The benefits of SACD are most obvious with large-scale acoustic music, IMHO. SACD just gets strings and suspended cymbal--that audiophile favorite--right. FWIW, I'm an orchestra musician. Not genre bashing, but by the time pop music is pushed and prodded into its final form, it has most likely been processed in so many ways that the original acoustic is tainted beyond recognition. Hi-rez can't help here. Those who hear no appreciable difference don't have good equipment, are just parrotting what they're read, or haven't listened to pure DSD or analog to DSD recordings. Heavy-hitter recording engineers the world over have chosen SACD over hi-rez PCM almost every time, even though SACD costs more. What more proof does one need? 2500 issues and counting, the Berlin Philharmonic just started its own label in SACD, right under PCM-happy EMI's nose. (They haven't released any Classical SACDs.)If you don't like Classical or Jazz, stick with redbook. IPOD and Bono/U2 have just started a major add campaign for IPOD with pics, (and soon video), so the IPOD people have stolen the would-be DVDA consumer once again just as the first dual discs have been recalled for bad editing. DVDA is...well, it's too ugly to describe.
