SACD... can you hear the difference?

I have150 SACDs and in each case they MAY be better sounding than the equivalent CD On the other hand, I have CDs that sound as good to me as any of them. Talking strictly sound quality here. My player is an Oppo 105 with full Modwright modifications, playing into an Aesthetix Calypso linestage. It's anyone's guess whether my listening skills, etc. are equal to the task, but i've been honing them for a long time.

totaly agree. if you cant discern a difference between a mofi sacd and a standard, your system is not revealing enouhg. It should be easy to hear the dramatic improvement of sacd.

IMO a better comparison is to match up a quality XRCD against the SACD
XRCD is the uncompressed hi-Rez "normal CD pressing" without the max 16/44 format first introduced for airplay.

E.g. Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms discs are issues in both SACD and XRCD pressings.( there are many others including inter alia, The Eagles)

My observations

(1) Any comparison is system dependent sensitive for sure as highlighted by the prior posts . The better the system ...... Yada Yada ....

(2) I've heard both including A-B .

(A) In my system, the XRCD wins out and the difference is not subtle because of (1) above and also because of the preferred results embedded in the actual recording.

(B) I've heard them in more modestly priced audio systems and the the results vary even to the point that the SACD prevails.

(3) in all cases, audio reproduction through a multi channel receiver always lagged far behind the audio performance of hi-end and quality built separates. There is no escaping the time-honoured tenet in this hobby that you only get what you pay for.

It depends. When I first started listening to SACDs about nine years ago, I could certainly hear a significant improvement over CD. Much greater clarity, precision and quality. However, some SACDs are not of such good quality. There's a significant difference between the SACDs of Miles Davis released in the US versus those produced in Japan. The Japanese SACDs are a real marvel. The US pressings are not so much so. You do, however, have to have a decent player to notice the differences.

I use an Ayre C5xemp which plays both CD's and SACD (and DVD's too)...anyway, I've come away with the view that both are good and there is little to distinguish between them. Really depends on how it was produced.