I've been a huge fan of HDCD since I discovered it way back when. I've had about 3 CD players that decoded HDCD, including an old Denon DCM-370 which I use often. One of my 8 stereo systems throughout my house consists of a vintage Pioneer SX-780 receiver, Denon DCM-370, and Polk Audio Monitor 10B speakers, and I am always blown away at how incredible this simple system sounds!
@@Coneman3 LOL, well when you take cost into consideration, even my 8 (now 9) systems combined, would pale in comparison to the cost of some people's one stereo system! Since I have an average income, I tend to see how great I can make more affordable components sound by mixing components, speakers, etc. My wife thinks i'm nuts, but it's all good I suppose!
Sounds like fun. Only an audiophile would understand. I always buy well and the few times I have upgraded I kept my existing gear. So have lots of spares. I’m a bit of a hoarder as well so hate parting with stuff. Good to have some spares as well. So s/h bargains online. I have potential for about 4 different setups round the house.
I remember my dad's Sony component system, had a decoder, it would always say HDCD before it played a HDCD, he did not trust me with his cds (i was 10) so he would copy stuff for me on to cassettes. my favorite artist was Garth Brooks and almost all of the 90s pressings of Garth albums where HDCd and I finally Talked my dad in to using a type 4 cassette to copy Double Live for me because of the CD being a HDCD.
Your father was 100% right. Those CDs are gold and he founded a way of preserving his CDs and estimulating your listening habits. It made me remember the fact that at least 80% of my classical music knowledge is thanks to my father’s CD collection.
I have the Grateful Dead at the closing of the Fillmore East in 1971. One of the best sounding records that i have. HDCD makes them sound like they are in your room
Thank you very very much, i don't have a hdcd player but following your precious advise i understood that i can unlock the hdcd using a plug in component in my computer. I usually rip my cds and tranfer the files in a computer that is connected to my system through an usb to spdif adaptor, i use my sacd player also as a dac, now i can decode the hdcd data in Foobar2000 wich feeds my system with asio drivers. Thank you again, without this video i was not aware of this possibility, i've enjoyed my first hdcd listening today and i'm amazed! Your videos are gold, keep them coming!
I own a dedicated blu rayer that plays HDCD. It really sounds wonderful, at least as good as SACD in my opinion. So, I hope the future players keep the HDCD option. ~Marjet
I know this comment is four years late and won’t be seen most likely, but you have the absolute best videos on audio and audio technologies on YT. I have only two or three HDCD’s (that I know of). In addition, I no longer have an external DAC that decodes HDCD. I do have a Cambridge CXUHD universal player, but I don’t think Cambridge’s second iteration of their universal player has the Pacific Microsonic’s HDCD chip. What I currently trying to figure out is how to get the SACD DSD stream out of my Cambridge unit into a DAC with I2S input in order to decode the DSD stream, but so far I’m’ not coming up with anything. I’m not trying to “pirate” music, I just want to hear my SACD’s in their full resolution. Thanks for this very interesting and informative video! Cheers, from Tomball, Texas
I read all comments! Thanks for your words! Well, it depends if you have an hdmi or I2s output. If you have an hdmi output on the player and a I2s input on your dac you just need this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KAqr8MP-in4.htmlsi=ViHKL5PxqcvOmsGu
@@anadialog Thank you so much for your response! It just so happens that I happened to find your video that you provided in your link sometime after watching your video on HDCD! But thank you for providing the link! My Cambridge unit has two HDMI outputs. 1, as audio only and the 2nd as audio and video meant to go to a dedicated home theater/processor which I do not have. I think the home theater/processor was the intentional way to decode the DSD stream, but that’s not what I want since I’m not into home theater setups. My current DAC is an Audiobyte Black Dragon and it has an I2S input on the back of it, but of course, as we all know, the stream from the transport is converted to PCM first, unless you use the audio/video HDMI output and run it into a box like you mention. I’m going to look into this and possibly a “D.B.O.B.” (Digital Breakout Box). Thank you again for your very informative information!
