As your old record and cassette collections gather dust, a new listening format revolution is quietly under way that could replace your shiny, new compact discs. Two new disc formats have emerged: super-audio compact disc (SACD) and DVD-Audio. Both promise a superior listening experience over regular CDs, with music remixed in higher-resolution digital audio.
Last year, compact disc (CD) sales plunged 10 percent and the recording industry struggled to find ways to make people pay for music online. Meanwhile, the recording industry is hoping to lure consumers with new discs richer in sound quality than the 20-year-old CD format..
The two formats have been available for several years -- typically on specialty racks at large record stores -- at much higher prices than CDs. They were sought after mostly by hard-core audiophiles.
The recording industry now sells SACD and DVD-Audio at prices comparable to CDs. But like the VHS and Beta video formats, consumers need to guess which technology will ultimately prevail.
Asahi Kasei Microsystems (AKM) Semiconductor Inc., a San Jose maker of audio chips, has seen its SACD and DVD-Audio chip sales double in the past year, says Tony Rodrigues, manager of corporate development. He declined to provide monetary figures.
Best Buy Co. Inc. is adding an SACD and DVD-Audio section in its stores' music departments. By May, the retailer expects to have the sections in all 551 stores nationwide, says spokeswoman Donna Beadle.
"Our demographic is early-adopters É and this is the type of thing they're looking for," she says.
Hardware makers also are lowering prices for SACD and DVD-Audio players, which are available from roughly $250.
The two formats are being aggressively pushed into the mainstream and both are jostling for dominant acceptance.
In the SACD camp are co-inventors of the original CD, Sony Corp. and Royal Philips Electronics N.V., which also make SACD players. Most SACDs available today are hybrid CD-SACDs, meaning they also can be played on regular CD players. However, the sound will only be CD-quality unless the SACDs are played on a SACD player.
DVD-Audio was introduced by Panasonic, Toshiba and other patent holders in the DVD Forum, an international association of hardware and software makers of digital versatile discs. DVD-Audio also can be played in regular DVD players, but you need a DVD-Audio-capable player to take advantage the high-resolution sound.
Panasonic spokeswoman Martha Whiteley says DVD-Audio has multimedia advantages over SACD. That is, users can view content, including band information, lyrics and performances, on their television.
While the SACD platform supports multimedia content, no SACDs currently include video or on-screen graphics.
Independent experts agree both formats are secure and can't be easily pirated. They also say the two formats offer better sound quality than CD, but that the quality of SACD and DVD-Audio is comparable.
"In the vast majority of cases, it is unlikely that anyone would be able to differentiate between one format and the other," says Stuart Robinson, publisher and editor of High Fidelity Review, referring to SACD and DVD-Audio formats. "However, this doesn't prevent anecdotal, unscientific listeners claiming one is superior to the other."
It depends on who you talk to as to which format will likely win mass adoption.
"As we saw with the Beta/VHS wars, the superior technology doesn't always win," muses AKM's Rodrigues.
However, Rodrigues believes both formats may withstand the test of time as part of a universal stereo player, which is capable of playing any disc format. Most people, however, are yet to hear either format.
Last year in the United States, about 300,000 DVD-Audio discs were sold, nearly triple the number sold in 2001, but far fewer than the 650 million CDs sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
It is more difficult to estimate SACD sales, because SoundScan doesn't yet count them separately from CDs. Industry insiders say more than 1 million SACDs were sold in 2002, largely because of Abkco Record's release of 22 remixed Rolling Stones albums on hybrid SACD in August. And last month, EMI's Capitol label reissued Pink Floyd's popular "Dark Side of the Moon" on SACD.
"SACD is winning at the moment, thanks largely to a number of high-profile releases and a finely honed publicity machine," Robinson says.
The San Francisco Symphony recently received the first Grammy Award for a SACD-format disc, for their performance of a Gustav Mahler symphony.
"As an independent label, we cannot afford to compete on price [for CDs], so it was a strategic decision to come out with the 'coffee table' [SACD] version of a recording," says Stephen Basili, manager of the Mahler SACD project.
However, Warner Music Group, which has released 80 DVD-Audio titles since late 2000, will focus on accelerating its DVD-Audio catalog this year, says spokeswoman Susan Mazo.
She is optimistic the format will be a success, because of the large installed base of DVD players in homes today.
Robinson believes customers have grown accustomed to a "packaged" multi-media experience with video and optional extras now the norm with DVDs, which may help DVD-Audio acceptance. And, he adds, the introduction of hybrid DVD-Audio, expected this summer, will allow DVD-Audio discs to be played on CD players, which should increase their popularity.
AKM's Rodrigues says the hybrid DVD-Audio will "put a spike in the SACD story." The higher cost of SACD electronic components may also be a barrier, he adds.
While the future of the next-generation listening is cloudy, one thing is certain: Ultimately it's the quality of the recorded material, rather than the format, that determines what sounds best.
"Both formats have potential for greatness, but neither can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," Robinson says.
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