The Secret Life of Super Audio Compact Discs (SACDs)

Once lauded as a beacon of the future for physical music, Super Audio Compact Discs — also known as SACDs — offer improved sound quality when compared to their non-super counterparts. First released in 1999, SACDs were a major the revolutionary CD that was introduced 16 years before.

I like the format… it has the most beautiful, calm tendency compared to CD and even vinyl.

treehill, Discogs

The SACD’s tangible improvements over the original CD format include better audio encoding, a higher sampling frequency, and up to 30 minutes more play time. The newer format also boasts six audio channels, compared to just two audio channels on the original CD — for a more comprehensive soundstage.

Early Days of Super Audio CDs

Like all fledgling formats, the SACD’s first few years were awkward. The first SACD player, the Sony SCD-1, weighed 57 pounds and cost roughly $5,000 USD in 1999. To add salt to the wound, SACDs couldn’t be played on a PC or Mac without a special program. Today, hybrid SACDs can be played in a wide variety of listening setups, albeit with fewer of the playback benefits of the format.

Downsides of Super Audio CDs

You could argue that SACDs simply weren’t worth the hassle for the average listener. A 2007 study found that most casual listeners could not discern a difference between CDs and SACDs in a blind test.

Consumers soon flocked toward the cheap, convenient, and low-quality MP3 format and the SACD failed to find lasting commercial success in the dawn of the digital music revolution. Super Audio CDs are read-only, so they couldn’t be used to make mixtapes.

The classical SACD re-releases of the 1950s RCA Living Stereo series brought my wife to tears from emotion… It is an amazing format that can have a terrific market for those who appreciate great audio.

jkaiserling, Discogs

They also have copy protection, which makes it harder to share music with friends. Sony and Philips, the SACD’s developers, misjudged common consumers’ priorities — they weren’t craving better-sounding playback, but wanted convenience and affordability instead.

Finding Success in a Niche

Despite the SACD’s shortcomings, audiophiles and recording engineers appreciated the format’s technical upgrades. The benefit of more audio channels, when used correctly, is clear — and for this reason, there are many highly-prized and sought after SACDs, even more than a decade after the format’s short-lived peak. However, the SACD format largely found success within a niche: Vienna Philharmonic.

Looking at the distribution of SACD releases in the database, we can see their higher numbers in the classical genre. This is also evident when looking at SACDs tagged with a style as 10 of the top 25 styles are associated with classical music.

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