My CD of Green Day's Nimrod has HDCD encoding, and I tested a piece of decoder software on it earlier today. It makes quite a noticeable difference, and increases its originally brickwalled dynamic range to around the DR value that older CDs have. I don't know for sure why takeup among new releases was so low but I'd imagine licensing costs were part of it, since it was a proprietary technology licensed from a third party company. Even then, most HDCD decoded audio from the late 1990s and 2000s doesn't differ substantially in terms of DR to undecoded audio on CDs from the 1980s and early 1990s which lack brickwall compression, and a track from them typically takes up less space than what a lossless HDCD decoded file from Nimrod does. My decoded version of Nimrod does however sound slightly more detailed than most older CDs in terms of its soundstage. I think that HDCD decoded audio from late 1990s/2000s CDs is probably how the CD would have come to sound for new releases had the Loudness War not become a thing, and if masterers had instead continued to try and get the most out of what the CD was capable of, like they originally intended to in the 1980s, instead of trying to make their discs as loud as possible. I feel it's a shame that there weren't more HDCDs produced, and also that virtually all red book CDs released in the past 25 years are brickwall compressed.
I recently purchased Crosby Stills Nash greatest hits cd and about the third time playing it I noticed the HDCD light on my Rotel cd player was lit! That was a nice surprise. I have 6 HDCD cd's in my collection and looking to add more.
In the UK the most common HDCDs to see are the Beach Boys '2 album in 1' discs, Roxy Music, Mike Oldfield, Van Halen, Scott Walker, Joni Mitchell and the Bee Gees Their Greatest Hits.
I have the first six Van Halen HDCD versions. I knew they had great sound ripping them to my computer. I have since ripped them in 24 bit and they sound even more amazing!
Here's my setup Interga/Onkyo 6.7 (DVD CD transport) Denon AVR-3805 HDCD-AL24-PCM (used for audio only) Carver PM-600 amp Very pleased . Tool Lateralus album was my first HDCD and it definitely sets a precedent.
Thank you for explaining this. I have a Rotel player that is capable of this. Now going through all my old cd and find a lot are hdcd. Will pay more attention to this. Peter Frampton Comes Alive deluxe remaster is HDCD.
I have a Linn CD player with an HDCD decoder and the sound quality is fantastic. A lot of Joni Mitchell albums are available in the format and easy to find 2nd hand on Amazon for a few $/£ along with Beach Boys 2 for 1 discs too. A Michael Feinstein Gershwin disc is also available- all on Amazon for pennies!
Professor Keith Johnson, a man who made some of the most amazing analog recordings, right along with Enoch Light of Command Records. Those are my two analog idols. I have two copies of Sound Show by Keith Johnson direct to tape Reference Recordings. Good recordings are the key, more so than the medium
To repeat what I just said on another video, I agree that HDCD is nice and all discs I have heard with it just sound better, even if you cannot decode it. Highlight titles include the soundtracks for MEET JOE BLACK and THE LIMEY, plus SPEAK OF THE DEVIL and BAHA SESSIONS by Chis Isaak. Recently, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra issued an SA-CD with the CD/PCM layer being HDCD, so the format is not dead yet.
You just open my eyes I'm going to go nuts looking for this type of CDs I have no preferences I love vinyl and I love CDs I have plenty of both most CDs sounds beautiful love your videos God bless
I bought my Denon DCM-690 just so i could play all my Dead cd's in HDCD. Before that I had to play through my blu ray. In the liner notes inside the box of " Winterland 1973 complete recordings" there is two pages of explanation of how the original two-track 1/4" tapes were moved to 192KHz/24 bit. Using a Pacific Microsonics HDCD A/D converter. IMHO this is how CDs should have sounded originally. Some of my early Cds (Cream, Allman Brothers) I can't listen to anymore.
