I believe your response doesn't address the question of whether or not SACD's sound better than Red Book CD's. IMO/E they usually do. It's also been my experience that some high res downloads sound as good or better than SACD's. OTOH I have some standard Red Book CD's (Groove Note, Mapleshade etc.) that sound better than almost anything else.

As with everything you take a chance whenever you plunk down the money.