Xrcd

Lsi9
Lsi9 Posts: 616
edited February 2009 in 2 Channel Audio
XRCD
Whats the deal with these are they worth it?

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  • Early B.
    Early B. Posts: 7,900
    edited February 2009
    Nope.
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  • hearingimpared
    hearingimpared Posts: 21,137
    edited February 2009
    I have one, The Best of Dire Straits," and I wasn't impressed. I have CDs that sound better and SACD kicks the daylights out of the XRCD.
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,194
    edited February 2009
    xrcd is a JVC product that is suppose to clean up the orignal recording to cd. It's suppose to be as close as the studio cut. I have one disc and never found another.
    Good luck finding them. I gave up years ago. I did however like the audio quality. It was not SACD but it was very clean.

    Dan
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • madmax
    madmax Posts: 12,434
    edited February 2009
    The ones I heard sounded awesome.
    Vinyl, the final frontier...

    Avantgarde horns, 300b tubes, thats the kinda crap I want... :D
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  • hearingimpared
    hearingimpared Posts: 21,137
    edited February 2009
    madmax wrote: »
    The ones I heard sounded awesome.

    Chuck what were they?
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,561
    edited February 2009
    XRCD's are mostly classical and jazz with a few blues issues, including one of the best blues recordings ever released, Robert Lucas - Luke and the Locomotives. The sound quality is stellar and at $30.00, it's steal.

    There were 3 Hong Kong issued rock XRCD's, Steve Miller - The Joker, Eagles - Hell Freezes Over and Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms. The Eagles issue is stellar and BIA was the benchmark until the SACD version came out.


    I have one disc and never found another.

    You weren't looking very hard. http://www.elusivedisc.com/products.asp?dept=859
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • schwarcw
    schwarcw Posts: 7,337
    edited February 2009
    I have two Amanding McBroom XRCD's ("Dreaming" link= Here and "Growing up in Hollywood Town" link = Here ) that sounded excellent. These Japanese pressings were better than any redbook version that I heard. Quality product all the way. 20bit mastering, these rivaled even some of the best SACD's. There are hard to find, and not very many popular titles, but they are very good.
    Carl

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  • schwarcw
    schwarcw Posts: 7,337
    edited February 2009
    deleted double post
    Carl

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  • John K.
    John K. Posts: 822
    edited February 2009
    Lsi9, the deal is that although the XRCDs are regular CD format, JVC has used special care in processing the original recordings, and the remastering has resulted in a significant improvement in sound quality, at least in some cases. As always, the quality of the original recording process and the mixing and mastering which follows will control the sound quality, regardless of whether the end product is a CD, SACD or whatever.

    As was pointed out, Elusive Disc does distribute XRCDs, and I've dealt with them several times(recordings only)with satisfaction. One disc that I got on sale(still a bit of a splurge at a little over $20) a couple of years ago can be highly recommended and is this recording of The Planets . The music, performance and sound quality are all terrific, but of course it does cost about four times what the regular CD does. Whether it's worth the extra cost has to be your call, but if you'd like to try one, it's a real winner.
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  • schwarcw
    schwarcw Posts: 7,337
    edited February 2009
    John, besides the "Planets", what are some of your other favorites on XRCD?

    Carl
    Carl

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  • John K.
    John K. Posts: 822
    edited February 2009
    Carl, despite the quality of several others that I've heard, the price brings forth such a wince factor that the only other one I have is this Scheherazade .
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  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,251
    edited February 2009
    This type of thing really irks me. This is just like Superbit DVDs. Why the heck can't these better implementations of CDs and DVDs just be the standard, rather than making two formats of the same thing, and gouging the consumer by charging $40 for a $15 CD.
    Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,561
    edited February 2009
    It's not that simple, nor is it price gouging as it's not a typical mass produced $15.00 CD. It takes more money, time, skill and high tech equipment to make a higher quality product like the XRCD's. Even if something like XRCD were the standard, you'd pay more than $15.00 to cover the additional cost it takes to make them and we all know the general public couldn't give a rat's a$$ about high fidelity. They already think that $15.00 is too high even though a standard redbook CD is a product that will most likely out live them.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • comfortablycurt
    comfortablycurt Posts: 6,745
    edited February 2009
    Very good point...what's best for certain niche groups(i.e. audiophiles) doesn't necessarily make sense for the whole market.

