Sales of DVD-Audio players greatly outpaced those of SACD players during the first three quarters of 2001, according to market research organisation NPD Intelect of Port Washington, N.Y.
Sales of DVD-Audio players reached 21,022, as against just 370 during the whole of 2000, an increase of 5,582%. Total dollar sales of DVD-Audio hardware reached $10,405,940, an increase of 3,237% over the year 2000 figure.
Analysts attribute the success of DVD-Audio to its backward compatibility with DVD-Video players and the availability of multi-channel software. Whilst the SACD catalogue remains almost twice the size of that of DVD-Audio, only a small number of SACD discs are multi-channel.