Is hdcd worth having ??

I bought my Lindemann to play sacds, but most enjoyed the HDCD reproduction. I look forward to my Exemplar/Denon 3910 and its ability to play HDCDs. I find HDCDs a very great improvement over cds. I expect it will often rival XRCD24s and both to be superior to many sacds and certainly better than nearly all dvdas. I know nothing about the Denon 2910, but the 3910 is clearly superior to the 2900.

I would definitely opt for the HDCD-enabled model. Well done HDCDs sound *great* and can be found much cheaper than XRCDs, SACDs, and other hi-res formats.

-rw-

I would have to agree with the 2 positive posts. Nearly all the HDCD's that I've owned or heard sound great. Reference Recordings, in particular, produces some astounding CD's. Just to name a few: Rachmaminoff's Symphonic Dances, Copland 100, Respighi's Pines of Rome...

I wouldn't put HDCD very high on the list of priorities when selecting a player. I have a Cary 306/200 and it's nice to have but (a) there are so few HDCD titles out there, (b) XRCD sounds as good or better to my ears and (c) good upsampling sounds as good or better to my ears. There are probably more SACD titles than HDCD title already as well.

HDCD does make a decent improvement to my ears. Be warned though that they are no longer making HDCDs anymore, but what has been made is no more expensive than regular CDs. You may have some in your CD collection that you don't even know about.

Rob