Weird fact, back in 1998 I got access to a 5,000 US $ Wadia CD player. It doesn't have HDCD decoding but it plays HDCD encoded discs much better than ordinary ones. Especially with Jimi Hendrix's Are You Expetienced CDs which were available in both HDCD encoded discs and ordinary CD version back in the mid 1990s. The HDCD encoded versions sounds closer to moving magnet vinyl playback and much less fatiguing over long listening sessions compared to ordinary CDs.
Nice finally to get a small story, i just got hold of an Rotel HDCD player in need of some help and i wanted to hear bout the background, think i will recap it and clean it up, see if i can find a HDCD to test with and have a listen :)
The Mark Knopfler's "Wag the Dog" album I recommended you is an HDCD album... In fact the late 90's and early 2000's albums from MK are all HDCD. Excellent quality there! Also, many DVD and some Blu-Ray players have HDCD decoding capabilities.
The first time I have seen this HDCD logo was in 1996, when I bought “Golden Heart” by Mark Knopfler. The sound of the cd is great but I don't think my cd had this decoder back then.
I have only 40 HDCDs but the great thing with them is that you can copy them perfect, if you just have the right software, which is impossible with SACDs.
Once you put an HDCD in your CD player you will get a light on your player telling you have an HDCD playing n the music was the best music I ever heard on CD my CD player is one of the cheapest players of the Shanling range was £500 at the time its made in China but I believe was designed in the USA n its using Ben Brown Digital to Analog chips from what I read at the time when Microsoft bout the rights to HDCDs All music companies colluded to stop using HDCDs as they didn't want Microsoft to have any hold over them n they came up with HSCD but really that was crap next to HDCD such a shame as the sound quality was in a different league The Only CDs that for me where comparable to vinyl, sorry guys maybe even better on some parameters All other CDs they sound as If a lot of music is missing from them not just a little, Many thanks for this brilliantly honest video mate
Most HDCD's will see zero difference between regular decoding on a standard CD player and HDCD decoding. They were just made with really good equipment and good AD converters. you can see whats going on with the Foobar HDCD scanner. They have HDCD flags but very rarely do any of them use the peak extension to remove the distortion from the loudness war's. Most just reduce the gain without peak extension and the transient filter. These will still light up your HDCD light and have no real difference just because the HDCD flag is there but using no features. Best example is Green Day - Dookie . This HDCD drops the gain and extends the peaks. This CD does sound much better have HDCD decoding!
Just found the HDCD logo on Mark Knopfler's "Golden heart", an album that I always perceived as very high quality sounding, way before knowing anything about hdcd encoding.
I have all three of the discs you showed; "On the Beach" and the two copies of "Workingman's Dead". However, the best playback system for CD that I have access to is my car stereo. I have compared those two Dead discs, and they are quite different. The MoFi can come across a bit muffled in comparison, but with perhaps better dynamic range. Did you listen to the SACD layer? I wonder if that would compare more favorably against the Rhino HDCD. I am also surprised that the OG HDCD sounded better to you than the more recent Plangent Processed versions! Aren't the new ones HDCDs as well?
I will just put a couple that people don't usually know and Have exceptional sound . Keiko Matsui - The Ring Most of her CD are HDCDs and all very good recording And The Big one people miss and one of the Best Rock Recordings on HDCD --- Supertramp - Some things never change From 1997 This HDCD blows people away on my system I also Recommend a a cheap alternative to OPPO players most old NAD Players play HDCD with very good sound such as the C-341i with Burr Brown Chip Set
''Dave Brubeck Quartet Original Album Classics 5CDs'' is an HDCD release from the masters by Sony from Columbia Records from the master tapes, simply amazing
@@anadialog sorry for the delay work been crazy busy, yes ur right only Time Out is HDCD, i don't know how i didn't notice it, maybe because Time out is my favourite but tbh they all sound great
So i currently use an old Aragon D2A2 HDCD Dac. When playing a HDCD disc the sound is noticeably better. So i was wondering how well do these cds play to todays dacs ? I assume a modern dac is so much better than what i have but not sure.
