I have to agree that SACD can sound very, very good. I guess I'm less convinced about the multi-channel aspect of it. I find it distracting unless it is subtle or right the other way to 'spin room just for fun'. I must say I had similar feelings about my return to vinyl though. Suddenly there are nuances and clarity that make the listening more real. Digital is wonderfully transparent and clean and SACD is probably the best example of that medium.
Just curious though, ej, why someone with such an awesome set of hardware wouldn't have tried SACD before? The format is quite old now and decent players have been available for a while at price points you can obviously afford. Caution is always laudable but I'd like to know your reasoning?