HDCD's
- Thread starter Catcher10
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Brett a
~◦●○o0o○●◦~
I've owned HDCD players for about 12 years now and the difference between HDCD and non, isn't all that discernible. I won't make it a priority to have it in any future player.
But to answer your question, it's my understanding that the HDCD encoding is a parallel data stream that if your player does not recognize, it just plays it in redbook just like every other CD.
If you're asking out of curiosity about shopping for CDs and wondering if HDCDs are inherently better in all players, they might be. The few dozen I have are all very well engineered/mastered.
But to answer your question, it's my understanding that the HDCD encoding is a parallel data stream that if your player does not recognize, it just plays it in redbook just like every other CD.
If you're asking out of curiosity about shopping for CDs and wondering if HDCDs are inherently better in all players, they might be. The few dozen I have are all very well engineered/mastered.
1tumbleweed
Kozmik Kowboy
I've got a few HDCDs and recently obtained a couple Denons that can decode them and have found out much of what has already been said.
HDCDs DO sound good, but they always seem to be recordings that were recorded well in the first place; so one's never sure what the HDCD is doing; if anything. That being said, I wouldn't make HDCD decoding the driving force in my CD deck search, but rather view it as a pleasant option and be glad it's included. FWIW, if you see a CD that is HDCD encoded, you can be pretty sure it will sound good, even in redbook.
One thing not mentioned here is that the HDCD encoding is burnable, which is to say, if you copy a disc to your hard drive and then want to burn a copy to take to a get together, the burned copy will also be HDCD encoded.
HDCDs DO sound good, but they always seem to be recordings that were recorded well in the first place; so one's never sure what the HDCD is doing; if anything. That being said, I wouldn't make HDCD decoding the driving force in my CD deck search, but rather view it as a pleasant option and be glad it's included. FWIW, if you see a CD that is HDCD encoded, you can be pretty sure it will sound good, even in redbook.
One thing not mentioned here is that the HDCD encoding is burnable, which is to say, if you copy a disc to your hard drive and then want to burn a copy to take to a get together, the burned copy will also be HDCD encoded.
johnemonahan
SIDEVALVE
The hdcd's sound really good on my Rotel stuff. A lot of the cd's don't even say on the package that they are hdcd encoded ( a fair amount of country music I noticed ) .
Lots of the Grateful Dead Remastered recordings are HDCD - they do sound great! I recently got a couple Joni Mitchel HDCD recordings - For the Roses and Hejira - playing them back with my OPPO disc player - I think it makes a difference. My old HK changer did HDCD as well ...
Catcher10
Prog-tastic!
OPPO players are HDCD ready....so you get the direct advantage. I am wondering for those players NOT HDCD ready how do they sound, since they will be played as normal redbook standard.
It seems as though they do sound pretty good.
I understand, tho when I load them into iTune as Apple Lossless files, I just get redbook info - the Mac Proc superdrive does not read the HDCD info ... and I play a lot of my music through the iTunes/Airtunes system for convenience.
That's the rub; a lot of the HDCD recordings already sound great in redbook, so it's hard to determine what, if any, effect the HDCD encoding has.
Does anybody know of a crappy recording that stinks up the place in redbook, but is stellar on HDCD??? I can't think of any off hand..:scratch2:
BTW, +1 on the Grateful Dead recordings, which is probably why I found an HDCD deck..:yes:
Try burning one back to CD and see if it plays as HDCD. Mine did out of FLAC in J. River, which doesn't play it as HDCD out of the computer. So the info may be there, and your software just doesn't read it.
Catcher10
Prog-tastic!
That would be good to know.....
Well, Microsoft DID buy HDCD developers Pacific Microsonics,
so there may be something to the incompatibility thing on my Mac ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCD
FWIW, I don't think J. River plays them back as HDCD in Windows either, so I don't think it's so much incompatibility as lack of software in both Mac and Windows systems to decode the info.
If you want the HDCD experience, you'll probably have to play it from the disc.
If you want the HDCD experience, you'll probably have to play it from the disc.
My old Harman Kardon AVR7300 receiver could do its own HDCD decoding - so (I think) I fed the CD output on the coaxial line from the OPPO as PCM or something similar and let the AVR decode it ... I suspect it wouldn't care what the actual source was if it had an incoming HDCD datastream over a coaxial input - Computer, Airtunes or OPPO ...
Of course, the Piece o'Garbage receiver was too sophisticated for its own good, and has died repeatedly since this picture ...
so I can't test my theory at this point.
Of course, the Piece o'Garbage receiver was too sophisticated for its own good, and has died repeatedly since this picture ...
so I can't test my theory at this point.
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SoNic67
Well-Known Member
If the source is bitperfect, you will be able to decode the HDCD with the receiver (fed via coax of optical SPDIF).
For example: I have a WDTV Live connected optical to a Denon AVR3805 (with HDCD decoding) and I can play FLAC files (encoded HDCD) to be detected corectly on the receiver as HDCD.
For example: I have a WDTV Live connected optical to a Denon AVR3805 (with HDCD decoding) and I can play FLAC files (encoded HDCD) to be detected corectly on the receiver as HDCD.