HDCD encoding is a super clever idea but I really doubt those extra 4 bits could mean something to sound quality. Standard redbook audio has 16bits and that's 96db of dynamic range! That's a lot, in fact, vinyl manages to sound amazing having "only" 70db of dynamic range. I think all those HDCDs sounding better than their CD counterparts probly have a better mastering or mixing process because having 20bits of DR doesn't make any sense in a jazz album... or in any music album really.
Never ever make the mistake to evaluate music with numbers. I just mentioned the 4db fact but the HDCD audio has avangard dithering and filtering solutions that normal CDs lack completely. The signal is just handled differently. Even the whole db vinyl thing is crumbling. It was a huge mistake introduced in the past. Michael Fremer docet.
I have a Cayin CD player that is HDCD compatible and a few HDCD discs. My favourite is Don't Look Back by John Lee Hooker. It has no markings on the lable, I only know because of the LED light that appears on the player. It's a great album that sounds great. Hope that helps
Hello! First time here. Quick question-what mic are you using in your video? Dayam. It sounds a lot closer than it is. Are you using a shotgun? For some reason I assume that you wouldn’t have one of those. :) (I do location sound for film + TV). Seems like it’s placed above you… rich bottom… not too bright. It’s nice. Please share! ;)
@@anadialog Wow, thank you for taking the time to share, and also, wow-I did not expect that quality of audio on a Yeti… Blue does make some great high end tube mics, but I’ve always judged this mic (w/o listening of course) to be trash haha. Clearly wrong. It’s at very least an excellent choice for your voice. Thanks again!
A couple of the best sounding HDCDs properly decoded in country are Mindy McCready's first 2 albums, in Christian Music, Michael W. Smith's I'll Lead You Home.
Sad that in '96, dvd players were encoded for HDCD & can't find anymore players to play them. Only MediaPlayer, so have to have a computer. HDCD is so universal, makes no sense that it isn't the CD standard. Thanks for Neil Young, having most of his new and remasterd CDSs with it. I prefer original source analog mixed A & mastered A (HDCD) Can program it like a cd, copy and on MEDIAPLAYER, make custom playlist etc..
Various versions of Windows Media Player and Foobar were able to decode HDCD. The lack of popularity falls on licensing fees to Pacific Microsonics for the HDCD circuitry on CD manufacturers. I have a high-resolution DVD-Audio disc with the HDCD logo. Why? I think it's a leftover from the original CD release. The Tom Petty boxset PLAYBACK is HDCD encoded but it's out of print.
Hello, I would like to ask You a question. I am thinking of buying a CD player because I would like to have a material music carrier. Does it make sense to start collecting CDs these days? Do You think that CDs will disappear in the near future? I am wondering about the Cyrus CD I player, would it be a good choice, or is it better to look for a SACD player? Can the basic CD standard be regarded as sufficient when it comes to music quality? Are You currently buying "regular" CDs (not SACD, HDCD)? I would be grateful for Your reply and sorry for my english.
Hi Adam, yes it makes sense! Now they are very cheap and you can find great stuff, especially Jazz and classical music, which are much less compressed. Cyrus is very good. I also heard great thinks of the cheap Audiolab. But I would try to get a good SACD player for DSD and/or HDCD, I love those even though are are very few around. The best solution is get a decent multimedia spinner and pair it, even after some time, with a good DAC, which can also serve you for streaming if interesting in that or simply play high quality pcm and dsd files say from your computer.
