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Do HDCDs sound terrible on non HDCD players?

Being an analog guy I have but a small collection of CDs and only a handfull are HDCD encoded. All of them sound terrible on my non HDCD player with thick lower midranges, smeared, closed-in textures and a general lack of cohesiveness. For reference my player is the original Rega Planet and the HDCDs are as follows: Olu Dara, In This World, Steve Earle, El Corazon, Garcia and Grisman, Shady Grove, Neil Young, Silver and Gold. Any opininons?
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zshuster
56 posts
 
I'm also disappointed in HDCD playback on my system...doesn't sound as good as most redbooks and certainly not as good as the better redbooks...I have Theta DaViD II, CasaNova (doesn't have HDCD decoding chip) and Dreadnaught, Aerial 10T, SW12, Coincident cables
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glen
714 posts
 
Geez zshuster, with all that gear i think I would have coughed up for the HDCD chip :^)
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drubin
3,275 posts
 
HDCD does tend toward a particular sound, which some people might not like. I believe Art Dudley of Listener magazine once described the format as sounding "phasey."

In any case, that quality would not (should not) be apparent on a non-HDCD player. And that Shady Grove disc has always sounded very, very good to me, with both HDCD and non-HDCD players in my system.
cdc
1,822 posts
 
HDCD is supposed to have a lower noise floor - that is what I was told. So HDCD encoding give a lower noise floor.
I'm thinking they should sound better on all machines since generally they are better quality recordings to begin with.
gold001
30 posts
 
I looked at my Shady Grove CD, and it is HDCD. In any case on my Planet it sounds as good or better than non HDCD Garcia/Grisman discs that I own.

-Patrick
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