John, you are correct in that a well recorded CD can be good. I used to use a demo CD produced by John Eargle to test equipment. Mr. Earle was a good engineer who understood recording. Hunt down any of his albums or writings, well worth it. However, many or most CD recordings sound constrained or restricted or unnatural compared with good HD material. I've got hundreds stored away.
For example, my Harmonia Mundi CD's still sound good, but they are not as realistic a re-creation of the original recording as a HD version.
As a test take something like Mark Knopfler's Shangri-La CD and HD versions. I hauled the cd player and the cd out of storage and switching between the CD and the HD version is like night and day. The dynamic range and presence, sense of depth etc all add up to the feeling he is 'in the room'.
IMHO the argument that there are good CD's or good LP's does not refute the fact that DTS-HD master recordings on good equipment can be 'almost' like the original performance.
In my opinion the 'holy grail' of audio is to make them indistinguishable, so that a person sitting in front of a curtain or blindfolded cannot tell if it is 'live or memorex'. (to quote an old marketing slogan)
I think the new audio formats come closer to this than anything before and take full advantage of all the advances in audio and in a person's investment in their equipment
That does not negate the enjoyment of LP records or reel to reel tape, it is possible to enjoy a sound that is not totally an accurate representation of the original performance (certain high-end speakers prove that!)
gord
