if u have chance, listen to Chesky records CD - engineering by wilkinson, compare today's new format cd, i think it is far more better.
therefore agreed that depends on the engineering/master tape!
for fair comparison on CD, SACD, HQCD,XRCD...:-
better compare to same master tape to development on different format.
for example if there is a same master tape of beyond
but in different version of cd format, then we can compare which format is better.
just my 2cents!