I made the post just for this discussion. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with any of this.

I will say that there is a lot of high end low end equipment out there that alters the sound to try and make it more pleasing to the ears. Certainly tubes with tube bloom does this. And the fact that people believe that expensive cables make a difference in sound shows that some alteration of the signal may be happening but the manufacturers are not making us privy to what that change is.

I'm interested in obtaining the SHM- sample CD to hear the difference myself. I own several XRCD24's and I have no doubt that they sound better that std CD's. Eastwind Imports has a sample SMH CD that I'm going to purchase for $15.

Certainly Blu-spec CD looks interesting and promising if anything ever comes of it.