Buy my CDs, vinyl and cassettes via my Discogs store: https://www.discogs.com/seller/foreveranalogtn/profile

It doesn't matter the media. A good mastering will always make the difference.

If you're listening to 5.1 channel recordings, the downmix to 2-channel stereo will always sound different than a pure stereo recording. The SACD player may also be encoding the 2-channel output with Dolby Pro Logic surround sound, which does tend to exaggerate the background vocals and instruments when heard through normal stereo playback. (That was my experience with listening to 5.1 channel DVD Audio discs through a 2-channel system.) A true comparison would need to be between a strictly 2-channel SACD layer and the normal CD layer.

In my youth I would go mad for equipment and media to get the best quality, but in my aging years, I truly can't tell the difference. I also changed my listening / viewing habbits and actually started to listen to the music / watch the film. You can get carried away looking at blurred pixels, colour graduation, eyes pressed up against the TV screen looking for jitter when I should have been looking at romantic kiss on screen. Kind of like "you can't see the woods for the trees."

I am a big fan of SACD and have a setup to extract the unencrypted DSD stream that I output into an IS2 input on my PS Audio external DAC.  The sound is amazing and there’s no contest between the SACD layer and the CD layer although playing the CD through a high quality external DAC improves that sound of that layer as well.  There are lots of YouTube videos on how to do this, but I will admit it’s a bit more of a DIY project than some people will want to deal with. You can also just buy a PS Audio SACD player and DAC as PS Audio has permission from Sony to do this.  But the cost for their player and DAC new is about $16,000 so not cheap but probably the best sounding method.  There may be a couple of other expansive players that can do this as well but I’m most familiar with the PS Audio equipment.

For my current setup I’m using a used OPPO 103 universal player that I purchased for a bit less than 200 bucks. I also have an OPPO 105 player that is an audiophile version and has a high-end built-in DAC and plays SACDs nicely but costs about $1000 used.  I’ve had the 105 for many years and SACDs played in it definitely sound better than CDs, but not nearly as great as when you output the pure DSD layer to a high-quality external DAC.  The first DAC I got was a used PS Audio Perfectwave Directstream DAC MKI.  They can be had for between $1,600 and $2,000 and will also make your CDs sound much better. But in order to stream out the pure DSD layer you need to buy either a little converter box that cost $50 - $100 or a special card for the OPPO 103.  It’s sold by OPPOMod for about $220. The converter box is a bit more versatile because you can use it with many more players than the OPPOMod card that is only for the OPPO 93, 103 and 203 models. I like the card because it’s a cleaner setup.  I cut a hole in the back of my 103 and permanently mounted the card so you just have one HDMI cable coming out as I2S and going to the PS Audio DAC.  The converter box requires HDMI in and out and can be a little bit quirky.  For example, it works with my Pioneer Blu-ray player, but it will only work with an HDMI cable coming out of the converter HDMI out and going into a monitor. But the converter box works with my OPPO 105 too. I have two stereo setups, and I have the newer more expensive PS Audio Perfectwave Directstream DAC MKII in the main listening room with the OPPO103 and OPPOMod card.  The sound in there with SACD is as good as my best audiophile vinyl and definitely better than the CD layer. I use the OPPO 105 with the converter box and the older MKI DAC in the “family room” system.

So, I think you have to do a bit more work in order to get a fair comparison between SACD and CD sound quality.  I also love that I can use my SACD hybrid discs in my car CD player where CD quality is just fine.

I originally purchased a Denon DVD-2900 as a "Universal" player. It allowed internal decoding and output of CD, HDCD, DVD, DVD-Audio, and SACD discs via RCA outputs. You could use stereo or multi-channel outputs depending on your setup. It was very similar to your vintage SACD player, but higher-end DACs built in that would do excellent decoding of all formats. The difficulty with it was that you had to set up appropriate channel levels and speaker distances to get proper surround effect in 5.1. It was a laborious process that sounded very good if you had the understanding of the setup process. But most people didn't obsess enough about it to get it right.

