No more SACD & DVD-A at my BB!

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Bob R

Well-known Member
Since 2002/2003
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
Messages
173
Location
Rhode Island
It's been a couple of weeks since I visited my local Best Buy. It used to be a weekly visit, every Tuesday, every week.

This week, the entire store is switched around. No more North - South, they are all diagonal now, with a help desk in the center.

I look around - No SACD & DVD-A's/ Ask the kid, "We no longer stock them, the Dualdiscs are what we sell".

My response "That was a mistake, I guess Newbury Comics is where I'll shop from now on".

Sigh .....

:mad:
 
There is also no DVD-A/SACD section at my BB either, however I did notice that there are DVD-A/SACD titles mixed in with the regular stock. Good luck finding anything unless you know exactly what you are looking for.
 
I found the same thing on a visit to Indiana. :(

The locals here in Florida still have 'em, but I suspect they will get rid of them soon. At least they have the Dualdiscs for my surround cravings.

ICK
 
The Manchester, CT store also has been "rearranged". I was certain that the SACD/DVD-A section was a casualty, but after walking up and down the CD aisles I found a small section with the meager titles they had before still there, all mixed together with each other. I would expect that they will be gone soon.

It's a shame that they never restocked titles after they sold. Can you imagine if the did the same thing with CDs or DVDs? They too would appear to "never sell"........
 
well spokane BB had a small SACD DVD-A mix section last week and Calgary BB has seperate sections for the two formats.
 
I have bad news too from several stores in the USA (where I was on vacation in June, otherwise I live in Paris ;) )

The BestBuy in San Jose, CA, told me that the SACD/DVD-A section was discontinued. The sign was still there, but there was crap compilations instead. They only carry DualDiscs from now on. Reasons were unclear, they did not sell enough and they had too few titles in stock anyway.

I was more surprised to see the same thing at the Virgin Megastore on Market Street in San Francisco ! Once again, the sign was still there, but I was told they deleted the section some days ago. This time, I was given no answer about the reason why.

I had to go to Fry's to eventually find a superb SACD/DVD-A section with very good prices and the widest range available I had ever seen in a brick'n mortar store.

The tip about Fry's was given to me by BananaSlug from this forum, who I met at the end of the Porcupine Tree show in San Francisco at The Fillmore. Thanks again, BananaSlug, and it was good to meet someone from this forum (y)

However, all of this doesn't smell good for the sale of hi-rez audio ! :(
 
On the other hand, my local Best Buy at Dublin, CA, restocked its SACD section with new Fantasy, Universal, and even some Sony single-layer SACD titles. And they even lowered some of the prices to $14.99 on Sony single-layer discs.
 
soundboy said:
On the other hand, my local Best Buy at Dublin, CA, restocked its SACD section with new Fantasy, Universal, and even some Sony single-layer SACD titles. And they even lowered some of the prices to $14.99 on Sony single-layer discs.

The Best Buy in San Carlos has shrunk the size of its SACD section, but it still stocks a variety of SACDs. I also noted that some of the SACDs have now migrated into the main CD area, much as we're seeing more and more of at Tower Records.
 
FYE in Midtown Manhattan
They used to keep a well stocked section of SACDs but recently (besides an incredible amount of Kinks sacds) has let the section thin down.

At the beginning of the year, they moved the DVD-A section downstairs next tot the music-video DVD section. That too has been thin recently.

The Dual Discs are prominently placed on the highlight racks in the standard cd sections.

Virgin in Times Square
They have progressively moved and shrunk the DVD-A/SACD section to the point where I can not find it. They were never big supporters of the formats despite having one of the early format display units that sampled the music.

Tower Records NY in the Village
They still have a section located upstairs in the classical section. OK selection but nothing to write home about.
 
After reading all of the bad news posted about local BB's, I decided to give mine a visit. The BB in BelAir, Maryland has reduced it's stock of DVD-A's to a handful :(
The SACD section alongside of it has seemed to have maintained it's size. Very few new selections are available. Once these are sold, they probably will no longer carry the format.
My recent selections were purchased on line at Buy DVD Now, Acoustic Sounds or CD Wow. ;)
BB just does not seem to care about losing devoted customers. You would think that they would understand that once we are in the store, we just might purchase other products that they offer!
 
Frantic said:
BB just does not seem to care about losing devoted customers. You would think that they would understand that once we are in the store, we just might purchase other products that they offer!

BBuy here in North New Jersey is also terrible at re-stocking the regular CD section. All they seem to care about is the top 10 titles!
Obviously, the TV, appliance and computer Dept's are more important. I sure miss the "CD/Record Store ONLY' stores!!!
TimW
 
Have any of the labels that release DVD-A's actually made an announcement of re-releasing their DVD-A's on DualDisc? It looks like the labels and retailers are still on different wavelengths.
 
Silverline made a big deal of it, and no one noticed (or seemed to care). WB did a few (Grateful Dead for one).
 
I noticed that Acoustic Sounds was taking preorders for a DualDisc version of 3 Doors Down's "Away From The Sun" album. This particular release has already seen both SACD and straight DVD-Audio release. The label is Universal. I haven't seen any official list of anything more from them being re-released as DualDisc, though.

