SACD... can you hear the difference?

I would say that I can definitely hear a difference on 90% of the SACD's vs. CD's I own. Mastering does make a difference of course. To me, the difference is definition, i.e. seperation of the instruments (voice included). Audiophile SACD recordings such as "Songbirds" and "Seachange" by Beck will convince you. But... not to start a debate, but neither SACD or CD can touch vinyl on a "good" system. IMHO SACD and CD do not have the "air" and breadth of vinyl, though admittedly they are much more convenient.

I think the best vinyl of small groups, e.g., the 45 RPM of the Brubeck Quartet's Time Out, sounds a bit better than DSD, but I'm not sure that extends to large orchestrations.

Thorens TD124, SME Series III arm, Ortofon SME 30H cartridge, Parasound JC-3 phono stage.

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The best sound quality with vinyl is when the recording and playback is all analog. If you have a modern digital recording on vinyl, it sounds like better digital, but not as good as an all analog recording. At least to me.

SACD ,I don't care much for it .I'm fairly new to digital play back and currently use a EMM labs sacd player ,However my first digital player in a long while which I borrowed was a ModWright ultimate Sony 5400 which after listening to a well recorded CD with the EMM labs for 2 minutes the Sony was packed up and sent back the following day.
The few sacd disks that I do have came highly recommended as must own which I purchased only because I am familiar with and have on vinyl.
This push in the industry for DSD Hi Res down loads as a standard is qurious

I tend to value recording quality production over getting hung up on sample rate topologies , DSD , XYZ and what have you only effecting the listening experience.

Ghost, sorry for delay. YES - you can reverse your absolute phase - by changing the connections of your speaker cables--"either" at the amp or speaker end.(not both because you'd end up with the same as you started). i.e connect the red to the black and black to the red; a very simple switch. NOTE!! I always turned my amp off before doing this to eliminate the chance of accidentally touching the red and black-AND POSSIBLY 'SHORTING YOUR AMP WITH RUINOUS CONSEQUENCES!! Remember to turn amp off please! Try it with some music you really like. The clarity and dynamics really are obvious when you have matched your reproduction phase to that of the recording phase. I've enjoyed this for 35+ years and my ears know if the phase is not right. The music is dulled and slower than if its right. I think the book "The Wood Effect" is about this but I'm not sure as I've never read it. (Of course if there are other inaccuracies within your playback system the difference "may" not show. For example if your plug polarity is incorrect). I'll be happy to help you tune up your system by mailing ptss at shaw dot ca with reference to this.