stereoman said:
The difference in ambient ( I mean in 2 channel set up not only dolby ) ,dynamics and clarity is huge. Some people claim this is only due to better mastering. But SACD have a different sampling rate and technical data I believe.
I've had a number of SACDs, and while some of the discs were very good, it was mainly because they were remastered.
In my experience the difference isn't that great. Perhaps better ambient details. A little better on the highs and lows, but probably not actually enough to pick up consistently in a blind test. Have you compared the same tracks in CD quality, or are you just impressed with how good the SACD you bought sounds? If it's the latter a lot of it is down to the quality of the recording and the mastering.
There's some interesting (or not so interesting) tests one can do to see how much of an effect the sampling rate has for hi resolution files, although arguably a bit harder to do with SACD or files in the SACD format/DSD rather than the more standard PCM.
Why it never took off? The improvements are minimal at best. The manufacturers got greedy, and tried to make it a premium thing rather than making it standard on every player. More greediness by trying to make music fans buy all their music again at a higher price. But ultimately, if the differences were really as big as claimed it would have sold itself, much like the switch to higher resolution TVs.