the SHM CD Experience

They seem obscenely expensive. Where are you buying them?

Any theories as to how an enhanced transparency polycarbonate can make for better sound? Could it be anything other than fewer errors or less jitter?

Seems to me that, if these things really do sound better just because, somehow, the transport is able to read them better, we should be able to realize the same sonic benefits for music files that we download directly to hard drives. In other words, the distribution of digital music on CDs is compromising the sound. If I'm correct (a big "if"), it's perhaps the most powerful audiophile argument for computer audio.

RBCD is not going to die this year or any time soon -- it will be a long and slow decline. And SACD is not going to become more popular. The best and only real hope for audiophiles is hi-rez downloads, which not only get you higher sampling rates and word lengths than RBCD, but which overcome any and all of the manufacturing shortcomings of mass-produced physical media.

Does anyone know what the licensing and manufacturing story is on SHM-CD? On the one I have, the only SHM indication I could find anywhere on the CD or packaging is a very faint, embossed SHM on the jewel case. What are they making these 'from" and where does the art work come from? Is the artist getting paid? Compare this to XRCD, for example. It all seem a little, ah, suspicious.

Thanks.