The comparisons with Super Audio CD and DVD Audio are 100% irrelevant. Critics who float that argument show they are unfamiliar with the product history of SACD and DVD-A.
Both SACD and DVD-A would have had a much better chance at success if either format had been given a steady supply of music titles that were both new and popular.
Those next-gen music formats have largely gone nowhere because the music titles themselves appealed to a very limited few people. You would get some Jazz or Classical albums. If you wanted some rock music or pop, you had to settle for re-masters of 30 year old recordings.
The typical music acts who are popular in rock, pop, r&b, hip-hop and rap genres have largely not bothered with recording their new studio albums in 5.1 surround and high resolution. Instead, most master their stuff down to 2-channel and do a terrible job at that (the waveforms are over-driven and clipped to hell). Recording quality is so over-modulated there's little wonder why people can't tell the difference between a horribly compressed MP3 or AAC file versus a LPCM 2 channel track off a CD. It all sounds harsh.
Blu-ray Disc and 1080p HD is an entirely different animal. Movie studios are starting to release their best product in that format.
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