss and no edge warpage. Apparently they
> > were premium-priced, so no 3.75IPS junk either. If the quad disk
> > formats hadn't been such kludges, the format might have worked, but I
> > think even if the mass-market version (grooved disks) worked well and
> > sounded great, there just aren't that many people willing to double
> > the size, cost and complexity of their sound system. The same wall hit
> > by SACD.
>
> SACD is more about better audio quality than about surround.
>
> However, many people do now have some kind of crude surround setup as
> part of a home cinema installation. That wasn't the case when
> quadraphonic sound came out.
>
> So I think the resistance to having to buy two more speakers will be
> less now.
>
> A bigger problem is that most popular albums are so badly recorded that
> better reproduction may not be audible.
>
> Regards
> --
> Don Cox
> doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx