Redbooks: as good on Sony SACD as on Cary 303?

There have been some improvements in hardware, but mostly hardware has become cheaper not better. I still think that the HDCD system is the best and should be used by all manufacturers for CDs. Digital filters are getting better. They couldn't get much worse. How is a 24 bit DAC better than a 20 bit or an 18 or a 16. Again just marketing. CDs are 16 bit. CDs ARE THE perfect media. The audio industry wouldn't lie to us would they? They told us 20 years ago that this would be perfect sound. Do you think then that this was all marketing hype?

Has anyone had an A/B comparison with the Cary 303/306 against the Sonic Frontier SFCD-1?

Blues_man, marketing hype or not many modern CD players do sound a lot better than early models from the late 80's or early 90's. Most improvements are due to higher resolution DAC's and better digital filters, not analog electronics.

After 10 - 12 years or more, they had better sound better. The improvements aren't that great though. Most less expensive models still have a hard time with dynamics and low level detail. My DAC is the Spectral which hasn't changed in about 8 years, simply because there hasn't been much improvement in the technology

Blues Man, I assume the point you're making is that players have become better (sonic) value for money? i.e. incorporating now, & at an "affordable" price, quality/technology that only very expensive units offered years ago (bar a few advances in playback tech)?

As you're running a Spectral, I wouldn't doubt your view -- rather, compliment you on the choice that I, for one, did not make when I could!

Tight finances often steer us up a slow "upgrading" path. By the time we're near to "getting there", hype & corporate diversification enters the scene to confuse the issue further. Hence Pen's dilemma...

BTW, am I correct in assuming that PCM is really 15 bit info + 1 bit control??

Cheers all!