I'm in love with HDCD

Lowell_M

After discovering the first HDCD played through my H/K DAC, my listening tastes have changed from listening to a particular kind of music to just searching out HDCD's.

I don't even like Mellencamp, but I'm playing an HDCD release of one of his albums that is just plain awesome. The soundstage is so open and the dynamics are mind boggling. A mid-volume level (-25db) listening session is very pleasing to the ears. Seems to be just the right volume to capture the dynamics, but not be super loud.

Just for kicks, I though in the new Daughtry CD for a second.... yuck. This CD rocks for working out with headphones and drives in the car, but has no place in the main rig. It's just no fun. Everything is the same damn volume with no emotion.

Ok.... So there isn't much point to this post. HDCD rocks....pop sucks. Everytime I listen to something down here, it just makes me freakin smile in disbelief....and I needed to share....sharing is good.

treitz3

Have you heard SACD? It's yet a notch above HDCD. Sharing is good.:D

Lowell_M

No... never heard SACD. ....Damn it.... Don't you make me head down the Upgradit road!

I just through in Wyntin Marsallis - Reeltime. It's not HDCD, but a damn nice recording.

I am supposed to be sitting here working on my MBA homework (with music in the background) but have done more active listening than anything. Darn hobby sucks you right in.

AndyGwis

You can pick up a used SACD player for a couple hundred bucks. Check out Sony's ES offerings used on ebay and Agon. May I suggest the SCD-C222ES (or any SCD-ES model you can afford) or the DVP-S9000ES.

I have owned both and they are great value. For $250-$350, the Sony 9000ES gives you a great dedicated audio player and a very good DVD player.

There are several PE models 47avi, 59avi, 46av as well depending on your budget and needs that would be worth looking into, and Denon 2200/2900, Marantz 6400/7500/8400 etc.

strider

If you're looking for HDCD releases, most, if not all, of the titles on the Acoustic Disc label are in HDCD.

Music Joe

Cymbals,strings,dynamics all take on a more organic you are there quality on well done HDCD decoded.

treitz3

a_mattison wrote:

No... never heard SACD. ....Damn it.... Don't you make me head down the Upgradit road!

Sorry, man. I heard nothing. I said nothing. You didn't hear a thing. Nobody saw it. Nobody read it. Can't prove a thing.:eek:

organ

Yeah, SACD is great. I have quite a few. But don't forget, not all HDCD encoded discs are great. Some are terrible. I have some redbook that are as good as HDCD. I think the reason most HDCD discs sound good is because they took better care during recording, mastering, production, etc.
I do enjoy the added high freq extension on HDCD. Clarity is excellent too.

HBombToo

I do believe there is value in HDCD,SACD,DTS and Dolby.

I see more value in making sure the equipment you have plays all the redbook cd's you have sound better... There really is some great gear out there that should be enjoyed!

twin

Danny Tse

Just want to mention....

Not all HDCD-encoded CDs are identified by the HDCD logo, either on the CD or the packaging. You don't even know until the data is processed by a HDCD DAC. Microsoft, the current owner of HDCD, used to publish a not-so-complete listing of CDs encoded with HDCD. However, that webpage has since disappeared. There is now another not-so-complete website in Sweden that attempts the same. You can find that website in the below link....

Swedish website trying to catalog all HDCD releases

This Swedish website was mention on page 17 of this ongoing HDCD identification thread at head-fi.org. It was originally started to identify unmarked HDCDs. There's a lot of useful info there.

dkg999

I agree that the HDCD, XRCD, Mobil Fi disc's can sound very good! My Jolida CDP supposedly doesn't do HDCD, but most labelled HDCD discs do sound fantastic when played in the Jolida! I agree with the comments that there are a lot of well recorded std redbook cd's that also sound great.

