SACD compatibility? Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear friends:

SACD compatibility? Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought Szell's SACD with Mahler's Tenth, the only recording that also includes the 'Purgatorio' Movement in the old Krenek Edition of the Adagio+Purgatorio.

But after receiving it, I cannot play it in any CD player, only in SACD players.

I had the idea that SACD CDs were playable in normal CDs, at a lower 'resolution', wasn't it? But it seems to me that I was wrong, am I?

Thanks Juan I. Cahis Santiago de Chile (South America) Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

Some SACDs are indeed hybrid discs and are playable in normal CD players, but it seems that the one you bought is not a hybrid SACD...

Michael Lee

Perhaps he was playing it on a PC/Car cd drive and there's some sort of lame protection on the disk too? Protected disks don't have the CD logo on them...but doesn't the CD part of SACD kind of promise they are genuine red book disks...or does the SA part kind of tell you they aren't?

I sympathize with the industry's test mice.

Juan is kinda wrong. As he discovered, their are two kinds of sacds.The first is the type he bought and is ONLY playable in a SACD player. To my knowledge Sony is the only one still issuing disks in this format. Hybrid SACDs will play in any format. In an SACD player it will play SACD. In a regular CD player it will only play as a cd. It is my guess that this is the way the industry will go. When Universal Music starts releasing discs in SACD format the formatting wars are over. It is the old question of where does an 800 lb gorilla sit? Wherever it wabts,

lame protection on the disk part of SACD kind of

Most SACD's will play on a conventional CD player, but not Sony's.

-david gable

It is ironic that Sony, the co-inventor of the CD, is the only company to issue single-layer SACDs, thereby reducing the size of the potential market by perhaps 95%. I'll leave it to Matthew to supply the appropriate snort

Bob Harper

Sony has released a bunch of fine vintage Szell records on SACD (re- mastered of course) with original cover art and all. My own paranoia tells me that Sony has peculiarly refrained from releasing Szell records on any kind of normal quality CD series (the Heritage Schumann an exception) as they want folks to invest in their doomed SACD venture. A 15 disc Szell 'Original Jacket' box was due long before a Bernstein, Gould, or Horowitz Original Jacket box.

Great record, btw.

Since you say Szell, I would bet you bought a Sony SACD, and Sony steadfastly refuses to make hybrids.

Kal, the few SACDs I have are all hybrid. I have an SACD player, but not a 'multi-channel' system. Are the non-hybrid SACDs multi-channel only?