Today, I use the same Sony Blu-ray player that you have with HDMI output to my Onkyo TX-RZ50 that uses pre-outs to Lexicon amplification. It has all been calibrated with DIRAC Live room correction, and the speakers were positioned as carefully as possible without interfering with the room layout. And honestly, it sounds MUCH better than the output I got from the DVD-2900 since the room correction has come so far in terms of speaker time delays, phase, levels, etc. It just sounds like seamless sound that is detailed, but blends between the speakers without it sounding like something's a little off.

What I find with the SACD and DVD-Audio tracks, is that the sound is smoother, and more lifelike. Without some of the harsher edges that you can sometimes get from a CD or streaming. And, it doesn’t suffer from the clicks, pops, or hiss from other analog sources. However, like you mentioned, it does take some planning to do it properly, and vintage gear will not work well with it unless you have an older player with analog outputs. That, combined with the problem of pricing and the lack of a broad offering of titles makes it very much a niche market with vintage recordings that were analog recordings to begin with. There is little, if any, new content that I can think of being offered in these formats. Trent Reznor and Peter Gabriel were some of the most recent recordings that I know of who mastered in these formats.

Finally, the "best" comparison I was able to make of a single album was Norah Jones' Come Away With Me. I was able to get it on CD, a separate hybrid SACD, and a 180g vinyl copy. I think my vinyl copy must have been mastered poorly because it distorts on loud transients with her voice. The CD sounded better, and the SACD was the smoothest and most lifelike. All played back using the stereo 2-channel mix.

Absolutely love my SACD's. I use a Yamaha CD-S2100 SACD player connected via balanced XLR to my Yamaha A-S2100 stereo amp. Sound has so much more detail than from the CD layer of a Hybrid disc.

Let's not forget DVD AUDIO. I was stunned when I heard the disc of "Harvest by Neil Young." It really sounded like I was listening to the original Master Tape. It was that good!

I have an OPPO player and another separate SONY player that will play SACDs and DVD-AUDIO. Full disclosure, I'm a total fan that LOVES the format, and really enjoy  them both. One important lesson to know is that not all SACDs playback in Surround Sound. I have a Denon AVR with HDMI connections, and when playing back SACDs and DVD-AUDIO discs that are in 5.1 playback, it is truly a glorious thing! Luckily, I'm a Classic Rock guy, so there is a decent selection of discs available.

Some people here are confusing/equting surround remixes with 'SACD' and are all enthusiastic about 'SACD' sounding so great  because a surround mix on it sounds great compared to the stereo version they are used to. But the difference between a surround version and the stereo version has nothing to do with SACD/DSD.   It doesn't tell you anything about whether SACD/DSD 'sounds better' than CD.   Surround mixes can be presented on SACD, DVD-A, DualDisc, BluRays, DVD, even CD (DTS-CD).

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To be honest, I never seriously considered investing in SACD. For decades, my regular Marantz CD  player gave me audio satisfaction enough. However when I bought a large OLED screen for my film collection, another mandatory investment was needed; a proper 4K UHD player. After checking the reviews I decided for a Sony UHD player which happened to be also a multi format player, capable of spinning SACD audio BluRay , red book etc... By adding two additional Bose speakers and a Kef central speaker coupled to my receiver and celestial speakers, I now owned a decent 5.1 Dolby playback system to enjoy my 4K films such as Blade Runner, Apocalypse Now, Dunkirk, Interstellar, 2001,...in full glory.  Next came a couple of multi channel audio discs in either SACD hybrid or Blu-ray audio format which I just wanted badly. The Nightly, Bitches Brew, Avalon, Wish You were here, White Album. Wow,  this openend new horizons!!! Even for my ageing 60 + year old ears. On my path I also upgraded a dozen or so (mainly SACD Jazz) albums. Several didn't bring a substantial difference to these ears,. Several SACDs turned out to  be downright  disappointing. My advice, if you are both a film fanatic and want to enjoy a good home cinema experience and music addict, take the plunge! Get a multi format player and even a very modest home theatre set up will bring new life into your expanding film and music collection.

