Which media will win the Audio Wars? SACD or DVD-Audio?

Answer 1

In my personal opinion, DVD-Audio. Why? Because DVD compliant players are everywhere as it is and SACD players are not. Besides, Sony has their death grip on the SACD format and its amount of sucessfulness will always be hampered by them as it was for MiniDisc. SACD will always have its own little cult following but I doubt they'll ever be able to declare a win over anything. I think now that HD-DVD and BluRay disc technologies are out now that a new audio recording format will emerge with an even higher sampling rate and even more disctinct audio tracks. Will we see any of these as commonplace as your standard CD's of today? I doubt it. The fact of the matter is, most people are perfectly happy with the quality of sound provided by CD's. The gains of these other formats are not great enough to convince your average Joe to go out and get special equipment to listen to these formats. It will always be for the true audiophile. Even DVD Audio where everyone has a player hasn't really caught on that much. Most people prefer the DVD to have video to go along with it so you get the superb sound quality and can see the artist in concert or what not, yet you don't even see these that much.