Got to agree. I still have my LINN Genki bought 19 years ago. HDCD chip. I'm only now beginning to search for an upgrade after all these years but kinda loath to change
Where can I find SACD and DVD AUDIO CDs? I found one DVD AUDIO on a bunch that was given to me. it's a sampler with different types of music and ,wow they sound like you are in the recording studio! I want more! :)
Very difficult to find, highly sought after, very expensive now. Mainly place unfortunately is ebay. I did a dedicated video on dvd-audio: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4_n_eNK5IMk.html
I'm a fan HDCD but I've never had an HDCD player and, in my limited experience, I believe the acknowledged sonic excellence of many HDCDs is often due to the use of the Pacific Microsonics analog to digital converter rather than HDCD digital processing itself. Let me know what you think?
Well, the decoding unleashes that extra resolution and dynamics. The conversion takes place only in some chips so I am not sure how relevant that is, also conversion now has developed quite a bit now...
I’ve read enough times, from people with great credentials, that it is both. Better encoding and the HDCD technology. I also suspect that artists that cared enough about their CDs sound quality to incorporate HDCD, probably did better mastering.
No problem! No, they are normal CDs, still of great quality. HDCD was big in the 90's and early 2000's. They are still making them. In most cases it is written on the CD or the box.
Salutation from Canada , Mr. Anadialog ! Have you heard of the japaneese mastered HQM (high quality material cds) ? I have a few of their jazz cds and they put a lot of analog vinyl to shame. In particular Art Blakey 's classic blue note album " moanin ' " Wow! The balance,the presence and the dynamic range are dynamite. You just have to stand up and listen...it's impressive. And because it's a cd you can play it a thousand times and always get the same pristine sound !
Maybe you mean SHM? If so, I have tested a few, CDs and SACDs, and I must admit that they are pretty bad...I was expecting much much more. Trust me an HDCD will blow you out of the water...
Yes that's what I mean. But they are not all bad. It seems to vary. That is the problem with all cd's: depending on who did the remastering and from what source exactly, you get very different results. Same thing with vinyl. I strongly believe the very big problem we face is with the modern music industry and very crappy sound engineers. I don't even think you can trust them when they put "digitally remastered from the original analog tapes " on the cd. I think many times It's a flat lie and a sales technique. There's no way certain albums would sound so bad if they were really sourced at the true original tapes! The public should demand better quality from the music industry and refuse to get ripped off. The few good engineers out there that know what they are doing should be congratulated and promoted. An example : I have the original 1963 vinyl pressing of Jimmy Smith's "Any Number Can win " and it sounds tremendous. I bought it in cd format in the early 2000's on a Verve cd. I was shure it would not compare to my vinyl copy. Wow! Was I surprised. It matched it. But this is an exception and not the rule unfortunately. The engineer obviously took is time, did the work, got those original tapes, and got the "transfer" right. Verve should Give him a medal ! 😂 Have a great day, It's starting to get cold out here in Canada, time to listen to some warm sounding jazz cd's 😁
ANA[DIA]LOG and jean deJazz , I could not agree with you 2 much more , I too tried the SHM-CD’s (E.g. I used Elton John) , and the quality was unfortunately very disappointing, I put the audio in audacity, and it was very much ‘ brick walled ,’. Sad, it all comes down to the mastering and the sound engineers pathetically mastered a product that could have been amazing.
If you have gear that can decode it the HDCD logo will turn on. In any case, check the end of the booklet, like for Lucinda Williams, I made a mistake, it does say HDCD at the end.
Blue café from Patricia Barber is my only HDCD.The sound is superbe and I can only play the HDsound on my old Denon 2940. Still it remains an audiophile CD music and I don’t find this CD very interesting though 😮.Music is more important then eventually raise up the quality 😊
A few of my HDCD rips (thanks to dBpoweramp and whatever it’s software decoding solution was) include Blue Man Group - Audio & The Complex, Dredg - The Pariah The Parrot The Delusion, & Tool - Lateralus. However I still don’t know if they’re just flagged as HDCD by something in the production process or the ADC used, but didn’t use the specific advantages of HDCD...
I just know some HDCDs don’t use all of the filters and adjustments that the encoding process availed them. The head-fi list is a relief to see now, actually. turns out my copy of October Sky by Mark Isham is HDCD too?! Back to Coalwood I go...
