One issue that should be considered (it's late and if I missed something my apologies) are the DACs being used. I am not familiar with the Sony and Yamaha players that were used, but I own the Pioneer DV-563A. It is a great box and plays everything I throw at it, but the DAC is sub-par, IMO. DSD is downsampled to 88.2 PCM before it hits the DAC. So, at least with this player, the comp was between 88.2 PCM (from SACD) vs. 16.44 PCM through a mediocre DAC. I just gave Blonde on Blonde (redbook and SACD) a quick listen, and while I may not be able to tell which was which in a blind test, they certainly sounded different.....