"(RBCD) does not do the various things as well as good vinyl, but it does them competently.....and you don't feel 'soiled' when listening to redbook"
I've arrived psychologically at a similar place as Mike L. on this point. The things that used to be bothersome about RBCD have been banished, and what's left is a small and forgiveable loss of detail. In addition, at a sufficiently high level of performance the few things that RBCD does better than vinyl-- silent background and channel separation-- stand out and complicate debate on the superiority of the two formats at current SOTA. These days RBCD is definitely better than "background music."
I've arrived psychologically at a similar place as Mike L. on this point. The things that used to be bothersome about RBCD have been banished, and what's left is a small and forgiveable loss of detail. In addition, at a sufficiently high level of performance the few things that RBCD does better than vinyl-- silent background and channel separation-- stand out and complicate debate on the superiority of the two formats at current SOTA. These days RBCD is definitely better than "background music."