I have only recently, the last year or so, gotten into looking for great sounding media. I collect 78's, so it never dawned on me how good things can sound. Hearing the John Lee Hooker SACD got me hooked into this expensive habit.
That said, SACD's are my medium of choice, and even though the medium is superior to red book, I've hit a few really bad remasters that no format could fix.
(The worst is the Sex Pistols DVD-A, which sounds no better then the cassette of the same material I made, off bootleg vinyl, back in 1984.)
By that same token, I have some Japanese mini-lp remasters that I can't imagine could sound any better no matter what medium they are on.
I have only started getting into hi-res downloads because I saw HD Tracks had the Jerry Lee Lewis hits, and claimed they were like listening to the master. I was willing to pay them the 2.99, though I was resigned to the fact that I wasting my money. How good could they be?
Well, now I have yet another way to spend money on music.
On the plus side, the wife can't complain about how much of our apartment my music is taking up.