Maybe you've just raised your setup to the level where you can now hear a significant difference between a well recorded and a not so well recorded CD :cool: And now like the rest of us, sometimes you change your preference in music because of how well recorded a certain cd is I'm not really a country fan, but those Allison Kraus & Union Station cd's sure are nicely done

ND13

I'm pretty sure that Van-Halen re-released, most, if not all of their catalogue in HDCD(Warner Bros.) Most of my Natalie Merchant cds are HDCD, too.

rskarvan

HDCD is darn impressive. Definately a big bonus when its on a CD.

avguytx

This may be a stupid question so please forgive. Is there an actual website that talks about HDCD's and which ones are? Are they still sold in stores or are the something that was done completely different? Like SACD, I guess. I have an SACD player/DVD-Audio player and a bunch of discs but I hear more about the HDCD and Redbook stuff and it got me to thinking. Maybe I need to do some searching in the posts and on the web.

Face

I did a search on Amazon to find HD and SA CD's. Unfortunately there aren't available that I would spend money on.

Lowell_M

dkg999 wrote:

Maybe you've just raised your setup to the level where you can now hear a significant difference between a well recorded and a not so well recorded CD :cool: And now like the rest of us, sometimes you change your preference in music because of how well recorded a certain cd is I'm not really a country fan, but those Allison Kraus & Union Station cd's sure are nicely done

Doug, All you're going to do by playing country is chase your dog away and that nice truck of yours will stop running. It's not worth the good recording. I was really concerned about your headphones the other weekend. I guess Jimmy Buffet will pass, but I didn't want anything to happen to those headphones.

I agree though, I can definately see a big difference between well recorded CD's with good dynamics and a poorly recorded CD with the dynamics destroyed for radio and pop fans. I can't even bear to listen to a CD I burned from I-tunes downloaded music. MP3's have their place, but not on the good rig.

I have begun listening to all kinds of music that I wouldn't normally be interested in because the recordings are so darn good. (no country, I don't care how good the recording is)

dkg999

The dog already ran away, and it wouldn't hunt anyhow :eek: Welcome to the dark side

I-SIG

I'm not sold on HDCD. My Bel Canto DAC seems to do at least as good a job with redbook CD's as any HDCD I've heard. I'm hoping to take it to the next level with some source upgrades soon.

Wes

Lowell_M

I-SIG wrote:

I'm not sold on HDCD. My Bel Canto DAC seems to do at least as good a job with redbook CD's as any HDCD I've heard. I'm hoping to take it to the next level with some source upgrades soon.

Wes

I think a good point was made earlier in that those who are recording to HDCD probably take more pride and care in their recordings, so the redbook version would also sound great. Maybe it isn't so much the impact that HDCD is making as the pride in the recordings.

Schwingding

Glad you've found your new format enjoyable. There are even better!

I think the key here, or one of them anyway, is your equipment needs to be of a certain caliber before you can truly appreciate the differences in formats. Exactly what that caliber is, I don't know, but I do know that I've had equipment where all redbook CDs sounded horrible to me compared to SACD and DVD-A, and I've had equipment that could barely discern between SACD and redbook CD. Now I can appreciate differences between standard redbook CDs, some are awesome, some horrible. Some sound as good as bad SACD titles (of which there are many).

Before you make the jump to SACD, do some research - you'll need a pre/pro that can accept the 5.1 analog inputs - SACD contains too much data to be transmitted over optical (toslink). The HDMI 1.3 spec does allow for it over HDMI, but your receiver and SACD player will have to be 1.3 capable ($$$ and little choices available)

Danny Tse

ND13 wrote:

I'm pretty sure that Van-Halen re-released, most, if not all of their catalogue in HDCD(Warner Bros.)

Just the titles during the DLR years. The Sammy titles have not been remastered (yet).

dudeinaroom

Best Buy and circuit city has the sony cd\sacd\dvd player listed in my sig for around 130-140 dollars

**edit forgot I changed my sig.**

Schwingding

Don't forget the Oppo players support DVD-A/SACD, too! At very reasonable prices, plus you get a very nice DVD player.