- Joined
- Jan 9, 2013
- Messages
- 24,528
I think the labels shoot themselves in the foot, every time they release a surround disc or LP of a live show...just to show off the audience clapping behind you. Just like a certain minority of people who don't believe their givernment works...then once in power, installs a platoon of incompetant, opportunistic executives in key positions to make that fever dream come true, just so they can say, "SEE? SEE?!"
Sony cuts back on SACD production just as interest in their SACD-capable players start to catch fire in their own home country. 3D teevee sets are on the way out (Why? Because they've finally made enough improvements to the sets themselves, that make their 3D discs look terific. Can't have that...). While we're on that, how is it I'm hearing that Blu-Rays are "on their way out", just as they manage to eliminate their market-confusing format competitor, the HD-DVD, presumably because the public is satisfied with DVD...that they can take home and play on their $69...Blu-Ray players. And, one of my favorites: the first SACD release of polyphonic music - you know, where Resphigi actually assigns the orchestra to play from four discrete points in cathedrals and concert halls? - is a stereo release!
And, even if SACD still made traction in the classical arena despite Sony, it's full of groupthinkers who go apoplectic at the notion that recording with more than two mics is "unnatural" (yeah - like "stereo" itself isn't just a hypothetical soundstage gimmick intended to show the illusion of realism*)...because there's nothin' back there but ambience and audience coughing. I say, then put your money where your season tickets are...and remix those stereo SACD's into 3.1...or are you afraid that's just a slippery slope into accepting multichannel witchcraft? Satisfies your insistance that the music comes from the front, so, you shouldn't have a problem with that...hey, have you met my friend Fredrick Fennel? He recorded a crapload of those back before you were even born...!
And so, big deal, AF got their fingers a little burned on giving surround fans an actual excuse to pay for their classic rock favorites one more time...and they had to print up some corrected discs because THEY BLEW IT THE FIRST TIME THEMSELVES. Sorry, no. You don't get out of the technology because it's too hard to center a quad vocal from 4 decades ago (heck, the engineers from the '70s did the hard part for you already)...you get better at it, because this is what successful companies do.
*...because you record from one fixed position with two mics...and then tens of thousands of customers play it back through two speakers spread all the way across the room? No wonder First Flute seems to be sitting all the way over there...
I seriously don't think Audio Fidelity BLEW IT! They did release some fine sounding QUAD albums and if you have the right equipment their Stereo SACDs are pretty top notch. A LOT of the majors even screwed up with their "few and far between" hi res physical discs. NOTHING NEW THERE!
As far as Blu Ray on its way out......well they're still [ironically] manufacturing DVDs so the next big thing will be 4K UHD but without the luxury of 3D....which is patently RIDICULOUS.
As even SONY's entry level 4K UHD player (the X-800) is equipped to play ALL formats and upsample 2K to 4K and even includes DVD~Audio playback, I think we'll see a few more POP/ROCK QUAD SACDs before they decide to pull the plug altogether.
The public has ALWAYS been a fickle lot but with ALL this new technology rapidly cramming the shopping malls and online Megastores, there is a bit of hesitance to take that seismic plunge.
Just when you've finally invested in your new 4K UHD TV, 8K will be right around the corner.
And it won't stop there as obsolescence IS part of OUR culture.