What about the new higher resolution formats?

When DVD was first introduced, I believed that the market for dedicated CD players dry up as people simply replaced their CD players with DVDs. My first DVD player was a "top-of-the-line" model costing over $1,000.00. It sounded better than my older dedicated CD player. Many of the DVDs I purchased sounded simply fantastic. I bought a few DVDs that were audio only. These disks are quite impressive.

There are two new formats being introduced. There is DVDA (DVD audio) and SACD. When I first read about SACD, I thought that this was the idea format. SACD disks have both the 16-bit format and the higher format on a single disk. If you play an SACD disk on an older player, it will focus on a layer which is 16 bit encoded. If you put the disk in a SACD disk, it will focus on a different layer and resolve the 24 bit encoding.

The drawback with this format is that a DVD player can't figure out what type of disk it is. I believe that if Sony converted it entire catalog over to SACD and every disk they sold could be played on standard CD or SACD player, I believe this format would be very successful. As it is, only a small number of disks are currently available in SACD format. Sony and Marantz have shown stunning players for this format. These players are priced from $5000.00 to $7,500.00. The reviews I have read is that when playing SACD disks, these units sound simply fantastic. While these units are very good for playing standard compact disks, there are many lower priced units that do a better job.

The current generation of SACD players does not play DVD movies.

DVDA players are now available for as little as $700 with most new units costing $1000.00. I believe that this format will succeed simply because it is an added format added to the already very popular DVD format. DVDA units can play standard DVD movies as well as the new DVDA format. The DVDA disks will not play on existing DVD players.

My current opinion is that buying a DVDA unit is a no risk proposition. You can always play movies. You can build a collection of the new format for titles that you particularly like. The entry price is not that expensive.

The CD-1 is designed as a bridge product. We don't believe that any of these $1,000 or less DVDA units can compete with the sound of the CD-1. We believe that the CD-1 will improve the sound of all of your existing compact disks unless you already own a very high-end player. There is no question that the new formats offer the potential for better sound than the current 16-bit format. However, it is likely that you have a valuable collection of compact disks already and that you would like to get the absolute best performance you possibly can from these from a unit that is reasonably priced and designed to last many years.

I plan to buy a DVDA player to replace my Sony. I will probably buy some DVDA disks. The bulk of my collection of music is on CD and I will use my CD-1 to enjoy these disks for many years.

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