I got into high end audio at about the same time SACDs and DVD-audio's came out.  The difference is dramatic and I'm really sorry the formats weren't supported more than they were.  I currently own about a thousand CD's and none of them come close to the sound of my higher resolution formats.   The CD's for the most part sound thin and "tinney" compared to the SACDs, which have better....well, everything.  Currently, as I look at my shelf, I own about 40 or so SACDs.. Wish I had more.

Way back c. 2001 I spent a couple of hours with Max Townshend (picking up my turntable after a bearing service). Max had a Pioneer 747 'universal' disc player (he was modding them at the time) and we were able to listen to a variety of vinyl, DVD-A's SACD's and CD's. Goes without saying that Max's living room system (which was effectively also his development system), which included his 'super tweeters', was quite a thing. Several revelations (such as the effect of the super tweeters on the sound of a stand-up acoustic bass) which I won't go into here, but Max himself said that he preferred SACD to high-res PCM for analogue recordings (as many others have). Not long after that (2002/2003) I went to PC server-based music (even for vinyl which I recorded to 88.2/96/192) so I didn't continue my 'hi-fi journey' as it had been until then (only recently acquired a DAC that will accept DSD via USB).

My understanding was that not only was there a different audio format being used for SACD's, but that they were remastered for multiple channels, i.e. 5.1, 7.1, surround sound.
I bought a SONY 4K Blu ray player that happened to have SACD capability.  So I got curious and bought 4 or 5 discs (Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, The Rolling Stones Greatest Hits and a few others) and proceeded to listen.  Personally, I'm blown away! Now I'm not using state of the art technology - like I said, it's just a SONY UBP-X800, with a Denon receiver, and some 10 year old Polk Audios along with 2 Klipsch sub woofers, but after calibrating them for my room and listening in 7.2 surround sound, I feel enveloped in the music. It's like listening to it for the first time.

I know that a lot of purists INSIST that two channel stereo is best when listening to music. I'm not saying they're wrong, but I will say that after hearing what I've heard, I now have a preference to listen in 7.2 surround sound and Super Audio Compact Discs are perfect for that experience!

I remember an article about a philips sacd demonstation and the journalist of that article wasvery impressed by the soundquality. a year later the consumer version of the player reach the stores and the same journallist was less blown away and didnt understand why it sounded less than before.

Hey Aaron. Very thought provoking presentation. Thanks. You didn’t really highlight how you got connection from your SACD player to your amp which didn’t have HDMI inputs. If you have those available, you will find a world of difference to the sound. I have an Oppo player into an Integra Amp via HDMI but this too needs to be set correctly to output SACD. Unless they are multichannel SACD, most play in (almost perfect) Stereo and will include a sub if you have one. 2+1. I think it is quite a niche collectors market  but Analogue Productions continue to manufacture many releases. Improving DACs do make the world of difference too but to hear DSD is also very special. Love your work. Cheers from Oz

I love SACDs in 2 channel listening.  the way to go is a vintage high end SACD player with RCA outs. Most people don't get the sound possible from SACDs  these  cheap Blu-ray players to AVRs really don't get the sound a high-end Older dedicated SACD player. you can get many great ones at good prices now days.

The simplest way to get into SACD, I think, is to buy yourself a stupidly cheap Sony BDP-S490 Blu-ray player and learn how to kick it into "file server" mode. You can then output the SACD layer to ISO or DSD files over the home network. After that, you can convert the files to standard 2-chamnel FLAC for convenient listening through your standard hifi kit. You get the higher sampling rate (if you want it) and bit-depth (if you care) but also, most importantly, the remastering that the SACD layer usually contains.

Also I  forgot to mention switching listening from 2 channels to 5.1 is a huge sensation & I only use a Pioneer LX 55 which now costs about $150.00