Red Book not gone yet

CD-only playback, most certainly a future dinosaur, refuses to give way to hi-rez playback. New players from Bryston, Wadia, Navison, Vitus, Audio Research, Meridian, AMR, Cary, McCormack, Boulder and Soulution show that Red Book-only systems never should have been abandoned. "Mixed" format players, like the one just reviewed by Neil Gader, are ultimately a compromise to CD sound.
 
Robert Harley says that Spectral's CD player is close to hi-rez in his new review of this unit. As for technology, I'd like to remind everyone that we cannot "make" CDs sound like hi-rez. All we can do is reveal what's on the recording. Much of the claims about "upscaling" and the like is simply marketing hype, just like 24-bit ADC's - there's no such thing !! Noise-shaping CDs (in the studio) to extend their perceived resolution does help a little...and with this, I am now convinced that Red Book was all we ever needed for the best sound. I stand corrected if high-rez (someday) blows CD away, but this has not happened - yet.
 
Measurements seem to back-up my theory as well. John Atkinson recently posted an article (on Stereophile.com) which revealed, through state-of-the-art measurements, that Bryston's $2600 CD unit was the "highest resolution player" he measured. And he measured some high resolution units. This article can be found in the "Features" (then "Special Features") section and is called "A case of the jitters". Good reading...and with Bryston, listening as well............