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Unlike SACD, HDCD is a compatible disc format - you can listen to HDCD with a conventional CD player -
BUT - you will not get the full quality of the music without the Pacific Microsonics decoding algorithms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Definition_Compatible_Digital
I had a number of Harman Kardon AVRs that had native HDCD decoding, and currently have an Audio Alchemy DAC that can decode the signal.
You fed the full digital datastream from your disc player (over Optical or coaxial cable) and the decode circuit dcodes it.
Most OPPO disc players before 2017 also decoded HDCD.
so, The CD Player with HDCD capability is better to choose if I have several HDCD disc?
Another format is file playback. dbPoweramp rips the content from the CD and has a built in decoder that embeds the additional bits creating a 44/24 file.Must I have CD Player with HDCD capability?
Its really up to you. I have the older Oppo DV 970 and 971 that do HDCD - even their newer BDP-103 or BDP-105 does HDCD. ANd like I said, I got a standalone DAC that does HDCD too.it's confusing if choosing CD players with famous DAC liike TDA1841 but no HDCD capability because it's old cd player but on the other way, there's CD player (new model with PCM1732U DAC but with HDCD capability, which one to choose?
MusicBee and Foobar have an available HDCD plugin.
If you rip an HDCD to FLAC the plugin will automatically decode the HDCD content.
no, I mean original native HDCD disc from stores, not private ripping
As if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared...
Working away from home for a couple of days, and this gave me the chance to trawl another set of charity shops. One of which yielded an HDCD copy of Madeleine Peyroux's 'Dreamland', so I shall be able to try ripping and replay to HDCD, or get MusicBee to transcode to 24-bit FLAC.