Is this for real? (HDCD question)

organ

As you all know I'm a huge fan of SB. While looking through ebay, I came across this disc. It's not available in my record stores but NONE of her albums available in Canada are HDCD. Did the Chinese re-master the original album with higher resolution? By looking at the CD case and info, it looks legit. I think I'm going to order them and give them a listen.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4018031077&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Here's another:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4017317937&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Maurice

organ

Whooooaaaaaaa! I just came across these discs too. Can anyone confirm if they're real SACD's? Can't find them on amazon.com I already own all of them but if they're REAL SACD's, I must buy them!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46354&item=4018169904&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46354&item=4018169971&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

OH MY!!! MY FAV ALBUM!!!! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46354&item=4018171090&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Maurice

AsSiMiLaTeD

Yes, Sarah has several SACDs out and I own them all...

Really awesome stuff...

I normally don't dig multichannel stuff...but her music works well with and sounds great in MC...

organ

Sweet! Thanks Polkmaniac. I'm going to buy the SACD in a few weeks. I just bought the La Luna and Harem HDCD. Can't wait to hear how they sound.

Maurice

Danny Tse

The first link to ebay shows a pirated CD....Sarah Brightman is on EMI, not Sony. Having just returned from Hong Kong/China last night, these type of pirated CDs are everywhere.

There are 3 Sarah Brightman multi-channel hybrid SACDs released by Hong Kong EMI. These are also available at yesasia.com (a legit e-tailer based in San Francisco) for $19.99/each, with free shipping for orders over $40.00.

See here.

organ

Ah sh#t. I'm going to give myself a good kick in the ****. I bought both of them.

Does the 'Harem' CD look real to you? There was another seller selling the exact same CD and he guarantees that it's the official Asia released, not bootleg.

Is it possible that the cd's could have been distributed by another label overseas? I know this is the case with my black metal cd's. They would be released under one label in Europe and get distributed by another here in North America.

I guess I'll have to wait until they arrive. You learn from your mistakes.

Isn't it illegal for them to stamp the HDCD logo on pirated cd's?

Maurice

organ

Thanks for the link. I will order 'Time....' in a few days. Is there a high resolution 2ch layer on the disc? Now that you've had more time to listen, is it that much better than the redbook version?

I'm going to check the record stores first because I hate waiting for delivery.

Maurice

Danny Tse

organ,

I just returned from Hong Kong/China 2 nights ago....suffering serious jet lag now.

I can't really tell if the "Harem" CD is real or not. That's how good piracy has become. It's now unusual to have a second disc or even special remixes for the Hong Kong/China market. As for the HDCD label peing pirated, you haven't seen nothing yet....just about every pirated CD over there has HDCD labeled on it. Some even has the DSD label.

Now, there are legit DSD-remastered CDs. Here in the US, Elvis alone has 4 of them out. And Hong Kong Warner Bros., ironically, is a heavy promoter of DSD-remastered CDs. I just purchased a 2 CD Carpenters compilation put out by Hong Kong Universal that was remastered using DSD last fall....perhaps that's why a Carpenters SACD is coming this summer.

As for Sarah Brightman being on another label in Hong Kong/China, she's definitely on EMI. She's listed as their artist on HK EMI's
website. The website was promoting her tour in China. In fact, she just finished touring China when I was there; I saw footage of her performing in either Shanghai or Beijing.

>>in pimping mode<< see my thread over at hometheaterforum.com regarding hi-rez in Hong Kong and China

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=199843

organ

Hi Danny,
Thanks for the info. Yeah, I read about her concerts in China. People really enjoyed it there. I'll be going to her next one fore sure. I missed her back in Feb so it looks like it's going to be at least a year minimum before she returns. Looks like you had a lot of fun overseas. Glad you found some stuff on SACD. The jet lag will not be a problem in a few days:) That's a very good point about EMI. If there's an EMI in HK, they wouldn't let Sony distribute the albums. Also, SB is not listed on www.hdcd.com

I just e-mailed the seller with this message:
"Hi Tim,
You advertised the items as "Official Asia Relsease". I was informed by several people today that many of the Chinese CD's are bootlegs. If they are, they wouldn't be an "Official Asia Release". I visited www.hdcd.com and Sarah Brightman was not listed on their site for releasing HDCD's. If the items haven't been sent out, forget the sale, and I would like my money back please. If they are indeed bootlegs and you advertise them as "Official Asia Release", that would fall under false advertising and not to mention the sale of bootleg cd's is illegal! If they are REAL releases, send them out. But if I receive them and find out they're bootlegs, you can expect a negative feedback. My e-bay user name is organ0009. Please e-mail me back with some answers here.

