I can say this, that :
Sure Chesky and whoever can lay down Classical and Patricia barber all day, and be succesful on SACD...but for the more mainstream Audiophile it seems that many of the recordings are done on Hi-res just for that reason, to get the Audiophile to return to purchase another Sony stamped product that is in no way superior to its predecessors..
Now Dark side of the moon, for obvious reasons they could not fake the Upgrade as easily because all eyes and ears were watching on that one... but for most of the selection, Bowie, Neil young, or even Slipknot(I could care less but for a point) it becomes more of a marketing thing, and not even a very good one, because they have not pushed the format hard enough and In my Opinion, the last 5 years of Standard CD recording's Have truly Enhanced quite a bit, possibly due to the threat originally from SACD, I don't know, but just about any 2005 recording you purchase will unlikely fall short of your expectations to pretty good sound quality... I have even replaced some old 80's and 90's Cd's with current re-masters from about 2002 on up, and they absolutly sound as good as new Albums and even SACD... Why? Again I have no idea accept that the Standard Digital industry is finally catching up with itself, For Example BECK, SEA CHANGE is a very new Album, whether you are into the music or not I have tested it on the Standard CD and the SACD only release, the Standard Was as good if not better in some ways, Bass responce and all, had very good weight and overall very full nice smooth sound, Now the SACD was something Special in the Surround MODE, but casual Listening Head to Head 2 channel I would take the CD version... Whats my point, Nothing but the fact is technology has definatly advanced, but for Who? I think the old 16 bit system is starting to show its true capabilities as well if the recording is properly done in the first place. Surround sound Does still have its place, And Hybrid SACD's do sound excellent on the Redbook playback as well as SACD.
Sure Chesky and whoever can lay down Classical and Patricia barber all day, and be succesful on SACD...but for the more mainstream Audiophile it seems that many of the recordings are done on Hi-res just for that reason, to get the Audiophile to return to purchase another Sony stamped product that is in no way superior to its predecessors..
Now Dark side of the moon, for obvious reasons they could not fake the Upgrade as easily because all eyes and ears were watching on that one... but for most of the selection, Bowie, Neil young, or even Slipknot(I could care less but for a point) it becomes more of a marketing thing, and not even a very good one, because they have not pushed the format hard enough and In my Opinion, the last 5 years of Standard CD recording's Have truly Enhanced quite a bit, possibly due to the threat originally from SACD, I don't know, but just about any 2005 recording you purchase will unlikely fall short of your expectations to pretty good sound quality... I have even replaced some old 80's and 90's Cd's with current re-masters from about 2002 on up, and they absolutly sound as good as new Albums and even SACD... Why? Again I have no idea accept that the Standard Digital industry is finally catching up with itself, For Example BECK, SEA CHANGE is a very new Album, whether you are into the music or not I have tested it on the Standard CD and the SACD only release, the Standard Was as good if not better in some ways, Bass responce and all, had very good weight and overall very full nice smooth sound, Now the SACD was something Special in the Surround MODE, but casual Listening Head to Head 2 channel I would take the CD version... Whats my point, Nothing but the fact is technology has definatly advanced, but for Who? I think the old 16 bit system is starting to show its true capabilities as well if the recording is properly done in the first place. Surround sound Does still have its place, And Hybrid SACD's do sound excellent on the Redbook playback as well as SACD.