CD quality versus SA-CD ?is it worth it?

My humble opinion...
1)SA-CD is worth it because better care is given through out the entire recording/mastering/transfering process than it is with CDs. In other words, you will find a higher % of bad sounding recordings (i.e. "re-mastered", or mastered for radio/car audio, not hi-fi) on CDs than you will on SA-CDs.
2) Everything is recorded in hi-rez these days, so it makes sense to not compromise the master quality by transfering it in 16/44.1. So we are kind of forced into hi-rez playback.
3) I asked myself the same question a few years ago. My playback system consisted of Yamaha dvd player feeding spdif to a MSB Link III DAC. I was wondering if a new generation yamaha blu-ray/sacd player would sound better than the MSB. The answer is YES with CDs, and obviously yes with hi-rez material, either on thumb drives or on hard disc... blu-ray, 24/96 and dff files.
I got the BD-s677 for $250 to try, and it is MUCH better in everyway, more natural/fluid than the MSB. A definite keeper at the price point.

SACD supposed to be better by carrying 4x more info in addition to better transition response related to "weaker" low pass filters. It won't help a bit if it is converted from 16/44.1. IMHO it isn't worth the money. I would rather optimize 16/44.1 system. Some CDs I have sound magnificent showing ability of the media.

If you can come up with another $200, there is an Esoteric DV-50s, a really good older CD/SACD/DVD player, on Audiogon right now for $1200.

I have found it goes from disc to disc and how well its done. There are some good SACD and some that just not worth the extra money. It helps to have a good SACD/CD player. But you do not have to break the bank to get into one. I had a OPPO 105 using the XLR outs that sounded good on SACD and CDs. Moved up to the ESOTERIC KO3x and really enjoyed some SACDs.
Enjoy Pete

There are a million threads on this, so you can search around. Basically, SACD is "hi-rez" audio, done at a higher sampling rate. Is it better? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I personally have experimented with it and, IMO, the multi-format players I've tried do not play CD as well as the dedicated CD players.
So I've pretty much given up on SACDs and just try to get the most I can out of the CD playback. In good conscience, I don't think I would recommend it to anyone who was interested only in 2-channel stereo, unless they were willing to spend a lot of money on a high-end player like the Esoteric K-03 or something like that. At the lower end of the spectrum, I think someone would be better off just upgrading their CD player, assuming you want to continue playing physical media. But that's another story.