Is there a consensus as to blu ray sound quality?

OK,
Maybe this whole concept of blu-ray has taken the debate into liscencing, and hardware dead ends. My questions are of a more fundamental nature.
1) Would employing a Blue Laser as opposed to a red one, which is to say, a laser which offers a shorter wave length of light, therefore can track the pits and such in a cd/dvd storage unit, more adroitly--is this laser an option for reading current red book cds? I KNOW it will read them--the overarching question is...does it when used, compared to a typical cd player SOUND better?
Is there hope that the typical audiophile out there can buy a $399 blue ray, and end up with sound quality which is better than even the very expensive (red laser) cd players which are audiophile grade?

Again, and I know this is getting tedious...years ago, everyone in the industry talked about the 'blue laser' and how the shorter wavelength would allow it to give a better read, with the assumed accomanying, more information for the processor to work with. Now that we have the blu-ray, is it a viable step up from a typical player sonically?
Surely someone has tried this comparison.
Also, any manufacturers talking about an audiophile version of blu ray...not for the extras on discs and such, but just improved sound?

In my opinion, no, because of the blu-ray format itself. The extra processing of the blue laser goes into reading more data (storage) in the same surface area. Also, the blu format specifications don't support anything greater than upsampled redbook cd quality audio. The only advantage to blu-ray audio would have to be, once in again in my opinion, multi-channel audio, perhaps as a replacement for DVD-A and arguably, SACD. Maybe the expensive red laser cd players excel, not in the laser itself, but the DAC and wiring?

"Is there hope that the typical audiophile out there can buy a $399 blue ray, and end up with sound quality which is better than even the very expensive (red laser) cd players which are audiophile grade?"

I'm confused. Are you asking about using it as a transport or player? If player, then there is a lot of other thing affecting sound. If you want to use it as a transport to play redbook CDs then you'll get perhaps a little better tracking but you can get it as well with DVD player.

Thanks Kijanki,
But I am aware of the breadth of variables which effect sound reproduction.

"If you want to use it as a transport to play redbook DCs then you'll perhaps get a little better tracking, but you can get it as well with a DVD player."

The shorter wave length of the blu-violet light spectrum laser, versus the red end of the light spectrum (endemic to the typical CD and DVD players, until the advent of blu-ray) have a stated wavelength of approximately, and it varies, 400nm compared to 650nm.
This shorter wave length would seem, at least to my little brain, to not only, not only allow for more compression of information onto the disc, but to also allow for a 'better read' of the existing information on a typical red book cd. If the laser successfully reads more data, wouldn't this, or shouldn'this translate into greater information taken into the processor, allowing for greater resolution of detail, low level resolution, with all of the mentioned benefits therein?
Analogous to a moving coil cartridge, whose claim to fame was that it could navigate more quickly within the grooves of the record, (with less mass to the tip of the stylus) picking up more information from the source, a vinyl piece in those days. Wouldn't a 'quicker, more adroit read' make for more low level resolution, more detail, improved harmonic structure, better soundstage, spatial information, and such...what is it that I am not understanding, or unable to convey to those answering the question here?
While it is true that 'better cd players and dvd players' offer better, 'tracking as Kijanki called it'; all things being equal wouldn't a more powerful telescope (think quicker better reading laser) read more data?

I would have thought that some manufacturers of fine cd players would have jumped on the blue laser for their audiophile cd players, early on. Since they appear not to have done so, does anyone know why. Is the liscencing for the new laser cost prohibitive, or are there other issues which haven't been brought to light?

Also, would the additional 1's and 0's read' does the additional amount of information require a different sampling, or higher quality, read faster D/A converters?

Hopefully someone who is in manufacturing can help educate me on this question as to whether or not the blue laser, as it is superior would be be a bette device for simply retrieving more data from a redbook.

Thanks.

All other things being equal, which is always a big assumption, I see no reason why a blue laser would read a redbook CD any better than a red laser. The fact that it has a shorter wavelength and can read "more" data in a given area doesn't automatically lead to the conclusion that it reads "better". I think that differences in the DA conversion would be more critical than differences in the laser's colour frequency. To use an analogy, (which may or may not be appropriate but I'll try it anyway), do your eyes see blue objects more clearly than red objects on the basis that the blue receptors in your eye pigments are more resolving?

I would think that it is discs with more data that makes blu-ray appealing as an audio format. I would guess that this would become more common in parallel with blu-ray's development and adoption as a video format.