    If they were to switch over all CD's to an XRCD format or something equivalent, the vast majority of people wouldn't even realize it, and even if they did know, most of them wouldn't even care. 9 times out of 10 people aren't even going to know what an SACD is.

    The technology is better, and more expensive to utilize. Those costs get handed down to the consumer ultimately. That's why they make those things optional. Most people aren't going to pay 40 dollars for a CD. Like Jesse said, most people whine about having to pay 15. Those who are willing to pay to play though...can track down the higher fidelity releases that are available.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,561
    edited February 2009
    Speaking of SACD, Sony originally had a plan to issue their entire catalog in hybrid SACD. No more redbook CD's. The cost for those would have been a bit higher, about $20.00 or so. Unfortunately, that never happened, but it wasn't the added cost that stopped Sony. They simply changed their fickle minds, again. :mad:
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • comfortablycurt
    comfortablycurt Posts: 6,745
    edited February 2009
    They wouldn't have had any objections here on releasing their whole catalog on hybrid SACD. That would be a great move I think.

    I would think that after SACD got more settled into the market place, the prices would come down after a while too. I guess that'll never happen now though...Damn CEO's...

    I just had my first SACD experience today...and I was blown away by it to say the least. Just got my first SACD player today...the only SACD I have is the Pink Floyd DSOTM hybrid. It's phenomenal though! There are little nuances I'm finding all over through the entire CD, that I've never noticed before. The mix is out of this world too. Haven't checked out the Multi-channel on it yet though. My SACD collection is definitely going to be growing very soon.
    The nirvana inducer-
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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited February 2009
    F1nut wrote: »
    There were 3 Hong Kong issued rock XRCD's, Steve Miller - The Joker, Eagles - Hell Freezes Over and Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms. The Eagles issue is stellar and BIA was the benchmark until the SACD version came out.

    That's sort of correct. In the US, there were 2 pop/rock SACD releases...."The Joker" by Steve Miller and "Private Dancer" by Tina Turner.

    Just as with SACD, there are more XRCD titles, in general, released in Hong Kong. For pop-oriented titles, you can get XRCD of Aaron Neville's "Warm Your Heart", Diana Krall's "Look of Love", Kenny G's "Breathless", Nat "King" Cole's "Love Songs", etc. These were all commissioned for XRCD by Hong Kong Universal Music. As with all XRCD, they are all remastered and manufactured in Japan. One thing that needs to be pointed out about all of the Hong Kong XRCDs, including the Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over" and Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms", is that these XRCD titles are intended to be sold in Hong Kong only. Therefore, they may be remastered for the listening preferences of Hong Kong audiophiles.

    Oh, I forgot another Hong Kong XRCD title....The Carpenters' "Gold - Greatest Hits". Here are a couple of pics of mine....

    2979267614_c315e04e5c.jpg
    2979268040_0f63e90612.jpg
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  • Hawkeye
    Hawkeye Posts: 1,313
    edited February 2009
    If I could replace all of my Redbooks with XRCD, I would. I have about 15 or 20 and the difference is remarkable. The XRCDs seem to get played more often than RBs for their clean and mostly uncompressed sound.

    It seems to me we spend large amounts of money on gear yet baulk at spending money on software. People complain, myself included about the poor quality of recordings, yet don't want to pay for well recorded music.

    As F1Nut mentioned, Elusive disk has a "fairly" good selection to choose from. There is not a lot of Rock available, but that does not concern me since most of what they offer is more in line with what I listen to.

