CD vs SACD in STEREO

@kraftwerkturbo I see you are trying to make sense of it all but all you can really do is listen.

Generally a 24 bit CD will sound about as good as a SACD and SHM CD 's and SHM SACD 's are another factor. 

UHQCD and Platinum CD's are also excellent. If I were you I'd use you OPPO 103 to rip your SACD's to a hard drive and then load them on an Aurender or similar. 

@big_greg

Surround sound is very unnatural

That's funny.  In nature, surround sound is, well, all around us!

Your ears have evolved as your primary warning of danger.  The pinnae have cunning flaps and folds so they can localise sounds coming from behind and above as well as in front and to the sides.

Now if you meant

Some surround sound recordings are very unnatural

then I might agree, but most classical surround sound recordings just use surround to capture ambience.  Except for those Grammy-award-winning 2L albums.  Try some, and if you really don't like them, I'll stand amazed

@lordmelton 

Generally a 24 bit CD

There's no such animal in the Redbook universe

@richardbrand - I don't know why you left off the first part of my quote, where I said "I could be mistaken".

kraftwerkturbo

Excellent advice as above. There are (2) SACD camps. One is for multichannel (5.1) set-up. While the other is Stereo or (2) channel systems.  Either way, you cannot go wrong.  What other gear and Cabling is in your System?  Season's Greetings.

Happy Listening!