Which does anybody think is going to become the new standard (if either)? I do think it a little odd that record labels are worried about people downloading music. The reason for this is evidently one of money over quality, and yet they bring out Dark Side of the Moon in a £23 - £30 pound release on SACD. I haven't heard of much high profile release in the DVD-A format, although I seem to remember perhaps Close to the Edge being done. Anyway I'm not shelling out, particularly at the exorbitant prices, until one of the formats gives way to the other, assuming it does. From what I remember of the specs there wasn't all that much to choose, I think they were both in 5.1 although I forget the bit depths and sampling rates.

DVD-A should, because SACD uses a proprietary compression format. DVD-A requires no compression, and therefore is more accurate (note that accurate doesn't necessarily mean better sounding!). I think companies are sitting on the format for a while as they are still selling lots of CDs which are cheaper to produce than DVD-A, which is also why there aren't too many SA-CDs around. Due to the higher capacity of DVD-A, there is also better scope for elaborate copy-protect mechanisms, so I think that the companies will try to make these harder to crack as well.

As long as CDs remain at the outrageous profit-margins they currently return, there is no incentive to release a more expensive product to consumers that are already unhappy with the level of pricing and turning to cheaper formats (e.g. mp3). Most consumers are also unaware of the relatively low quality of CD compared to other formats - many people can't tell the difference between CD and mp3 at a reasonable bitrate. That's normally due to the poor quality of their playback equipment and ears that have learned to settle for less than second-rate.

Prog, to my ears, demands high quality equipment as well as source to get the best out of it

I'm happy for them to use as much copy protection as they want, as long as it pushes down the price of them. And presumably they'll have to lower it soon enough.

Anyway thanks for the information

You don't think that all the R&D into copy protection comes for free, do you?

Call me paranoid if you like, but I think that if they ever discover a way to completely prevent copying, then prices WILL go up - and significantly. If you can't get a copy from someone, the incentive to buy increases disporportionately.

However, as long as they stick to Windoze copy protection, I'll be happy ripping, I mean, making legal backups of my music whenever I like with Linux

There is a lengthy article on CD vs DVD-A vs SACD here:

http://sound.westhost.com/cd-sacd-dvda.htm - http://sound.westhost.com/cd-sacd-dvda.htm

If you manage to plough through it all, you'll see at the end:

"Anyway, in the practical life, it seems like DVD-A wins over SACD at all frequencies, cleaner sound, lower noise, and a completely stable system, free from potential noise shaping algorithmic oscillations."

and, interestngly:

"If we look at the players you can buy today, then the resolution is about 15-30 times lower than the full potential of DVD-Audio. That means 8-16 times better than the CD-system. A big improvement, but still a lot more is possible."

The US price differential between DVD-Audio and CD is not as large as I expected. Amazon, for example, lists the Audio CD of "Brain Salad Surgery" at $10.99 and the DVD-Audio version at $14.99.

That is surprising, that DVD-A only slightly more than the UK Audio CD price, I think!

Yes it is surprising, particularly as the HMV Megastore in Oxford Street, London, is this very day selling the very same Rhino Records DVD-Audio of "Brain Salad Surgery" for GBP 20.99 (US$ 37.72). That's a heck of a difference!