FWIW... I have been to two separate Best Buy locations this week and both still have a dedicated SACD/DVD-A section, though it appears they haven't been restocking them for quite some time. It won't surprise me if one day I walk into the store and it is gone---especially in light of the fact many (of the few) more recent hybrid discs and double-disc packs have already found their way into the regular CD racks.
 
Again visited my local Best Buy tonight....and I am completely floored!!

Not only did the SACD section get restocked, it actually now expanded to two racks full of SACDs!! As I mentioned in a previous post in this thread, this store's SACD rack was restocked with mostly Fantasy jazz titles and some Sony single-layer titles. Now it got completely restocked with both Universal (Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Steely Dan, Hilary Hahn, etc...) and Sony titles (Tony Bennett, Billy Joel, Carole King, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, etc....). There was even a Donovan SACD from AF, plus multiple copies of Ray Charles and Henry Mancini. It was packed!!

I also mentioned prices were reduced to $14.99 for Sony single-layer SACDs, but it looks like some Universal titles also got reduced from $14.99 to $13.99....like the SACDs from Peter Gabriel and the Police catalog.

I also noticed that some Sony single-layer SACDs have a new way of distingishing regular CD titles from those that are SACD. When looking down from the top, it used to be that the first 2 letters in the catalog number on that clear transparent sticker thingy will tell whether the disc is a regular CD (starts with CK) or a SACD (starts with CS). Now, the SACD logo shows up on top of the CS catalog number, easily identifying itself as a SACD. I have never seen this before.

One more thing, I noticed the "new" SACD of Billy Joel's "52nd Street" doesn't come in a slipcase, cardboard or plastic. Like all previous Sony SACDs, it comes in a regular CD jewel case. The only identification of the disc being a SACD is the round silver/black sticker saying the disc is playable only on a SACD player. Since there was 3 copies of "52nd Street " like this (each with the SACD logo over the catalog number visible on the top edge of the jewel case), I guess this may be the new way to display the disc.
 
soundboy said:
Again visited my local Best Buy tonight....and I am completely floored!!

Not only did the SACD section get restocked, it actually now expanded to two racks full of SACDs!! As I mentioned in a previous post in this thread, this store's SACD rack was restocked with mostly Fantasy jazz titles and some Sony single-layer titles. Now it got completely restocked with both Universal (Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Steely Dan, Hilary Hahn, etc...) and Sony titles (Tony Bennett, Billy Joel, Carole King, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, etc....). There was even a Donovan SACD from AF, plus multiple copies of Ray Charles and Henry Mancini. It was packed!!

Wow, sounds like I need to visit a few area BB's. Or maybe best buy rounded up all those lose dvd-a and sacd and sent them to Dublin, CA. BB heard someone there was buying them. ;) All kidding aside, I wish there was a store in northeast Ohio supplying these disk. I hate buying over the net, everything on backorder (which means they don't update there web site's), seems like I wait forever to receive orders and I hate the fact that you can't hold and read the case before buying (seems like web sites fail in giving proper descriptions of these disks, especially Duals and sacd's). I know this isn't any big news for all you QQ heads, but it felt good to vent a little. Thanks for the shoulder.

Spence
 
soundboy said:
Again visited my local Best Buy tonight....and I am completely floored!!

Not only did the SACD section get restocked, it actually now expanded to two racks full of SACDs!! As I mentioned in a previous post in this thread, this store's SACD rack was restocked with mostly Fantasy jazz titles and some Sony single-layer titles. Now it got completely restocked with both Universal (Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Steely Dan, Hilary Hahn, etc...) and Sony titles (Tony Bennett, Billy Joel, Carole King, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, etc....). There was even a Donovan SACD from AF, plus multiple copies of Ray Charles and Henry Mancini. It was packed!!

I also mentioned prices were reduced to $14.99 for Sony single-layer SACDs, but it looks like some Universal titles also got reduced from $14.99 to $13.99....like the SACDs from Peter Gabriel and the Police catalog.

I also noticed that some Sony single-layer SACDs have a new way of distingishing regular CD titles from those that are SACD. When looking down from the top, it used to be that the first 2 letters in the catalog number on that clear transparent sticker thingy will tell whether the disc is a regular CD (starts with CK) or a SACD (starts with CS). Now, the SACD logo shows up on top of the CS catalog number, easily identifying itself as a SACD. I have never seen this before.

One more thing, I noticed the "new" SACD of Billy Joel's "52nd Street" doesn't come in a slipcase, cardboard or plastic. Like all previous Sony SACDs, it comes in a regular CD jewel case. The only identification of the disc being a SACD is the round silver/black sticker saying the disc is playable only on a SACD player. Since there was 3 copies of "52nd Street " like this (each with the SACD logo over the catalog number visible on the top edge of the jewel case), I guess this may be the new way to display the disc.

Wouldn't it be nice if this was happening at every store?
 
Soundboy,
Out of curiosity... Does the BB location where you've seen an increase in SACD/DVD-A also happen to be one of the few locations where they've added a Magnolia Hi-Fi mini store inside the Best Buy? I've read about these things, but I never been to one. I had read on a different forum where someone had posted an increase in selection and he had also mentioned the store included a Magnolia. I wonder if there is a connection?
 
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