Can even a Novice hear differences in Sound Qualit

Yes, but that alone doesn't mean that they care enough or can afford to drop 10s of thousands of dollars into a SOTA audio system.

Lets be real, this stuff is a luxury, not a commodity. You have to be able to hear, then care, then pay.

Nice rant on behalf of audio buffs though!

Again with the Hardware, as a convenient distraction from the severe lack of Sound Quality in the Format! Lets be real, Mapman, dropping 10s of thousands of dollars on any System, in a vain attempt to make up for the severe lack of Sound Quality in the Format itself! Suprise that one finds yourself actually admiring how pretty, and expensive the System looks, as opossed to actually listening to it! Format drags your $10,000.00 System down to the point of sounding like garbage, to the point that you can't even stand listening to it! You only just show how expensive it looks to your friends, you don't dare play it for them! You can't stand listening to it yourself, you just use it for Eye Candy, or for Expensive bragging rights! Again, you harp on the Name, the Hardware, the Cost, all at the expense of even concidering the slightest increment in increase of Sound Quality in the Format itself. What is exactly your point, you want garbage for 10s of thousands, I can give you all of my garbage for half that, and even save you the expense of $5000.00. You don't drop 10s of thousands of dollars into a SOTA audio system, you don't drop 50s of thousands of dollars into a Digital System in a vain attempt to make up for that Formats shortcommings, you simply don't drop the ball on the Manufacturer spoon feeding you the next garbage Sounding Format! It is not the drop of 10s of thousands, but the drop in the Quality of the garbage that you are feeding this behemoth. No amount of money spent on the back end, will ever make up for the amount of garbage that is being force fed on the front end! You can go ahead and drop 5s, 10s, 20s, 50s, 100s, and it will only make the smallest increment of improvement, if any at all! If you are going to spend that much, why not just buy your own Record Company, for crying out loud, save yourself the money, and stand a half-wits chance of actually getting some better Sound Quality? So we spend so much on this stuff, just to look at, and not to listen to! Well, that is a helpful peice of information, when next deciding to drop 10s of thousands of dollars on a Luxury Audio System!

If you are a hiker, you have scaled false peaks that reveal other false peaks before the summit. The big questions of "What does the CD format really sound like?" or "What does vinyl really sound like?" are not answered at the false peaks. Climb thee higher oh pettyofficer, for I fear that such answers are not revealed at sea level.

Petty, you sound like the old guy down the street from my childhood home that wore a white T-shirt, plaid shorts, black socks, and sandals and yelled at us young hooligans..."get off my lawn"!!!
Stop taking things so seriously---life is too short.

What is your point, Dgarretson, of even trying to ride any false peaks or summit, with a 500 Lb. weight on your back? A 500 Lb. weight of-CD-SACD-DVD-Audio Formats dragging you down! Your solution is a $10,000.00 Bike to handle the extra load, we dare not even concider any other possible solution, gotta protect our ego and bragging rights of our $10,000.00 personal Moneypit at all costs, even at the expensive cost of Sound Quality! Am I reading this book correctly?
Cajunpepe, do you have a serious prejudice problem, trying to fit all people into your own broad brush perceptions, even those that you have never met or don't even know. All of those Old Guys (insert any minority) are all the same, even the ones that you haven't met! I do take your pigeon-hole-ing seriously, knowing that there must be some other serious character flaw that must explain it! I suppose that all Old Guys are supposed to wear a white T-shirt,plaid shorts, black socks, and sandals, and I still can't understand why this Man would treat you with such contempt! Perhaps someone needs to draw you a picture of your own image in a mirror, and have you take a serious look at it!
Life can be very short, for the fool who drops 10-20 thousands of dollars on a Stereo System, in a vain attempt for a slight improvement on a severely flawed and damaged Format! Lets add some more zero's on this amount, on our next System, in a vain attempt to make MP3 sound as good (sic) as CD/SACD/DVD-Audio. There is certainly some ego, and bragging rights, to be squeezed out of this endeavor, and if the rest of us gets screwed with the Sound Quality of MP3, too bad! MP3 is good enough, let them eat Dogs__t! Just because not everyone can afford Hundreds of thousands of dollars in Equipment, for a slight improvement in MP3, tough s__t! I suppose that some of us can afford a third Mortgage! This seems like dejavue all over again, like the day that CD was officially released, ever wonder why? How dare we even concider any improvement in any Format, and voiding the necessity of spending Tens of thousands on Equipment Hardware Upgrade Band-aids for a severely flawed Format! I must be out of my mind, to even concider the garbage in side of this equation, of course I have Money to burn compensating on the garbage out! Life is too short- to be burning Money this way- and that is a serious problem, Cajunpepe! With Audiophile friends like these, who needs greedy Recording Industry Enemies?