Joe Al does foobar2000 w/ HDCD decoder indicate what filters, LLE, PE, etc. are used? dBpoweramp decodes them and shows HDCD flags but no further info.
Joe Al nice! I’ll give that a try. most of em I just decoded in dBp to 24bit container w/ 6dB gain left unchecked. I’ll dust off the discs and see what’s what.
Back in the 80s I had a betamax VCR the picture was Superior to VHS but for some reason betamax never really took off but it's a fact that it had a better picture this hdcd kind of reminds me of the same type of issue
I was farting around Goodwill and found an old DVD player that has an HDCD decoder. I had no idea what HDCD was so I just bought it on a whim since it was cheap. I popped in Toby Keith's Pull My Chain, I don't really like Toby Keith but it sounds great even on this cheapo DVD player.
I have a very cheap CD player named Xenon and it decodes HDCD and it sounds fantastic. I have a few titles which is scored like the b52s, take five Dave Brubeck, Pearl jam live on two legs, Dire straits greatest hits and some jazz. I'm from the Philippines.
Xenon multi disc players made after 2013 use DACs that upsamples 16 bit 44.1 KHz CDs and even mp3s to 24 bit 192 KHz during playback. A sort of an "offline" MQA simulator. Sadly, they don't do DSD and Blu Ray. Weirder still, they sound better with the digital out turned on and set to raw, the dynamic range controller / DRC turned completely off and the subtitle mode switched off.
Honestly man bluray Audio when done correctly or mobile Fidelity sound labs SACD’s are the strongest and most vivid fidelity we’ve got. Vinyl does not stand a chance when you tailor to HD sources with the utmost care.
Bad English Recs Personally, only Michael Jackson really, his earlier recordings on the CD were better. To me BSCD is snake oil but I like the packaging and the OBI strip and what not :)
HDCD was great invention, only problem is that PMD100 digital filter chip that had HDCD decoder, sounds dead on regular non HDCD material. PMD 200 was little better. Older NPC filter was far more lively sounding.
It's a good starting point but misses a lot! I found that using Discogs to search the database/back catalogue of the company who MASTERED an HDCD disc reveals lots more golden nuggets! Well worth the time. There are loads of HDCD discs for sale new on Amazon and 2nd hand from 3rd party vendors. Here in the UK MusicMagpie resale site is another way to track down pre-owned HDCD/SACD/SHMCD at ridiculously low knockdown prices.
I have a Denon CD Player with an HDCD Switch and I have Joni Mitchell /Blue- HDCD and the only difference I can detect is that it is much louder with the Switch On than Off and with Switch Off the sound quality is the same only with less volume output ...I have a couple other HDCD cds but the results seem to be the same also.. I would recommend getting a player that has HDCD for a try because the HDCD cds are the same price as the non HDCD's..
I never knew about this format until I pulled out my 1996 Independence Day Movie Soundtrack and it has the HDCD Logo right on it I just found out about it today but I don't think I have any compatible Player sadly.
I just found out that, too :D even my alien ressurection score from RCA has it. Seems that soundtracks from this period have hdcd mastering. I just purchased older SACD player capable of HDCD as well :D
i believe the worst thing about hdcd disks are the players who can decode them, and what is on the market today with a good price range? thanks for video, where did you picked up your hdcd disks from? cheers
I don't think people will go out to get a player that had that as a necessary aspect. Its something interesting to know and if you want you can use your computer to decode them as I have explained. I got my discs on amazon...
ANA[DIA]LOG Nice 👍 I have an audio system I am the type a person who likes more the physical support and not so much the non-physical one and I would love to get a actually hdcd player next to my CD player and turntable, cassette decks but I will look for what’s available on the market
So where can I find a newer player that decodes HDCD? I have an Oppo 105D, which is great, but digital has come a long way since that player came out-- so I am assuming that rebook CD's probably sound much better on newer DAC's/players. Who makes a player or amplifier that decodes HDCD? I have probably 100+ Grateful Dead CD's that are HDCD, and I don't want to go through the hassle of ripping it all...