Maurice"

I feel like a complete ****, letting bootleggers get my money. I support my artists not some a**holes who copy and re-sell their music. F*ckers!!!

Maurice

Danny Tse

organ,

Be mindful that not every HDCD-encoded CD is listed on the HDCD.com website. There are a great numbers of releases by the Hong Kong divisions of the "Big 5" that don't show up on the HDCD.com website. I suppose the Hong Kong market is very small in a grand view of things, but it's a very audiophile-oriented city. The HK "Big 5" don't necessarily play by the rules established by their corporate parents and will bend rules to local preferences....that's why Hong Kong Warner Bros. released SACD instead of DVD-A.

EMI is actually very well-established in Hong Kong, and even in China, it goes back to before WWII. In recent months, rumor was that HK EMI was ready to cease any new recording projects due to piracy. Instead, it has released 3 Sarah Brightman SACDs plus 2 other SACD titles for Vanessa Mae and Maksim.

BTW, any recent HK EMI "CD" will be copy-protected....meaning that the regular "Compact Disc" logo will not appear on neither the disc nor the packaging. Sony and Philips maintain that any copy-protected "CD" violated their patents.

mhw58

Ebay also has 2 Eva Cassidy HDCD's for sale and the HDCD
site doesn't list any Eva cd's. Anyone know if this is for real:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4017227184&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Thanks, Mike

organ

Danny,
Thanks for the info. It's a plus it could be remastered in HDCD and most people love their audio. No reply from the seller yet. I guess I'll e-mail him again and tell him to go ahead and send them because I don't want to deal with a whole bunch of crap from paypal.

Mhw,
Danny stated earlier that the pirated cd's in China are so good, it's hard to tell them apart from the real thing. I guess the best thing to do is to try it out since it's not expensive. I'll report back on this thread when I receive the cd's.

Maurice

Danny Tse

While in China, I was so tempted to pick up that 2-CD Beatles "1" compilation. Now as we all know here in the States, "1" is a one disc compilation. But in China, there are close to a total of 50 tracks for this compilation. How much, you ask? RMB20.00....about US$3.00. Very nicely package, wrapped in shrink-wrap, and HDCD-encoded. Heck, I would buy it knowing I would have to put a ton effort into making such a compilation myself than my US$3.00. But I don't want to reward the pirates.

As for the Eva Cassidy CD....slim case? I have yet to see a slim case on a legit or pirated CD.

Again, once overseas, you really need to know your stuff when buying music. An artist can be on a different label from the one in the US, which can mean their music may show up on different formats. For example, Genesis has finsihed a new 5.1 hi-rez version of its classic "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", which is coming in September. Genesis is on Atlantic Records here in the States, which most likely means the hi-rez version of "The Lamb" will be on DVD-A. On the other hand, Genesis is on Virgin overseas, which is a SACD supporter. So you basically have to pick and choose.

Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms" on XRCD, anyone?

F1nut

Originally posted by Danny Tse
.....that's why Hong Kong Warner Bros. released SACD instead of DVD-A.

And where would I find these HK Warner Bros. SACD's???


Yes, XRCD is great. I just ordered River Of Sorrow on XRCD24, the cover alone is worth the money.

Danny Tse

F1nut,

The XRCD24 of "River of Sorrow" still has that thick booklet that came with the now out-of-print SACD?

The Hong Kong Warner Bros. SACDs are released for its local artists only. All of them are single-layer stereo SACD packaged with a DSD-remastered CD of the same music. Almost all of them were made by Sony from its Indiana CD plant, and some of them were remastered for SACD by Vic Anesini, who also did work for Bob Dylan. The last Hong Kong Warner SACD was actually a multi-channel hybrid release, but after that, HK Warner pulled the plugged bowing to pressure from corporate Warner. Almost all of the 9 titles released are close to or out-of-print, but some are still available. HK Warner continues to issue DSD-remastered CDs.

All of the titles are listed at sa-cd.net. Look under the "Labels" section. There's also another title released by "Show Music" that was distributed by Hong Kong Warner.

See below links to the "international incident" I started....

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=123378&highlight=HK+Warner

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=128607&highlight=HK+Warner

organ

Well, I received them today and they are indeed pirated. Even the 'Harem' album said 'Universal Music Records'.

