Universal SACDs for $14.99 at Best Buy

Well, the new Universal SACDs are now showing up in the SACD section of some of the Best Buy stores.

Even better news is that they are priced aggressively at $14.99 or $15.99 each. A good deal !

Here in Silicon Valley, they showed up locally over at the Best Buy in San Carlos. For $14.99 or $15.99, you can pick up the SACDs by Beck, Diana Krall, Getz/Gilberto, Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald, Bon Jovi, Bocell, Beautiful Mind Soundtrack, etc.

They're in the SACD section with the SACD Players. At these prices, let's hope that more SACDs are on the way at Best Buy.

Seeing this in the Franklin, TN area as well. However it's a toss-up as to where.

Beck and the classical SACDs are back with the Sony SACD gear. Yet Ryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Diana Krall, etc are found mixed with the DVD-Audio titles in the DVD department.

The pricing is right on Universal's SACDs; when is Columbia going to get hip and match WEA's DVD-Audio pricing strategy?

I still have a tough time with SACD because it's $18-$22 for what I want and few are multi-channel. Plus nobody stocks Tubular Bells for less than $24 (that actually has it)

timbre4

Well, I reckon until they get right with the price of Tubular Bells, I'll just listen to the quadradisc.

The Quadfather

I think the <em>Tubular Bells</em> SACD is considered an import, which might explain the higher price.

Personal tidbit: <em>TB</em> is my all-time favorite album; I've listened to this work thousands of times and never get tired of it even though it's now been 30 years since it was released (talk about a reality check!). The quad mix from the 70s is interesting but a bit perplexing. Still, I'm glad to finally have it in my collection. Oldfield is currently re-recording the piece for a 30th anniversary edition later this year. I'm wondering if a multi-channel version will also be released. Major missed opportunity if not...

Speaking of Tubular Bells, do check out the Multichannel SACD version. It's taken from the original analog master tapes - and it sounds much better than the CD-4, Q8 and SQ versions of the '70s.

What? ANOTHER version of Tubular Bells? I prefer the original quad version. I'll pick up the SACD after I've gotten some other stuff I don't have yet.

The Quadfather

I believe it's exactly the same mix, just much cleaner. As soon as it gets affordable (and widely available) I'll buy it.

timbre4

Exactly. It's the original 4 channel Quad mix, straight from the master tapes. But the sound is indeed much cleaner than the various '70s versions.

Tubular Bells isn't everyone's favorite album. But if you like it, the Multichannel SACD is one to pick up. Very well done indeed.

As a historical note, it was the first "major label" album to appear on Multichannel SACD. Prior to that, the only Multichannel SACDs available were a few titles from Tom Jung's DMP label.

>>I believe it's exactly the same mix, just much cleaner. As soon as it gets affordable (and widely available) I'll buy it.

HMV.com also has most of Universal's SACDs for about $15-$16 USD.
The Canadian price is about $23CDN, which is cheaper than most regular CDs in the HMV retail stores (regular CDs sell for about $24.99 CDN).

The best deal on line for the Universal SACDs seems to be Circuit City - there they sell for $12.99 to $13.99 !