What happened to Blu-ray Audio?

In 2013, I saw the Muscle Shoals doc in the theater. Visually, nothing to write home about.
A few weeks later, PBS broadcasts it, with to my eyes, a slight improvement.
When I put the Blu-ray into my Oppo, and sat back, I sat forward again quickly. The PQ, and SQ were a 200% improvement !?!?!?
As long as I have a working player, I'll be happy. Same logic I can apply to my small VHS collection.
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I know. I just couldn‘t help notice that everything that was ever released on a HiRes format appears to available for free download as well.

I have never downloaded one of them and I never bought a file from a label as well. At this point, I doubt that I ever will.

SACDs have proven to offer a pretty decent resale value, with digital downloads there is a no resale value at all. People either buy them from the label or they steal them, no chance for a second hand market. And seeing how expensive the official downloads are, that is a problem for me.

 

I've really taken to enjoy buying downloads. I can get exactly what I want, and usually it's quick and easy. I can browse the sites for things that are exciting to me and then buy what I want to hear right now. The classical downloads (which is mostly what I get) are about $20, and $20 a week on music is quite reasonable. I keep a few copies just in case.

 

The only blu-ray audio disc I own is Rolling Stones Grrr! Before that I owned Queen A Night At The Opera which sounded horrible, brick walled mess compared to my DVD-Audio version

 

Ok, I bought the Led Zeppelin release just I thought it was a better deal to get the Blu-Ray over a lossy DVD, a bunch of CDs I all ready have and a book I will look at once along with my vinyl set.

That being said I now own my 2nd BR-A album. The first was the one in the Wish You Were Here Immersion Box. I still think BR-A is dead considering there have only been two discs worth getting with 6 years between purchases. I wish they had just released a SACD instead. The tech isn't completely dead. 4K will keep BR alive. The death blow will be when cable companies reverse the trend to put limits on monthly downloaded content.

 

Considering tens of thousands of units of Led Zeppelin HTWWW BR-A were shipped last week, the format is far from dead but I suspect it will linger for years the way DVD-A did as a niche format. Yes released DVD-A (along with counter part BR-A) in the last couple of years so even that (DVD-A) format isn’t completely dead. Like SACD it refused to die but DVD-A is on life support. I love all three formats and buy them when at all possible.

 

No offense but you are so wrong in your opinion that there "have only been two discs worth getting with 6 years between purchases" on Blu-ray Audio. I've bought numerous Blu-ray Audio discs over the years and many of them are outstanding.

HRAudio.net - Bill Mac's Library

 

Wrong, 4K wont keep bluray alive but computers will. I master my own 24bit audio to 50GB bluray discs, i gotta tell ya, its an outstanding format when done right, the beauty of mastering your own music is you are not part of the loudness wars and can take full advantage of 24bit's dynamic range. I also use bluray to backup my computer so no, bluray is not dead far from it.

 

No one under 30 owns a computer unless its for work or college. Or they got used to having one in college. Computers have been replaced by phones/tablets for the masses.

What will keep Blu-Ray alive is a niche crowd.... for a while anyway.

 

Diy computers is one of the biggest sectors in electronics today, hardly anyone goes out and buys a machine anymore they just build their own, its a massive industry that changes every month, and everyone i know who has built one has fitted a bluray recorder, simply because theyre £150 cheaper and do 10x more.

 

Blu-ray audio will hang around as long as the major music labels continue to include hi-rez options in their pricey box sets. The major labels have no intention of issuing SACDs and DVD-A anymore if they can help it.

 

Same here. There are no guarantees for a ‚great‘ sound in any format, artist, or label, but I have a good number of BR-As, all purchased in the last few years, and they all sound great.
Unless you need to buy them on the release date, I find it fairly easy to avoid the stinkers these days.

 

Correct! too many people are quick to blame the format, its not the formats fault its the bloody content, music today has gone to ****, so have mastering practices, thats why i do my own. bluray is one of the most capable physical formats alive. Bluray unlike CD has a scientific lifespan of 60 years+ and holds 4.5 times the audio quality of vinyl

While i love that hands on approach of recording cassette tapes as well, some think they sound better than cd on a nak dragon which is so wrong its cringe worthy. tape is very non linear media and very finicky to say the least.

 

I have CDs 30+ years old that are fine. And I 100% expect them to work just as well as they do today in another 30 years, since they are being stored properly. I'm not sure what you mean by scientific lifespan, but I highly doubt I'm going to wake up one day and my properly stored CD, LP, (or blu ray disc for that matter) will just not work.

 

Yup. Got some first editions from the early/mid 1980s that play just fine and without a hitch. Heck, if gramophone records will play 100 years on....

 

+1

I have not had single instance of a CD which failed. Some I’ve had for 35 years. Store them properly and they’ll last a lifetime.

 

Only two BD-A discs worth getting in the 6 yrs between purchases? No offense, but I think that’s more of a comment on you than on BD-A’s viability.

 

I picked up Roger Waters' Amused to Death BR Audio yesterday. Had 30 minutes give or take to play w/ it. Sound is amazing. (basically the team behind Toy Matinee - minus the great Kevin Gilbert) The 5.1 is huge as expected from a Waters disc, but I think I may prefer the 2-channel, and that's rarely the case w/ me. I'm a huge surround guy.

I need to spend more time with it to find a preference, but hearing Jeff Beck's guitar roar in that mystic 5.1 environment is so cool.

A lot of obvious care that went into the presentation. In the menu there's a system setup guide, even telling the listener what to listen for. Another cool thing is how it's authored; I find most DVD-As & BR Audio discs annoying in that there's always a menu on display during playback. Nothing more distracting listening to music staring at big static images, or lyrics. (of course you can turn off your monitor, but that can cause temporary HDMI handshake issues, or navigation problems) So this disc when a new track comes on, the track title is displayed very briefly before fading to black. Nice touch!

 

I have about 30 BR-A titles in my collection and more on my wish list.

 

Is there even a plain two-channel mix of "Amused to Death"? The original CD was mixed in QSound, which was QS quadraphonic rehashed and remarketed as "3D stereo".

 

Yes. The SACD and BR-A both have 2 channel stereo mixes IIRC.

 

Not sure. (if you don't consider q-sound 'true stereo'.) It does have a hi-res 2-channel, but yes, it's 'Q-Sound, which I love. Always have.

 

The Amused To Death Blu-ray/SACD has an excellent 5.1 mix that really shines when the volume is cranked.

Looking at your profile it shows you have a Oppo 83. If so use the Pure Audio button on your remote to mute the video signal so your display will go dark. It also totally dims the front display. It is one of the functions on my Oppo players that gets the most use. If you want to see the on screen display or the players display just hit the Pure Audio button then when you're done viewing the display hit the button again and everything's dark again.

 

I have integrated my Cambridge Multiplayer in a two-way stereo system, with no monitor at all. When playing CDs or SACDs, the Pure Audio button simply turns the display off. When playing BR-A turning off the video channel also brings a audible improvement in sound quality, most evident with 192/24 recordings. Of course, that may well be voodoo, but I‘m using it all the time nevertheless.

 

I use the pure audio feature in my CA 752BR for all formats too. The exception was Led Zeppelin HTWWW BR-A, the onscreen pictures really added to my listing experience, although next time - out go the lights! The BR is a substantial improvement over the 2003 DVD-Audio. One of the best BR-A releases to date.