Sony BDP-S185 and SACD Playback

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

You are correct the Sony BDP-S185 is the only Sony standalone Blu-ray player introduced in 2011 that does not play SACD’s. I looked through the manual and there is no mention of DSD output or SACD. But the specs for the Sony BDP-S185 under the “Audio Features” says “SA-CD:”. It should say “SA-CD: No” but it is confusing when it lists “SA-CD:”. All other Sony 2010 and 2011 Blu-ray players that offer SACD will say “SA-CD:Yes” in the specs.

If you return your BDP-S185 you can get the Sony BDP-S480 that offers DSD output with SACD support.

Sorry, it says Audio Features: SA-CD. If Sony meant to state that it doesn't have SA-CD, then either SA-CD should be removed entirely from the list or it should say "No". As far as I'm concerned, this is false advertising. I think EVERYONE who buys this player should hassle Sony over it. Make them take it back and pay shipping both ways or replace it with a player that has SA-CD even if you don't use it.

I've noticed for a long time that the technical specs listed on the Sony website are inconsistent and I've complained to Sony about it, but of course they didn't change anything. For a big "a-list" company, the web sites are poorly written and maintained. Sony needs to do better.

Their customer service sucks as well. I never even got a reply from my last email to them about a problem I'm having with my TV.

Now having said all that, Sony has a history of abandoning products that aren't successful for them. In the theatrical presentation business, Sony pushed their digital audio format, SDDS. However, in terms of theatres adopting the format, it came in #3 after Dolby and DTS. So one day, Sony decided to stop making any new models and soon after withdrew support for existing models. While most 35mm films still come with all three formats + a Dolby optical track ("quad format"), there aren't too many theatres left with the SDDS equipment, especially since many theatres are pulling out their 35mm projectors entirely and replacing them with digital projectors.

But having said that, SACD was a complete failure for Sony, so why should they include it in future players, especially low-end ones? Only a tiny percentage of users would ever use it and those who would are unlikely to buy a low-end player in the first place. So few audiophile format CDs are sold that the RIAA doesn't even bother to track them anymore.

J&R, the last large independent record store in NYC, lists about 131,000 products online. Out of those, they list 6400 vinyl LPs, yet they list only 108 SA-CDs, but only 59 of those are in stock. I can't tell how many are on Amazon because searching SACD brings back lots of false hits, but Music Direct, an SACD specialist, lists only about 600. For all practical purposes in the U.S., it's a DEAD FORMAT. I love my SA-CDs, but the market didn't. Time to get over it. BD Audio is probably a better format at this point anyway, not that that's going to be successful either.