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XRCD Technology

I have received promotional material for these discs, but I don't really know what they are. What I gather is that they have been mastered using 24 bit digital resolution, and higher sampling rate. But I thought that this has long been true of all mastering equipment. Whatever the precision of the mastering process, the final result has to be truncated (or rounded) to 16 bits for the CD product.

The discs I have seen are performances that have always been recognized as superb examples of the original recording process. I suspect that if these discs really are above average it is probably due to the good work done 40 years ago..not the recent mixdown which, at best, can only avoid screwing things up.

Tell me why I should buy one of these things, instead of another SACD.
eldartford
vedric
46 posts
 
I have two XRCD's, one of which "The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over" is stunning and ranks up there with the very best of redbook performance. The other XRCD I own "Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms" sounds very thin with pumped up treble. The Warner Brothers remastered Dire Straits stuff, including Brothers In Arms, clearly kills the XRCD.

XRCD is very much capable of high quality redbook sound but just buying XRCD doesnt mean you will get a high quality release. I would need to hear more to say anything else.
jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
4,249 posts
 
Vderic you are totally right, I bought the xrcd disc
of Andrea Bocelli ROMANZA,its very thin sounding,
no romance sound.Same thing with SACD its doesnt
mean its sacd, its automatically a good recording.
NOT SO. BE CAREFUL.
inna
7,538 posts
 
Sony's DSD mastered Japanese Mastersound discs(red label) are consistently better than any other CD issue I tried.But I did not do a direct comparizon with XRCDs.However,even they pale by comparizon with records.
jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,503 posts
 
I've been living under a rock and just recently discovered 24 bit XRCDs. I'm thinking about buying a bunch but I keep wondering if my current audio set-up will not do the 24bit XRCDs justice. I'm currently using a Audio Alchemy DDE v3.0 / DTI 2.0 combo with an Oppo player as a transport. I'm just not fond of the 2 channel output of the Oppo player I have. Will the Audio Alchemy DDE v3.0 / DTI 2.0 combo lessen the sound quality of the 24 bit XRCDs? Do I need to get a non oversampling DAC to really enjoy 24bit XRCDs to their fullest potential? Should I just replace this combo with a better overall player? The person that introduced me to the 24bit XRCDs has a VERY nice reference Marantz CDP that is way out of my price range.

Thanks in advance.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
i have a number of xrcds--early and 24 bit versions.

i am not keeen on them and probably would not buy anymore.

here are my observations:

there is a change in frequency response. when comparing an xrcd to an original i have observed greater resolution because the highs are more emphasized.

if you prefer this perspective, thats ok.

i compared many xrcds to their originals, and, especially for classical, on the london label, i preferred the original.

i also compare some xrcd to riverside recordings and didn't feel the increase in price in price was justified.
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