Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. -Ronald Raegan

www.howobamagotelected.com

Could this be destined for the same fate as the SACD? Sony promised that to be the next generation of the CD, but as you can see, it never happened. These days, more people are looking for the convenience of the download, and are happy to accept lesser quality. So it's possible this new format is doomed to failure before it even gets off the ground.

Susanne,

You mentioned you are skeptical of any improvements in sound. There is quite a bit of room for improvement over a CD. The transfer rate and bit rate are completely different, that's why SACD's sound so much better. I don't think the technology will replace cd, that's for sure, for for purists, it will make an opera or classical piece sound exactly the same as the original master tape bit-for-bit. If I were given the choice of buying a new release on one of these new discs and a CD, I would buy the blu-ray version because it deuplicates exactly the studio's masters. CD was a huge improvement over album, but it was not the ultimate. For rock and roll and other pop formats, the differences could be minimal, I don't know. But in my collection of over 125 SACD's, 20 of which I also own the (remastered) CD, there is such a huge difference in sound that it's amazing. Whether the mainstream consumer cares is another issue, because many people are very happy with VERY compressed MP3's, but I think people serious about their music with a good home sound system would be very intrigued by the new format.