As I understand it (and I may well understand it incorrectly), there is only one SACD production 
line left, at a Sony plant in Japan. Somebody reported, maybe on this list, that Sony took out SACD 
manufacturing capability from Indiana a couple of years ago.

Question, Eric -- do the Japanese like SACD multi-channel or 2-channel?

One of my opinions about why SACD flopped is that Sony took their eye off a superior 2-channel 
product and then the multi-channel stuff was so inconsistent and then there are decades of proof 
that mass numbers of consumers won't do multi-channel. They should have left multi-channel to the 
DVD world and stuck with a superior 2-channel product, working with manufacturers to get player 
costs down quickly, like they did with CD's. I think the whole cause of higher-rez digital suffered 
because there wasn't a big enough market for SACD and DVD to have a format war, and hybrid SACD's 
weren't ready for 2 years. If they had come out with SACD as superior 2-channel and line-priced it 
with CD until the hybrid discs came out, I bet they'd have had better uptake in the marketplace, 
which would have meant SACD/CD players would have evolved faster and cheaper, which would have 
propelled the virtuous circle of greater uptake.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Nagamine" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 4:42 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Mercury 51-CD box set now officially set for USA and Europe markets


> Gray, Mike wrote:
>> SACD is still alive in Japan - cf. Exton (really a vanity label, but
>> still releasing every month) and EMI-Japan's 50 SACD's from their
>> deep analog catalog.
>>
>>
>> Mike Gray
>
> EMI Japan has another 50 SACD titles due out by March.  Universal Japan is
> issuing single layer SACDs and Esoteric/Teac is issuing some EMI and
> Universal licensed materials on SACD. EMI also has bunch of Furtwangler &
> Casals mono SACDs issued.
>
> -----------
> Aloha and Mahalo,
>
> Eric Nagamine
>