I have been getting into the remaster thing for a few years now. Admittedly I have never listened 5.1 myself. I have a Sony SACD player, but that's just because my Yamaha took a dump after about 12 years.
The best sounding SACD Hybrid I have ever heard is David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust disc. Man, that is unreal. I would love to listen to these in 5.1, but just in good old 2 channel stereo that sound is unbelievably great.
I'm not really sure (I know I could quickly Google it, but I'm a lazy bum) what the difference is between DSD and SACD, but I have the Let It Bleed DSD and it sounds excellent. I just got the Aerosmith Toys In The Attic on DSD and man, that is unreal.
I actually have an old 5.1 receiver I am not using, but as stated, I'm a bit of sack when it comes to doing every little thing that comes into my old tortured melon.
listening to: Gary Hoey - Bug Alley
I've been listening to SACDs for about 6 or 7 years, and it's all in 2-channel. I have an extremely modest multi-channel system in the living room that's strictly for movies, as that disc player won't read SACDs anyway. The SACD player is actually in the listening room, connected to the stereo, and its menu system is set to default to 2-channel playback. But even in 2-channel it's still DSD, so the improvement is definitely there. I agree completely about
Let It Bleed, but I think the very best-sounding non-classical SACD I have is Steely Dan's
Gaucho. Can't say about
Ziggy Stardust as I've never been much of a Bowie fan. Donovan's
Storyteller has some pretty good sound on it, too. Elton John's handful of SACDs are nice too, especially
Madman, which is very good, particularly in the bass.
Oh, and to stay on topic, I've been listening to Levon Helm's
Dirt Farmer.
