Kratingdaeng
If you enjoy energy drinks, you are likely familiar with Red Bull. The image above is not the modern Red Bull we know today, but was first known as Kratingdaeng. Kratindaeng is originally from Thailand - the actual Red Bull drink we know today, was created by Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz.
What does any of that have to do with the Super Audio CD? Nothing. I'm just enjoying a Red Bull Zero as I write this first blog post. It makes me wonder, though - is there a connection to be had between Kratingdaeng and Super Audio CD? Maybe.
After countless hours of forum browsing, with some participation here and there, the noise becomes static. The static, becomes but a memory. The substance I am after simply is not there on forums specifically. Yes, there are gold nuggets of information, valuable as are a number of contributions made on said forums. But, I'm looking for my Kratingdaeng.
Dedicating an entire blog to niche audio formats isn't exactly unheard of. Long running blogs like Archimago's Musings and magicvinyldigital have inspired me to keep on keeping on. In-depth technical analysis, without the banter and agendas of forums, or even user comments, feels like a Sang Som bucket for the soul. While technical analysis skills are valuable in their own right, I can't help but wonder - what about a more holistic approach? I do not mean strictly subjective impressions, but a balanced approach to discussing a format that is often overshadowed by technical caveats, limitations, frustrations, expenses, among many other things. For all the discussion about the merit of the DSD format, there's equally as much value to be found in what we don't often think about.
Take, for example, the banner image and favicon on this site. Would you believe me if I said they were from Sony itself, tucked away in obscurity on their SACD section of Sony Music Japan? Yes, 26+ years later, the SACD web pages from 2000/2001 are still up and running. Here's one of them - the Jazz section. I made sure to save a few entries in the Wayback Machine, just in case. To think, back in 2000, these sites could have needed full minutes to load each single page...
Rewind to the year 2003. Somewhere, a child is purchasing their first album from a record store; it's Linkin Park - Meteora. Somewhere else, an audiophile is picking up the latest Super Audio CD (SA-CD) from a hidden corner in Circuit City, Best Buy, or another retailer that may (or may not knowingly) happen to carry the format. Arguably, 2003 was the peak of the SA-CD's short original run, from 1999 to approximately 2005. How I see it - the Super Audio CD, then, is not a technical exercise, but a window into a period of time where consumption of music as a medium was changing yet again, and there was a last-ditch effort to keep CD as a premium offering in the ever-competitive marketplace.
Much like Kratingdaeng, I wonder if most people in the Western Hemisphere even know about the Super Audio CD. It has lived on as a niche format, yes, but so has Kratingdaeng, being primarily sold in Southeast Asia. I'd bet more people know what Red Bull and CDs are. So, why have Kratingdaeng when you can have Red Bull? Because, how can you have Red Bull without Kratingdaeng? While CD and SACD are different formats, both hold a special place in my heart. Super Audio CD was a commercial failure, but that commercial failure is the appeal. It's what it did not do, and the period of time it lived in, that keeps me invested, after all this time.
Surely, there is still more to discover.