... and it didnt go well!
Only a few turned up. The demo started with a short slide show on a sony screen on the main showroom floor. We stood around and the salesman explained bits and pieces.
Then we went through to one of their demo rooms - looks stylish with the glass walls and all, but having no door - just an entrance - with glass walls meant we got a whole lot of ambient noise from other customers, equipment being used and the outside.
The salesman played a recording from the.. er.. 60's I think remastered for SACD on a cute little sony sub-sat setup. Multichannel was nice I guess - novelty - and I was impressed with the little satellites - they gave much better sound than I would have suspected from them.
Then a guy requested hearing the same recording on an ordinary CD player, but the salesman didnt have any CD's available to play by that artist. Pressed for some sort of comparison by more bystanders, we walked through to the other listening room (same as the 1st one in design - they are back to back). This time he played a CD containing tracks recorded originally in..er.. 1950 something. It lacked hi-end by quite some (definately the recording) but I thought the 2-channel setups fullrange floorstanders did a better job on the overall than the sub/sat.
Gradually as this demonstration had been progressing, the number of people watching the demonstration dwindled until the salesman wondered off to find a SACD which could be compared to a standard CD. By the time he came back, there were just two of us in the listening room - my boss and I.
He seemed to reach the end of his teather, and was more open with us. We agreed that the CD he played sounded better on the 2-channel than a similar SACD played on the same 2-channel but on SACD mode. He explained then that Sony arent really pushing for the high fidelity, but more for the multi-channel qualities of SACD.
Seeming quite shaken by, what turned out was his first demonstration going a bit sour, he was open for feedback. He admitted that he didnt expect people to want to compare to normal CD, and had only planned to just do a little spoken intro and then play a SACD in the multichannel listening room. So between my boss and I, we just gave him the basic expectations from a consumer POV:
* compare to whats current (ie: justify the added expense)
* keep the 2-channel and multi-channel system the same if possible (dont switch rooms, speaker types, amp makes, etc)
* use full-range speakers for all channels if possible - no sub/sat combos.
* use something recorded specifically for SACD, not an oldie remastered.
* try have the similar CD available for comparison.
Theres not much he can do about the listening rooms - glass walls with a non-closeable opening... cant stop the noise from getting in.
I did ask him if Sony would be doing any DVD-A players, and as I suspected he replied that they are only doing SACD. Another limiting factor he admitted to was that SACD's are both expensive and rare in NZ. Thus even less worthwhile here than say.. in the US or some such place.
Oh well. He might try arrange another (and hopefully better) demonstration along our guidelines. He took my bosses details and said he would contact us when he can sort out a better listening setup and more accurate comparison.