...unfortunately, the trend has been among the majors to release in LOSSY DVD~V DTS/DD 5.1 and PCM 96/24 Stereo.
Starting now as a off comment, I'm going to start abbreviating Blu-ray Audio as BD-A.
Thanks for the update, I didn't know that was the trend. I haven't really followed the trend since around 2000 or so when I could walk into a Best Buy and go to the DVD-A section to look at the available titles. I'm glad I did as I ended up buying a good small amount of titles released on that format from around that time. I haven't listened to them much over the years, but when I did; I was astounded by the higher quality audio and in particular the 5.1 mixes.
There was a time I really wanted to get into SACD, but buying into SACD equipment was a bit problematic for me. I didn't want to buy a dedicated SACD player. At first there were (if I remember correctly) SACD players that could only play back stereo in high resolution. Then came the players that could play back multi-channel SACDs. But, at the prices they were asking and the fact that over the years there were disc players that could only play DVD-A and BD-A, and not many could do all three, as those players were reserved for the highest player in the product line. There were ones that could usually only do DVD-A and BD-A (without the SACD,) and ones that did SACD and BD-A, but not DVD-A. So that was kind of frustrating. Also of all the disc formats I had in my collection, the least amount of high resolution discs I had was on SACD (really only one or two at that time.) So not having a player that could unlock the high resolution format of a couple discs wasn't really a big deal.
Now that I've finally did a bit of an audio upgrade for the first time in 10 years,
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/index.php?threads/show-us-your-gear.6450/page-19#post-436359 things have changed. Today's receivers now typically decode DSD streams along with all the other formats (even my older one from about 10 years ago did) but it's the players that have mostly changed. For just a few hundred dollars, finally I was able to buy a brand new Sony disc player (bought to be used only to play audio discs) that can play all those disc formats. Since the player is basically sending the stream to the receiver, to me there's no argument if the SACD player is a good one or not. My receiver does a fine job of decoding the DSD stream thank you. And I'm sure many others receivers owned by those within this forum also does a fine job of decoding most if not all the multiple digital streams from BD-A, DVD-A and SACD.
Since my audio update; I've bought quite a few SACDs, a couple BD-As, a few DVD-A discs from AIX by the way, along with one HDAD. I'm also looking into the ratings of certain discs reviewed here on QQ as potential purchases in the future.
Thankfully, we're still treated to lossless SACD and BD~A [blu ray audio] by the artists who still care about quality and hopefully that trend will continue.
I really liked the idea of SACD when I first heard about it at least when it comes to the hybrids, that a regular CD player can play the Red Book standard and when one is ready, all anyone had to do was upgrade to a SACD player. Those discs could be easily revisited to enjoy the higher resolution audio. To me, SACD was a no-brainer. There was a time when people bought their music on CD, and adding another layer of advanced resolution audio onto the same disc that was compatible was and still is a great idea. I envisioned a day when I would walk into a store, buy a CD without being really concerned if the disc I was buying also had a 2nd higher bit-rate layer as I would have assumed it did. Of course fantasy and reality are much different things. In general, the big talk about SACD came and went pretty quickly, but luckily the format still survives today. They can be found, and there seems to be quite a bit of material released on SACD, but it's a format you have to know where to search if you want to browse though a good selection.
Of course Napster and Mp3 kind of killed people buying music on CDs. In a way however, Napster did start a music download revolution in that high resolution audio can also be bought and downloaded...a formula that seems to be somewhat popular. I personally however can't stand having digital versions of music; I most enjoy having something to hold on to, read, and place onto a shelf as part of a collection. Digital collections simply don't do it for me.
Also with my audio update; I've been more interested in high quality audio releases more than ever before. Sure, I like the rock masters remixed from the original multitrack tapes, and now I'm looking at the quality of recordings from the entire AIX catalog. I currently have three from AIX and I want to get a 4th (which I ordered just a couple days ago.) I know all the groups are very talented, and the recordings are exceptional, but there's only so much I can add to my collection from music and artists with whom I'm not familiar.
The BD-A format really excited me when I first learned about it. Since at first I never really had a SACD player, and most everyone I know has a Blu-ray player, which is also usually hooked up with speakers in a 5.1 configurations because of movies being usually mixed at minimum with a 5.1 format; it seemed like a no brainer. People's homes are now more than ever set up and ready for 5.1 audio and it seems to me like that would be a matter of easy acceptance of an audio format with the same configuration. I guess the same could be said of DVD-A, but Blu-ray is the progressor of DVD, so it seems natural that BD-A would take over DVD-A. It's only been recently (at least to me) that audio only Blu-rays have been getting released more frequently.
If DVD-A was to drop off from this earth, I really wouldn't be too disappointed. DVD-A however seems to be hanging on with a release here and there, but as you say with formats like SACD and BD-A, there's at least a continuation of choices of high resolution media to choose from.
Welcome to the forum. Will look forward to many more posts from you.
Thanks, it's been fun! And thanks for the link...very interesting.