Hi, I have read a few great reviews of the newly released Multichannel SACD of Avalon.
I have been searching all over to buy this disc. Play did have it listed but out of stock. But now its not listed.

This is a European release so it is only listed as an import on US sites.

The only sites I can find it on are Amazon.co.uk and Vivante, £17 and £20. Hmm

None of the Online retailers seem to be taking SACD or DVDA seriously. By that I mean they dont stock, or if they do at daft prices.

Record companies havent really got behind this either.

Rog

[owenw]

Agreed Rog.

They other thing that gets my goat is that they never put audio previews for SACDs as they do with CD's. On Amazon I resort to looking to the CD editions put it's a bit of a pain.

I just ordered the Avalon SACD from amazon.co.uk seeing as it was in stock.

www.mvc.co.uk has a few SACD's ranging from £12.99 to £25.99 with new releases being about £16.99 (including Avalon sadly)

Have you found any websites with good SACD prices?

Owen

Owen the the sites I have used are play.com (great prices, quick delivery, limited SACD/DVDA)
DVDboxoffice.com (good choice, prices vary a lot, delivery is longer)

tower.co.uk (mostly imports from USA, not bad prices, about a week for delivery)
futureent.com (only DVDA)
ezydvd.com.au (only DVDA, but cheap because they are in Oz, about a week for delivery).

Let me know how long Amazon take and of course if the SACD is any good.


Cheers Rog

[owenw]

Nice one, thanks for the links Rog

Appologies for the typos in my last post (it was before a much needed coffee-fix!)

I'll let you know when it arrives (I ordered it on the 11th and it was despatched yesterday along with a few other bits and bobs)
and if it's worth buying.

Owen

[owenw]

Well that SACD arrived yesterday. I was a little annoyed because the back page of the cd inlay booklet was all crumpled. I also ordered Lord of the Rings (Extended Ed.) DVD and the cardboard packaging was in poor condition too
Is this normal for Amazon? I never bought DVD's / SACDs from them before?!

Anyway, onto the disc...
It's a hybrid SACD with a HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) 2-channel layer which plays on normal CD players, and the Multi-channel SACD layer.

They used the surround channels to place instuments around the listener instead of just adding ambience. They used quite a few panning effects as well.
Some people might find this "tampering with a classic "album unforgiveable!

The sound quality is very good as you'd expect fronm a DSD recording and the separation between instruments is apparent.

Owen

[OnTheFly]

You really should try www.dvdpacific.com The prices are great although it's best to order two items to help with the carriage. Delivery should take no longer than a week (7 days).

www.dvdboxoffice.com have a good choice but they cannot compete with the prices on the aformentioned site.

OnThe Fly,, are you sure Avalon SACD is $37.99 which is rather a lot IMO.

Rog

[owenw]

$23.48 if you're a member though which works out to £14.89 (according to the www.xe.com currency converter.)

Whats the postage usually cost, OnTheFly?

Owen

[michael orme]

I have a hifi mag, that says Roxy Music Avalon SACD, is taken from a DAT copy of the master tapes. This is not much better than CD.
Michael Orme. Rhyl. UK