Redbooks: as good on Sony SACD as on Cary 303?

The comment about DSPs was in their use to create audio effects. I tried one out, and found that on certain recordings, certain settings produced subjectively pleasing results, but for the most part it just got in the way of the recording. As far as DACs getting better, I just don't buy it. Now I haven't listened to that many different DAC chips lately ( besides, you can't separate the DAC from the rest of the hardware to make a fair comparison ). At home I listen to LPs 90+% of the time. So I'll just keep my old Spectral and hope that everything gets remastered in HDCD.

People get caught in the hype. That's spelled BS. You're right. The upsampling vs oversampling vs this chip vs that chip is all marketing crap trying to get people to blow their money on different products and then spending absurd money on the software. Since CD is the "perfect" media, why do we need any more?

There have been some improvements in hardware, but mostly hardware has become cheaper not better. I still think that the HDCD system is the best and should be used by all manufacturers for CDs. Digital filters are getting better. They couldn't get much worse. How is a 24 bit DAC better than a 20 bit or an 18 or a 16. Again just marketing. CDs are 16 bit. CDs ARE THE perfect media. The audio industry wouldn't lie to us would they? They told us 20 years ago that this would be perfect sound. Do you think then that this was all marketing hype?

After 10 - 12 years or more, they had better sound better. The improvements aren't that great though. Most less expensive models still have a hard time with dynamics and low level detail. My DAC is the Spectral which hasn't changed in about 8 years, simply because there hasn't been much improvement in the technology

There is no control bit. There is additional data in the packet. Being an engineer, I pick well engineered components , instead of components based on really esoteric designs. I remember when I first got into CDs in the early 90s, companies were selling CD players with DSPs to create different effects. In high end audio, someone from StereoShill says something and thousands of audiophiles spend huge amounts of money for things that are grossly over-priced. I know someone who spent more money on his speaker cables, than on his speakers, amp and pre-amp combined. People spend thousands of $$$ on power cables (just for one). That's absurd. You can buy hospital grade power cables and power generators that are as good or better than any audiophile product for a fraction of the cost. The hype will never end as long as people will throw their money away.