Hdcd

[Ceruleance]

Who has experience with HDCD capable equipment and HDCD encoded CD's?

Impressions?

[phuz]

It's all in the DACs, and it's completely relative to the rest of your system.

If there are multiple HDCDs that you are really into then go for it, but if the rest of your system is not up to par it wouldn't be worth it.

HDCSs sound better than standard CDs anyway due to the way they are recorded and mastered, wether or not you hear a big difference is up to your ears.

[hoosier21]

I am a believer, not a night and day difference but it is there.

[polkatese]

IMO, HDCD by itself is not going to give you the best bang for the money. I have DVD/A player with HDCD, and without. Also, my pre/pro are HDCD. In almost every case, my better regular redbook album (such as those as GRP, Concord label) will match those with HDCD recording in terms of sound quality. A better route is to have SACD capable players, and buy hybrid SACD with enhanced CD on the redbook, since it will have comparable/on par quality with HDCD....

[jrausch]

IMO, HDCD gives a 5-8% improvement over regular CD audio where SACD/DVD-A gives a 45-85% improvement depending on how they convert the original material into 2 or 5ch's. I do have a killer Jazz sampler I got from Monster Power that was done up in HDCD and it's very clean and dynamic.

[DarqueKnight]

The few HDCDs I have sound great and are very well-recorded. However, It is difficult to tell how much of the sound quality is due to the HDCD process or due to the recording engineer's dilligence.

The only way I could quantify any sonic improvements would be if I had a regular CD and an HDCD of the same recording. Does anyone know of any recordings (jazz preferred) that have been issued in both format?

[tonyv1]

Get Dave Brubeck's "Time Out", it's not labelled as an HDCD, but the HDCD light comes on when you play it.

[hoosier21]

Raife if you played a HDCD on a HDCD player, then on a non-HDCD player, would that give you something to compare, right?

[DarqueKnight]

Not really, because I would not know how much of the sonic differences are attributable to the different CD players and how much is attributable to the different CD formats.

[hoosier21]

Yep, it would be too much of a difference, you are right

[DarqueKnight]

I am using an Adcom GCD-750 CD player which is able to decode HDCD disks. However, the HDCD feature cannot be switched on/off.