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.