Have Sony lost it ? PS3 & SACD

When trying to convince people of the benefits and wonders of surround sound when it comes to music, I'm often told that it would be more accepted and embraced if people didn't have to go out and buy new hardware to play the damned discs, and I can do nothing but agree. True, you can buy a combined multi format player, like the Pioneer DV600 (I have a slightly older DV-575) which plays every CD/DVD format known to man except HD derivatives. I am sure that there are also HD capable players that do similar jobs too. But many people already have good DVD players and/or games consoles, so why buy another box ?

One solution is to get the software released in as many formats as possible. Releasing the material in regualr Dolby Digital and DTS is one way, with both of these formats being playable on regular DVD Video players but at lower qulaity levels than those used by DVD-A or SACD. This isn't a problem because to be perfectly honest, not many people would notice. This way, the hundreds of thousands of households that already have a home cinema system with 5.1 speaker configurations can experience surround sound music. Looking through my collection of surround sound albums, I can see only 2 that are exclusively SACD when it comes to multi channel. All the others include a DVD-V version as well as a a DVD-A or SACD version.

But ultimately, it's about getting a hardware user base installed, and Sony recently had the most ideal opportunity to do this with the release of the PlayStation3. Original models were capable of playing back not only PS3 games, DVD and regualr CD but also BluRay with the HD versions of Dolby Digital and DTS and SACD !!

With the obvious mass acceptance and buy in of the PS3, SACD looked to have finally got the opening it needed to gain a foothold.

But no.

Bizarrely, Sony released a range of "updated" PS3's, obviously in a bid to attract more sales and to justify the lower cost, they dropped certain features such as PS2 compatibility and, amazingly, SACD support ! How dropping SACD support saved money I'll never know, but what were Sony thinking ??? Being one of the SACD partners (Philips being the other), surely they stood to benefit from the increase in SACD sales that surely would've come from the PS3 user base ? With over 10.5 million units sold, that's a massive potential market. Many of those 10.5 million will have hooked their PS3's up to their surround sound set ups and been able to benefit from the SACD system.

I find it quite incredulous that Sony dropped the ball on this one. One hopes that they will re-introduce it to newer variants, but I'm not holding my breath.

For more info on PS3 and SACD, visit PS3SACD.COM

An interesting article that shares me sentiment can be found HERE