i'm an avid (rabid) sacd multichannel fan. i purchased spyro gyra's 'in modern times' and i have to tell you, it was pretty shocking. the mix is superb. the band obviously did arrangements with multichannel in mind and the clarity and stage are amazing. i also have james taylor's 'hourglass' and love every song on the disc.

i chose sony's sacd because this is one war i think they will win. here is why:

the one-bit dsd format can be converted to any other format, existing or yet to come. take the aging analog tapes that are falling apart in studios around the world. they have to be archived or lost. if you choose 24/96 or 24/192 as the format to archive them onto, it will always be in that format and not changeable...forever. if you choose dsd instead, it can be converted in the future to any format that comes along.

this is very important to new recordings that are done in the digital realm. again, once formatted in pcm, it can never be re-formatted. this will be the edge to forward thinking artists and producers. my opinion.

in any case, no test of hybrid discs was necessary to me. i popped in the sacd and closed my eyes and sank into another world. that simply isn't gonna happen with a cd.