What does everyone else think? Is their any benefit to the new standards, or is it all just marketing BS?

My experience with SACD (a Sony SCD-1) is that it is much more dynamic and detailed when playing hybrid disks' SACD layers vs. their CD layers. The improvement is impressive and clear to everyone who has listened on my system. On the other hand, CD layers on the SCD-1 sounds fine if you didn't know better.

I would be delighted if the industry did a wholesale switch to the high rez formats. However, I don't anticipate that people will eagerly dump CD collections to upgrade as they did with LPs. The difference is less obvious. Sony's strategy seems to be to gradually replace CDs with hybrids and then SACD-only disks over time. DVD-A is a new category which seems to be associated with home theater multichannel hardware. If either can pull it off, people who pay for software at home will be the winners. If they fail, I suppose that we will see less diversity in future commercial releases.

I have HDCD and DVDA. Havn't given the SACD a try yet though I hear people like it. I like the HDCD and you can listen and hear the difference over a redbood cd. There are of course with HDCD varying recording qualities just as with albums or regular cd's. Some are beond beliefe while others are just coasters. The HDCD seems to be lagging behind in the format wars though. I have only a few DVD audio disk. To be honest the quality is good but I dont care for a lot of the drama thats put into the recordings of a DVDA or a DTS , DTS ES. I enjoy the music more when it just appears across the front area.

I'm going to check into a SACD soon and see how that goes.

good luck and happy experimenting

Bill