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HDCD a flash in the pan already??

I started looking for a new CD Player a while back but put the search on the backburner for a bit(needed a new sub & picked up a Onix Rocket UFW-10)so now it's back to CD Player hunting and it seems to me there are less HDCD players coming out then when I orginally researched. For example the new Music Player 25.2 isn't HDCD ready where the CD-25 was nor is Onix's best CD Player CD-2(their lower one xcd-99 is). Even though they're out of my price range players newly released players like the Rega Apollo,Cambridge Azur 640 or Naim CD5i do not appear to be HDCD. Is this another format that isn't going to make it or just a option on lower end players. I was recently at a couple local CD stores (Borders, Fye and Barnes and Noble) and there were at the most 3 HDCD Cds there none of which I would be interested in.. Starting to seem like HDCD shouldn't even be an option to look for in my CD Player search.. Any comments?
pmt1209
pmt1209 OP
44 posts
 
Is HDCD Technology Dead?
Just found this intersting article, also has a site with a listing of available HDCDs, there's more out there then I thought and by the looks of it more coming out daily..

http://www.hometoys.com/htinews/aug05/articles/bergman/hdcd.htm
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
PMT1209,

There is a difference to HDCD in bits/dynamic range. The difference is beyond what is practically necessary in terms of dynamic range for home playback. If you exceed the dynamics that your system/room design can deliver/handle accurately then you may actuallly lose audibility of some of the lower level sounds on an HDCD compared to a more balanced sounding CD, even if the CD has a more "compressed" sound.

FM Rock radio stations know this all to well....they modfiy and compress audio for best experience in the noisy car environment..they know that greater dynamic range would mean that lows would be annoyingly inaudible compared to background noise and that if the volume is set high enough to hear these lows then the speakers will distort when a loud passage comes or, alternatively, the passenger will find the loud passage uncomfortably loud.

More dynamic range is not always desirable in a recording...there are limits to what is practical/comfortable for playback.
robm321
932 posts
 
"your saying it's not important but it's "great".. "
- pmt1209

It improves the sound on all players. HDCD decoding players make it sound better, but it is nowhere near SACD, DVD-A, or even XRCD as far as improvement goes.

Rob
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Robm, I think it depends on which XRCD you are talking about. XRCD24 is very good, but not XRCD or XRCD2. I have not really sought to compare HDCD with these straight-forwardly, but I really like XRCD24s.
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vlad1456
20 posts
 
I own a Sonic Frontiers SFD-1 MKII tube HDCD dac (these can be found for between 500-700$). This baby sings, especially with hdcd disks. The Doors and Roxy Music catalogues have been re-released in HDCD and they sound great. Yes, I do wish there were more HDCD disks, but the 25 or so that I own sound so good, I won't be getting rid of my dac anytime soon.
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