John Smyth asks:

>I heard SACD for the first time today: MTT's Mahler 3rd in 2 channel
>sound on a modestly-priced player and system.  I have to use the hackneyed
>phrase: it sounded as though a veil was lifted.  It made me want to throw
>my CD collection away, and this, after committing my emotions to a $3000
>CD player.
>
>To all you CM industry insiders out there: Is SACD inevitable?  Can I
>expect to be able to match my present collection's depth before I'm 80
>and my ears have eroded to 16-bit in the meantime?

Unless the price of a player drops significantly, I don't see it
taking off.  The classical-music market is mostly content- rather than
technology-driven.  Stereo was a marked improvement (AND it didn't make
your mono LP collection garbage) and prices dropped.  Compact discs were
sold with the pitch of "cleaner" sound (also more sterile sound, but
that's nit-picking), more music per disc, and longer shelf life.  It
seems to me SACD has a small niche of a small-niche market.

Steve Schwartz