Sony Corp. and Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands, responsible for the music CD format, are bringing their new and superior Super Audio CD players to stores next month with a 5-disc machine for $1,200. While CD technology uses a 44.1 Khz sampling frequency, SACD samples at 2.82 Mhz or 64 times that rate. There are other improvements in technology as well but it is not clear that SACD will succeed. Audio DVD, with a sampling frequency as high as 192 Khz, already has considerable inertia and is backed by numerous companies working with the format.

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