Not much out there. The Berkeley alpha dac has great feedback, which is relatively new…otherwise got to hunt high end vintage stuff like the amazing Spectral dacs
@@anadialog it is incredibly hard to find. the Berkeley dac's are an option, but they don't handle USB! you have to add another Berkeley box. i'm not thrilled with the Dead releases, they'd be better off doing SACD, i even wrote to them about it, but got no response. they must be contractually obligated to release them all in HDCD. it's almost impossible to find a player anymore, even the last Oppo players (203 and 205) didn't include the HDCD decoding chip. it's a shame because when done right, HDCD does sound great vs. regular redbook CD.
I am a huge Neil Young fun and my goal is to gather all his discography in CD. At the moment I have half of it. When you showed the HDCD logo, I tried to remember where I have seen it. You can imagine my surprise when you showed the On the Beach album. It was then that I realized that I have seen the logo on Neil's cds!!! I have ripped the cds into flac, will I get the same experience if I use the plug- ins that you proposed? Are you familiar with any CD player model that can play HDCD? Thanks a lot for what you are doing!!!
Hi Dimitri! What a coincidences! Great idea to collect all of Neal's music...that's going to be a tough one! If you haven't got it yet, run and get the 1971 Live at Massey Hall album...simply fantastic! Great sound and great music! If you ripped the cds without the right software or plugin they I am afraid you need to do it again...sorry to say this...check the video deacription for the options available. A good but not too pricey HDCD CD player? I just added a link in the video description. Good brands are Cambridge Audio, Naim, NAD but also Denon and Oppo...hope this helps!
@@anadialog thank you so much for the info!!! Live at Massey Hall is already in my next Amazon order as well as some Reference recordings!! Can't wait for your next video!!! Greetings!!!
You can't, not digitally. Its the chip that expands the resolution and frequency response as a compander. You could instead record the signal on a cassette. That would preserve all the benefits while copying again back to a CD would just cut off all the extra info because a normal CD cannot handle all that info, that is why they invented HDCD in the first place!
Now that is a really huge misconception! I wish things could be so simple. In any case, ifnyou watch all the video I clearly explain that we are not talking mumbo jumbo it's simple science where thanks to a chip the HDCD is decoded with a higher resolution almost like a decompression. No voodoo or strange things here.
I have a Cary transport/dad that's hdcd. They do sound great. But not much forvtitlrs beyond Roxy music and Chris issac. Probl3m was the licensing costs for it were a gouge so they didn't make many players with it due to that.
A lot of people are too cheap and lazy ( not everyone, but a lot ) when it comes to audio! They want the best without having to go out and get the proper equipment to have the best!
It isn't bad, not on that sense, but it is sad that people will not invest a little more on hifi, while for a cool pair of headphones, just because they are trendy, they are ready to spend big money....
I still have some of those HDCD cds, for example some Neil Young releases, or japaneses ones. I also had cd players with HDCD decoding stuff. To be honest I could hardly hear some sonic improvement. Maybe some better soundstage was more noticeable. I guess the coding is different from having a file fully coded in 44.1/20 bits natively. I mean, if I can listen to music as a regular cd (16 bits), the information encoded in the four additional bits is complementary to the standard 16 bits coding, not part of the whole signal. The final point is, It didn't fly...
@@anadialog Good question, nothing top notch, probably a Sony ES Integrated amplifier. That was about a decade ago. But I also had a Sony SACd player that had a better sound.
![ANA[DIA]LOG](http://yt3.ggpht.com/50CpmGNilS8aoMlarZVhI_GxRDoZdbj4ZgwCMZXg-Rq2PrEvCytlE6RVyLUrNY-rwE_sAlZ1Zw=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)