JVC XRCD - RIP as of April 2006

[polkatese]

The next one to go. Honestly, with these many higher-rez formats, I am start losing track on which one to keep track of. My purchase of SACD is slowing down, mainly due to lack of desirable and/or new releases. I have several XRCDs in collections, but I am not sure if I'll be terribly missed the format, if they are gone.

In the mean time, there should be some sales on scambay of a few XRCDs.

[Toxis]

I carry JVC at my store and don't have a single player that even plays XRCD. what's it say when the owner of the technology doesn't even sell it in retail shops?

[John K.]

There's sometimes a misunderstanding about what XRCDs actually are(which, along with the price, certainly doesn't help sales). It isn't an audio format, hi-rez or otherwise, which requires a special player. They belong to the regular redbook CD format, but JVC lavished special care and equipment on them in the mixing and mastering process to get the best possible sound out of the original recordings. Just as re-masterings for DVD-As/SACDs often have resulted in significantly better two-channel sound(not the higher sampling rates and/or bits involved)compared to the original CDs, XRCDs show a similar advantage. Anyone willing to get past the price and splurge a bit should consider the superb job they did with The Planets (http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=3103484).

[mantis]

It's a result of how the market is going. Ipod is in and High quality sound is not.

Brand new radio formats in sat radio are only cd quality or colose to it if you ask me are in. people today are not looking for good sound quality. Just cool ways to listen to music.

2 channel might live somewhere and is a going art, but I don't get to see it.

Dan