    Gordon
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  • hearingimpared
    hearingimpared Posts: 21,137
    edited February 2009
    Wow I must have received the only bad copy of an XRCD made the way you guys are talking about the ones you have. Maybe I need to take another listen to the one I have.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,561
    edited February 2009
    Danny, thanks for the correction. Let me return the favor. :)
    That's sort of correct. In the US, there were 2 pop/rock SACD releases...."The Joker" by Steve Miller and "Private Dancer" by Tina Turner.

    Replace SACD with XRCD.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • fbm211
    fbm211 Posts: 1,488
    edited February 2009
    Im going to order the brothers in arms.I wish the hell freezes over was in stock.
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  • danz1906
    danz1906 Posts: 5,144
    edited February 2009
    Most XRCD sound great:D
    Linn AV5140 fronts
    Linn AV5120 Center
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    SVS Ultra-13 Gloss Black:D
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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited February 2009
    F1nut wrote: »
    Danny, thanks for the correction. Let me return the favor. :)

    Replace SACD with XRCD.

    Thanks for pointing that out. ;)

    Seems like there's currently a proliferation of these audiophile "formats"....XRCD, SHM-CD and Blu-Spec CD (in Japan), and LPCD (in Hong Kong).
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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited February 2009
    fbm211 wrote: »
    Im going to order the brothers in arms.I wish the hell freezes over was in stock.

    You can order directly from Hong Kong reseller on ebay. Currently, the seller "unixsytem" has one for $27.00 + shipping. I purchased from him before, such as the Carpenters XRCD above.

    By the way, for Carpenters fans, Hong Kong Universal Music has released 2 sets of "greatest hits" package remastered with DSD. It was discussed at the A&M Corner here and here.
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  • comfortablycurt
    comfortablycurt Posts: 6,745
    edited February 2009
    Danny Tse wrote: »
    Thanks for pointing that out. ;)

    Seems like there's currently a proliferation of these audiophile "formats"....XRCD, SHM-CD and Blu-Spec CD (in Japan), and LPCD (in Hong Kong).

    SHM-CD? I've never heard of that one. Any good?
    The nirvana inducer-
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    Audioquest Speaker Cables and IC's
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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited February 2009
    comfortablycurt wrote: »
    SHM-CD? I've never heard of that one. Any good?

    I don't know since I haven't purchased one yet. These are released for the Japanese market only and are generally more expensive than a SACD. However, there's a wealth of titles and it's supported by many music companies. Go to below link to see what's available on SHM-CD....

    SHM-CD @ cdjapan.co.jp
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  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,251
    edited February 2009
    Danny Tse wrote: »
    I don't know since I haven't purchased one yet. These are released for the Japanese market only and are generally more expensive than a SACD. However, there's a wealth of titles and it's supported by many music companies. Go to below link to see what's available on SHM-CD....

    SHM-CD @ cdjapan.co.jp


    Apparently, you can a similar effect by applying this to your CDs.
    http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/mikrosmooth.php
    and
    http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/optrix.php
    Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
    Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
    Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes

    Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
    Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
    Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables

    Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
    Three 20 amp circuits.
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  • hearingimpared
    hearingimpared Posts: 21,137
    edited February 2009
    You can't go wrong with Mapleshade CDs, I have several and all are excellent SQ.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,561
    edited February 2009
    SHM-CD's are standard redbook CD's that use a slightly different coating material that is optically clearer than the normal coating material. They are not hi-rez, remastered or different mixes, etc.

    I have purchased a number of them. With some, I can't hear a difference, with others I can, which seems to be on par with the experience of others. I seriously doubt that I will buy anymore.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • hearingimpared
    hearingimpared Posts: 21,137
    edited February 2009
    F1nut wrote: »
    SHM-CD's are standard redbook CD's that use a slightly different coating material that is optically clearer than the normal coating material. They are not hi-rez, remastered or different mixes, etc.

    I have purchased a number of them. With some, I can't hear a difference, with others I can, which seems to be on par with the experience of others. I seriously doubt that I will buy anymore.

    What you need is a CD rounder!:D
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