SACD vs Regular CD's

One thing your Meridian has is trifield, which there are few recordings and players that can process it. You might search out recordings that have it. Just something I forgot to mention.

On recordings that were recorded in DSD then downsampled to 16/44 for CD, I found the SACD to be significantly better (for example Perahia's Goldberg variation on Sony, Paavo Jarvi's Beethoven cycle ). Some SACD release from older analogue tape (Living stereo series etc), really depends on the remaster. Some are really good, some are not that much different from CD. Also there are some rip off ie SACD that was upsampled from 16/44 which was a waste.
Personally I found Pentatone SACD to sound significantly better through SACD layer than CD layer as well.
Some of the cheaper, universal player also convert DSD to PCM before going through AD converter which does not help SACD much.
I would look through SACD catalogues first and see if there are enough music in SACD catalogues (preferably with original DSD recordings) that interest you. If yes, it would be worthwhile investigating this option.

Steuspeed wrote:
One thing your Meridian has is trifield, which there are few recordings and players that can process it. You might search out recordings that have it.

I, too, have a Meridian processor with Trifield but I know of no recordings made with it. In fact, I do not think one can "make" recordings with it. Could you be thinking, instead, of Ambisonics?

Agree with Suteetat. Music well recorded in DSD not converted to PCM can sound significantly better than redbook. I cannot but a redbook only cd player because I have too many great sounding SACDs and only a few SACDs that are ripoffs. In fact, I have not upgraded my cd/sacd player in a few years because I knew that someday, a DAC would come around that processes DSD from downloads. They are just now starting to be made.

AEW,

you will want to look into the Sony 5400 ES player, as well as, Marantz SACD players. Happy Listening!