@mahler123
One of the great things about this forum for me is that I frequently learn new things!
For example, I have just discovered that what I thought was a British independent label, Hyperion, was actually bought by the Universal Music Group in March 2023 - see UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF LEGENDARY CLASSICAL LABEL HYPERION RECORDS - UMG.
In the classical music space UMG also owns Decca and Deutsche Grammophon (DG), which explains why I see Decca recordings on Hyperion's website! It may also explain why I cannot buy SACDs from Decca or Hyperion (35 listed, most deleted). Now that the Berliner Philharmonika runs its own label featuring the multi-channel Digital Concert Hall I hardly see anything new I want to buy from DG.
So many other great labels are powering ahead with SACD including 2L, BIS, Chandos, Dacapo, LSO Live. Pentatone, Reference Recordings, etc.
Yes, I am totally convinced that well recorded classical SACDs should always be better than well recorded classical CDs. For a start, most actually contain the CD version, as well as 2-channel and multi-channel Direct Stream Digital (DSD). What have you got to lose?
I am also totally convinced that DSD is better than PCM on theoretical, commercial and listening grounds. Getting monotonic linearity from PCM is impossible unless it is converted to DSD using sigma-delta techniques. If DSD isn't better, why would Sony and Philips, who designed the Redbook CD specification, have produced a revolutionary new format they intended to replace CDs? It is a pity North Americans did not warm to the 'new' format 17 years ago.
I have told this story before, but on a whim, I bought a Reavon universal player. My test SACD is Hyperion's Shostakovich Piano Concertos, in particular the very quiet second movement of the second concerto. When I played this through the Reavon's DACs it had none of the air and sparkle I was used to. On delving deeper, it turned out that the Burr Brown DACs were being fed DSD down-converted to 16-bit PCM and the lack of quality was almost immediately obvious to me, though no reviewer has picked it up! (Fortunately the DACs in my pre-processor handle native DSD delivered via HDMI just fine),
don’t mean to be snarky here but somehow you have imbibed the propaganda that vinyl is a higher resolution medium than bog standard CD
Far from it. I stopped buying vinyl as soon as CDs came out. My interest in vinyl has been re-kindled when I found out how much my old Garrad 301 table is fetching second hand (and the ridiculous prices for new old stock!). I suspect one reason they are valued is that they can be adjusted to start and stop in a fraction of a second. I have spent several thousand upgrading the Garrard and it now sounds to me to be about the same quality as a good CD player. No doubt I could spend tens of thousands and do significantly better. I have even recently bought my Hyperion test track on vinyl but sadly it will never match the SACD.
I am old enough to have watched manufacturers who did not have a digital offering dump on digital, and HiFi retailers sniff when I wanted them to play a CD. Those same retailers today, when asked to demonstrate components worth as much as Porsches, reach for their iPhones to stream digital!
I am agnostic when it comes to vinyl but was pleasantly surprised when my dealer had a B&W speaker evening and in one room, was playing vinyl through a Holbo air bearing, linear tracking deck. It even managed to make B&W speakers sound OK!
