[quote user="peteAllen"]Then again, is SACD worth it? How many SACDs do you have? Is it going to die out like HDCD?
Actually i have quite a few SACDs, not because I have a SACD player, but because I reckon the quality of the CD layer is better on it because of the higher accuracy required to make the dual layers. I've never tried to compare them with the vanilla cd versions tho.[/quote]
SACD is definitley worth it, one of the things that I never noticed until hearing an SACD/DVD-A is the amount of audio compression (not data compression, there should be a different term!) used on CD's, this is done to maximise the use of the format and avoid wasting accuracy because one part of the song is more quiet than another. This is completely unneccesary on SACD... so a properly mastered SACD will sound AWESOME next to a CD.. unfortunately not all SACD's are properly remastered in this way. For example the deluxe edition of the downard spiral by Nine inch Nails on SACD is remastered for 5.1 surround, but there isn't (listening in 2.0 mode) really any improvement in the sound quality. I suspect the main reason for that is the actual song being written and produced using 16 bit sampling so the most that could possibly be done is avoid potential cumalative errors when mixing down all the sounds samples into one - probably a negligable benefit.
The romeo and juliet sound soundtrack, however, in particular monagues and capulets.. absolutely awesome. When you listen to the loudest parts of the song loud enough to make you worry about neighbours banging on your door, the quietest parts sound like 'background music' volume level... and you can hear the levers on the oboe the dude is playing click in the auditorium or wherever it was recorded. It's not just that either though, when there is really loud stuff going on, you can still pick out the quiet parts - but that may be more virtuous of me upgrading my speakers and amplifier from my tannoy m3's and an 8000a to my current...