I just heard an SACD for the first time - damn

Not only not taking off but just about dead except for some of the smaller audiophile labels. Was your CD a separate disc or the CD layer of the SACD? In most cases the CD layer is inferior. If you listen to enough titles you will find that, in many instances, SACD and CD can sound very close. It's all in the mastering.

Agree with Narrod that a lot of it has to do with mastering (although I do think the SACD format offers something that CD can't, at least in theory). There are some very fine sounding CDs that have come out in the last, say, 10 years...AND, there are some weak sounding SACDs. Although I'm not a hard-core smooth jazz guy, I use Nelson Rangell's Always as one of my test discs with some regularity, which came out in 1999 and is only available in CD format. Really well-engineered disc, in my judgment.

The down-side of higher end gear is that it makes you more aware of the mistakes in the studio, etc. So it goes...

Narrod - you got it. Try Aerosmith box set Gold of their first three albums - it is the same sound as the SACD made by Doug Sax two years earlier - same remaster and sounds just as good. PInk Floyd DSOTm was mixed "hot" on the CD to give SACD the advantage....