The Day the Music Died

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However, it would still have provided a first rate SA-CD experience, but with its removal from the 40GB version all of those bright, high resolution, surround sound possibilities have died a death. High-res audio has been sacrificed on the altar of High Definition pictures. Getting rid of SA-CD was seen as unimportant compared with the picture format war. It hardly seems surprising considering most people's attitude to audio. Not only is CD considered adequate, but most people are happy with 128Kb MP3.

Now it's true that to get the best out of SA-CD or indeed DVD-Audio you need decent quality equipment and lots of space too for the speakers, which is beyond most people. But it's the lack of interest that galls me. I still think it's a crying shame that nobody ever sits down and listens to their favourite albums properly anymore, taking the music in, and say, the lyrics. It's all about iPod, and background music on the PC.

Sure I love my iPod as much as the next man, but I've always dreamt of having a dedicated AV room, where I could take in my favourite album and enjoy them to the full, and SA-CD seemed perfect for that. With SA-CD and DVD Audio being so ignored it seems as though by the time I am able to have such a luxury, there will be no high resolution audio carrier with any current content. Certainly what was released on these formats was always only back catalogue material, mainly 70s rock, with lots of jazz and classical - no new release of new material was ever released on these formats simultaneously, as far as I'm aware.

There is the possibility that one day, if Blu-ray has established itself firmly as the winner, Sony might have another go at the high-res audio market, either by resurrecting SA-CD, or by making some kind of audio only disc, called say, Blu-ray Audio or BD-CD. After all the lossless soundtracks available on Blu-ray in either Dolby True HD, DTS Master Audio, or uncompressed 5.1 are meant to sound phenomenal. Imagine these captured using the signal purity of DSD! No, I don't suppose you can.

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