Super Audio CD
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| Media type | Optical disc |
|---|---|
| Encoding | Digital (DSD) |
| Capacity | 4.7 GiB/GB |
| Read mechanism | 650 nm laser |
| Developed by | Sony & Philips |
| Usage | Audio storage |
Super Audio CD (SACD) is a read-only optical disc for audio storage, introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics, and intended to be the successor to their Compact Disc (CD) format. While the SACD format can offer more channels (e.g. surround sound), and a longer playing time than CD, research published in 2007 found no significant difference in audio quality between SACD and standard CD at ordinary volume levels.
Having made little impact in the consumer audio market, by 2007 SACD was deemed to be a failure by the press. A small market for SACD has remained, serving the audiophile community.
The Super Audio CD format was introduced in 1999.Royal Philips and Crest Digital partnered in May 2002 to develop and install the first SACD hybrid disc production line in the USA, with a production capacity of 3 million discs per year. SACD did not achieve the same level of growth that Compact discs enjoyed in the 1980s, and was not accepted by the mainstream market.
By October 2009, record companies had published more than 6,000 SACD releases, slightly more than half of which were classical music. Jazz and popular music albums, mainly remastered previous releases, were the next two most numerous genres represented.
Many popular artists have released some or all of their back catalog on SACD. Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) sold over 800,000 copies by June 2004 in its SACD Surround Sound edition.The Who's rock opera Tommy (1969), and Roxy Music's Avalon (1982), were released on SACD to take advantage of the format's multi-channel capability. All three albums were remixed in 5.1 surround, and released as hybrid SACDs with a stereo mix on the standard CD layer.
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