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I'm so confused....

Ok, first I thought I would make life easy and get the NAD 541i. Then I saw an Audiophile review of the Philips 963SA that made me rethink my whole life. Then I read the thread here that compared the two, only to find that the guy that started the thread went off and got a Jolida JD 100A, which was what I was giving a serious eye to a couple of weeks back. (Then I started reading all about these DAC gizmos, but that's a whole different can of worms...Don't get me stahted!)

Anyhow, now I don't know what to do. Is HDCD anything I should care about? Is SACD a passing fad...Sony's latest Betabust, or does it have legs? If I have the sweet warm sound of tubes such as a Jolida, do I even care about SACD? (FYI, I listen to just about every sort of music imaginable...From punk to Gregorian Chant...Though mostly jazz and classical.)

Or should I just stick with my Aiwa boombox and skip the whole darned thing?
dcwinton
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
Hi DC
You ask if HDCD is anything to care about? Emphaticaly yes!
I am a huge fan of HDCD.
HDCD is seriously far better than 16-bit redbook; the 20-bit Pacific Microsonics DAC's (Pac.Mic. is now bought out by microsoft) are considerably sonically superior. Even ordinary 16-bit discs sound better when played on an HDCD machine. However when you hear the 20 bit HDCD discs - it's just amazingly better, and at no additional cost above redbook discs.
Larger music selection than SACD, less costly hardware, backward compatible, and you're not paying $25 per disc either. Be aware that not all HDCD's are identified on the back cover; sometimes you end up with a pleasant surpise when you play a new disc & that HDCD indicator light turns on. An example: Stevie Nicks' Enchanted boxed set which is not labeled as HDCD anywhere on the packaging. The same songs on the Enchanted set, compared to her original releases are breathtaking. HDCD is a killer format.
mattybumpkin
590 posts
 
I agree with Bob about HDCD. I had purchased a Music Hall CD25 as my first serious CDP, and it has HDCD. HDCD disks are wonderful. I now have a Dan Wright/Response Audio modded Music Hall CD25, which has a tube output stage. Great upgrade, will keep me satisfied until the SACD/DVD universal players are more abundant (and cheaper) and there are more SACD's and DVD's to care about.

Then I will purchase a standalone universal player.
dmitrydr
221 posts
 
What's funny about HDCD is that Simaudio has an official upgrade for its Moon Eclipse CD player that REMOVES Pacific Microsonics digital filter (i.e. HDCD circuitry). They succeeded to build a CD player that sounds better without HDCD then when it's in HDCD mode!
dcwinton OP
11 posts
 
Okay. So after a long hiatus, check in time. Oh how a few weeks can change our worlds. I got the Jolida, and am about to get an Audio Note 2.1x balanced DAC, so the Jolida will move to the back of the class as a transport only. I tossed the NAD and got the Cary/AES 6pacs, and I bought a pair of Totem Hawks. New ICs and I'm a happy boy. The Jolida will likely move along in a few months once my bank account recovers. I'm bitten and there's no turning back.
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