Why HDCD did not become a dominant format?

I guess I may be in the minority here, but as much as l like the sound of HDCD discs played on my Arcam CD23, in my system the 96/24 DAD discs I own sound even better played on my humble Sony DVP-C600D DVD player via it's analog outputs. One listen to Alan Parson's "I Robot' on Classic Records DAD will make you a believer.

With the mass-adoption of the DVD format soon after it's introduction, I will never understand why stereo 96/24 never caught on as the next logical step beyond redbook CD for music. I mean, originally, the term "DVD" stood for "Digital Versatile Disc", not "Digital Video Disc". Meaning, it should have been developed as a high-resolution stereo audio format as well as for the dominant movie format.

"With the mass-adoption of the DVD format soon after it's introduction, I will never understand why stereo 96/24 never caught on as the next logical step beyond redbook CD for music. I mean, originally, the term "DVD" stood for "Digital Versatile Disc", not "Digital Video Disc". Meaning, it should have been developed as a high-resolution stereo audio format as well as for the dominant movie format."

What John z said !! Seems like the most sensible way things should have gone !!

John z, I'm with you on that.
Digital music has certainly been confounding.

I prefer to purchase HDCD or hybrid SACD when available just for the red book CD playback, which generally is better than average on these discs. I assume the red book benefits from the quality of the mastering of these better formats. However regarding HDCD, I have my CD transport (EAD T-1000) going out to two different DACs 1) an EAD DAC that supports HDCD but doesn't do upsampling, and was new in 1997 and 2) a Bel Canto DAC-2 that doesn't support HDCD that is newer, 2002 and supports higher resolutions and up-sampling.
The Bel Canto seems to sound a bit better, even on HDCDs, although I have a hard time detecting much difference.

One thing I like about HDCD is its ability to live within the red book standard: CDs can be ripped using apple lossless and stored on a server, and played through a squeezebox, and the HDCD on the DAC still lights up.

My squeezebox is routed through the same 2 DACs (they each have two inputs) and my impression is the same as for CDs. Basically my take: HDCD discs--good. HDCD player--not necessary if you have a very good DAC or output stage. All things being equal I would take a DAC that didn't support it over one that did, but things are never equal so you should take the one that sounds the best.

HDCD white papers did claim that HDCDs would sound better than normal CDs even when played through non-HDCD equipment, IIRC.

Sharpnine, Yeah thats the exact point I was illustrating way back on this thread.. For sure the main point is most HDCD or Hybrid SACD's simply have better Redbook playback as well due to they ended up thru a better re-mastering process anyway vs. the original redbook only versions.. I believe it has much less to do with the technology or decoding of the actual Hi res layer vs. just the fact the re-master version just comes that way from the recording being bettered in the first place.