I just broke down and put the first CDR in my Sega CD model 1 since I region modified my Sonic CD Jpn. Holy crap does Youtube not capture the essence of how the CD music is different than the FM+PSG. I feel like I did when I first heard Master System FM on real hardware, it's surreal.
I haven't looked into it much, but is the CD using audio samples or ... crap it just locked up during the attract mode, at least it caught up after the scene change .. or is it using the Ricoh chip in the Sega CD?
Wow, some of the sound effects are improved as well. On my Dolby Prologic system set to "effects off" the sound from the workers on the roof in the home town slowly migrated from the right side of the room to the center as I approached them just now with the PCM setting on. Nice!
...and it just locked up and made a crunching sound again. No more CDRs for me unless I want to hook up my Sega CD 2 or X'eye!