SACD

It just popped into my head that SACD failing drove me back into vinyl with a real commitment. So where I put many thousands of dollars into both software and hardware over the past decade plus simply came down to this.

Although I’ve heard very good CD players and DACs, even as far as things have come today, they don’t satisfy me the way records do. SACD did

SACD as with vinyl has really never died.
New ones are arriving from Japan every week. In the classical music catagory, new labels, as with Pentatone and Linn are issuing splendid re-issues and new recordings. To my ears they do sound superior to the usual red book 16 bit CDs.

I love my vinyl, 7 1/2 i.p.s. reel to reel tapes, Hi-Rez 24 bit downloads, Pure Audio Blu-Ray, and SACD. They all reproduce the master tapes better than CD. There are always ‘stinkers’ in any of these formats. And there are a few CDs that sound really fine.

Perhaps SACD flopped as did DVD Audio in the USA. We live in an era of iTune downloads with their limited bit rate. But, even with some pop albums they are perfectly fine. 

Still again in classical music the SACD is gaining momentum again. 
Now, if only the Japanese issues wouldn’t be so very expensive.

That all sounds well and good but there’s one teeny little problem. That problem is newer SACDs, Hi Res Downloads, even highly touted SHM CDs and SACDs from Nippon are showing highly compressed. The trend is not your friend. 😢

+1 elizabeth
Have been following your lead for over a year and find the CD approach, when up sampled with SoX in JRiver, provides an audio result fully equivalent to SACDs.
BTW, some SACDs are notable, especially the Grammy award winning Dire Straits "Brother in Arms." In a 5-channel environment, this one is riveting.