Is this post still active? If so then I would like to add a few comments of my own.
About 6 months ago I finally took the plunge and bought my first SACD player. In most cases my SACDs do sound better than similar recordings on CD, although I do accept that this might be due to better recording or remastering techniques. It is logical that the recording engineers would put more effort into a recording that they thought was likely to be played by audiophiles on high end equipment. However I have also experimented with playing the CD layer and the SACD layer of same disc and again I believe the SACD layer sounds better. It is not true of every disc but generally speaking the SACD sound has more depth to it and the SACDs do not produce that harsh sound that I find with some of my recordings on CD.
One thing I would like to mention is that the SACD format is not dead and some of the smaller labels continue to release new recordings on SACD - BIS, LSO Live, Pentatone and Channel Classics are all remarkably good and I have noticed that recently Chandos have released some of their recordings as SACDs
