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

Blues_man, you are joking aren't you? To a certain extent I agree that its marketing crap but on the other hand there have been significant improvements in the digital domain over the past few years. 18-bit DAC's vs 24-bit DACs. Improvements to the digital filters like the Burr-Brown DF1704 vs Pacific Microsonics PMD-100 and PMD-200. CD isn't "perfect" media and if all CD players were the same, I'd be using a $99 Emerson or other brand from JC Penny or Sears.

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?

Has anyone had an A/B comparison with the Cary 303/306 against the Sonic Frontier SFCD-1?

Blues_man, marketing hype or not many modern CD players do sound a lot better than early models from the late 80's or early 90's. Most improvements are due to higher resolution DAC's and better digital filters, not analog electronics.

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