BUT there's one thing that's confusing me. One of the album alone had 16 HDCD logos and descriptions from what I can count on the CD, case, booklet, etc. When inserted into my NAD, the red HDCD light came on. WTF???? How did the pirates manage to encode HDCD on to their discs? Did they re-master them in any way? weird.....

Maurice

Danny Tse

organ,

I am at a lost for words regarding HDCD encoding. I am shocked already that my computer's Windows Media Player decodes HDCD.

organ

Yeah, HDCD is bigger than most people think. It's normal for them to put it on Windows Media Player because Microsoft purchased HDCD a few years back. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if my XBOX decodes HDCD LOL:D.

Maurice

begbie

Gotta agree....Hong Kong is very audiophile oriented. My uncle's cd collection of various Asian stars have legit HDCD processing and sound fantastic.

As for Western artists, you'd have to bear down and do the homework I find !

Danny Tse

begbie,

You are right about Hong Kong being an audiophile-oriented city. Yes, I was actually using a HDCD-encoded CD from Hong Hong Warner Music to test Windows Media Player. HK Warner, HK Universal, and HK Sony are big supporters of HDCD.

Recently, all these music companies, plus HK BMG has jumped on the DSD bandwagon. They are using DSD to remaster music and releasing them on CD and SACD. HK Universal remastered a Carpenters "Best of"compilation last fall, and this September, the Carpenters are coming on SACD.

So, watch out for CDs with "DSD" as the buzzword.

Here's photo of the Carpenters DSD-CD on ebay.

Danny Tse

organ and Polkmaniac,

Being big Sarah Brightman fans, maybe you guys will be interested in the following item....

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1003603182/section-music/code-w/

It's a legit item, being from yesasia.com and EMI of Taiwan. Not bad for US$20.00. I think it includes a lot more than the following item at amazon.com....

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00009L1U7/qid=1088098343/sr=1-20/ref=sr_1_20/104-9626054-2487912?v=glance&s=music

organ

Hi Danny,
Thanx for the link. I already have all the songs on that CD in various albums and I own the DVD as well which looks exactly the same (Harem, Desert Fantasy) as the one I already own.

I purchased the Canadian limited edition which includes the DVD and Harem just like the second link you posted.

The Taiwan version would look very pretty in my collection though:). I'll probably end up buying it anywaysLOL.

Man, I was listening to her "Time to say Goodbye" album again last night and I just LOVE it! I'm going to buy the SACD first. I just hope there's a high res 2ch track on that. I'm not a big fan of 5.1 music. Her songs on the "Harem" DVD were remixed in 5.1 and I can't say I was that impressed.

I've been listening to her "Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection" a lot lately. Excellent album. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000I0XW/qid=1088106422/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/103-5467636-1175869?v=glance&s=classical

And I'm really enjoying "Dive" as well.

Did you hear about the new live DVD and CD coming out?

Thanks again for the link.

Maurice

Danny Tse

organ,

It is in SACD's specs that a 2 channel hi-rez mix must be included on every SACD. So all of Sarah Brightman's SACDs has a 2 channel hi-rez mix. None of that downmixing business with SACDs.

I have not heard of any news regarding a live CD or DVD though.

I also found the below post on audioasylum.com regarding Chinese HDCD-encoded CDs that you may find interesting....

>>I thought I should shed some light on this. I'm from the UK, but I have worked in the legit music and movie distribution business in Asia for many years.
Record labels, like movie studios, have authorised distributors in almost every country. On request, the distributor gets sent a DAT (48Khz) master of the recording, plus cover-art, promo material etc. (In the old days, it would have been the analog tapes, but that's pretty rare now.) The label gets a percentage of sales turnover in return. The distributor will want to do pressing, printing etc locally so as to maximize profits. Usually, the distributor will just pass the DAT tape to the CD replication plant, who typically offers a full service, including mastering, printing, packing etc. The conversion from 48khz DAT to 44.1Khz is done using, for example, a "high end" professional converter like those made by dCS. Other converters use the HDCD chip, or a 24bit resampler. Savvy distributors know that HDCD or "24bit remastered" labels on the packaging will boost sales of titles like "Come away with me".

Although it is true that pirating is rampant in China, usually the pirates just dupe from an existing CD. They won't bother with the expense of remastering. You can usually tell a pirated copy from the quality of the silks creen printing on the disc.

As to whether the HDCD verion sounds better, the answer is probably yes. <<

I am not sure if this is true, but it sounds reasonable. Still, I would like to see the item on the label's official website. Just to ease my mind.