Which is better XRCD or a 24 Bit CD?

I happen to be a big fan of many XRCD titles. In my opinion, they are as good as 16/44 gets and maybe as good as some 24 bit. But a well mastered and burned 24 bit cd will blow away even XRCD. Remember that 16 bits can define up to 65536 distinct levels of amplitude, whereas 24 bit can do approximately 16.6 million levels! 16 bit just cannot compete.

Sorry, I misread your question. Disregard my prior answer. As I said, I am a great fan of XRCD. XRCD's are really 24bit cd's in which better technology is used in the mastering and production processes. Because JVC uses the industry's top a/d convertor, they have been able to all but eliminate jitter. On a good system, you might hear the difference, depending on how well the non-XRCD was done.

BTW, remember that while we say that both are "24 bit" cd's, what we really mean is that both were digitized and mastered in a 24 bit domain and then converted down to 16 bit.

If the price difference is not too great, get the XRCD.

Remember that both of these are marketing terms to describe a mastering process. Or, rather, they are shorthand descriptions. That something is mastered in 24 bits means little. (I suspect an awful lot of conventional CDs are recorded and mastered at 24 bits, and you know how good some of them sound.) JVC happens to do a great job mastering, which is why XRCDs typically sound so good. Other companies do quite credible jobs as well, and this comes down to personal preferences.