more major players jumping on the sacd bandwagon

Sample MP3 at higher than 128kbps and the sound is not bad. I consider myself to be an audiophile but I also keep an open mind to good technology. Are you saying MP3 is crap because this is what you've read or have you seriously played with MP3 and experimented beyond the typical default settings with various encoders?

Since SACD is supposed to be a superior technology, will a good SACD disc played on one of the newer entry (cheap) $300 - $400 players from Sony sound better than a comparable regular CD played on a high-end upsampling CD player?

You mean they don't even have Pink Floyd!? Tell me it ain't so. ;-)