I have always liked the sound of DSD recordings and am often frustrated by the SACD “premium” demanded by Amazon (as well as the shipping charges they tack onto their vendors) and Acoustic Sounds. I spend a lot of time in the UK and find that many to most classical releases there are released on SACD and reasonably priced. The best mail order source I have found is <mdt.co.uk> which has a huge collection of classical music on all formats, very well priced (you don’t pay VAT when the US is selected for your country) and with excellent service. Strangely, even US SACD labels such as Reference Recordings are cheaper there than here - go figure. Anyway, if you are digging your DSMP and DSD and love classical music, check it out!
Mark, thank you for the recommendation. Those of us outside the UK just need to watch out for foreign transaction fees on credit cards, which can eat into the savings you mention.
To Pete’s question: many towns no longer have a record store. Some of us need to save even small amounts on purchases. If there is a store, I think it may be worth paying extra to support a local business – if they are helpful, friendly, knowledgeable, etc. If, when I go in, I am waited on by a kid who thinks it’s a great imposition to do a special order or doesn’t know how to order an obscure classical disc, I won’t be back.
I suppose I’m spoiled down here in Texas. We have plenty of stores, Cactus Music being my favorite, followed by Black Dog Records and Vinal (sic) Edge. In Cactus you stand a very good chance of being attended to by a “kid who thinks it’s a great imposition to do a special order”, but they do have some knowledgeable older staff for rock, blues, etc., whom I enjoy conversing with. And recently they bought quite a large classical CD collection that I keep dipping into but as yet haven’t found any SACDs only RB.
BUT, around the corner from Cactus is Joel’s Classical, a veritable emporium of classical goodies, with knowledgeable staff.
So, although I do purchase off the interweb I do feel duty bound to do my bit to keep these stores in business and try and encourage others to.
Off topic; what continues to amaze me is that in Houston (now the third largest conurbation in the country) we do not have an independent high end (or should I say outside of big box chains a higher end) equipment store. Absolutely confounds me. So much say I keep running it over in my mind as to how I could rectify this obvious error.
I have to drive 45 minutes to a record store. . . I do almost all my shopping for recordings online. I should stop. . . I have no space any longer for recordings!
BUT, around the corner from Cactus is Joel’s Classical, a veritable emporium of classical goodies, with knowledgeable staff.
Yes, you are spoiled. If I lived in that area I too would want to shop at such places to help keep them in business. Like lonson, though, I am out of room to store physical discs so downloads are now my preferred purchase. Then I went and bought a DMP and now look covetously at SACDs . . . .
