JVC XRCD CDs, are they worth the extra cash?

Hi Jeff,

Your best bet would be eBay for Dire Straits XRCDs. AFAIK, that particular XRCD is readily available in Asia, but not here in North America. XRCD version of several other artists, such as Baby Face, Aaron Neville, and Brandy, are also available as Hong Kong imports only. Again, that's just my experience, so YMMV. Just go to eBay and search for "XRCD"; there are usually some good deals to be had!

Hope this helps; please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions, and happy listening!

George, aka mgs

I wouldn't stake my record collection on this, but I believe that XRCD is a brand name, and that XRCDs use the K2 20 bit Super Coding process. So they are functionally equivalent. If someone has information to the contrary, please share it.

I started buying xrcd's about a year ago and wondered the same thing. I called JVC America and talked to a high level techie who knew a lot about the process, but didn't know anything about other labels using the 20bit k2 process. I did my own research and this is what I discovered: the core of the xrcd process is the 20 (or now, 24 bit) encoding process, but that is only part of it. JVC brags that they use the best of technology at every stage of the process, from analog master to burning the end product. Probably most important, in addition to the K2 process itself, is the zillion dollar Sony equipment they use for the conversion from 20 to 16 bits which keeps jitter to a minimum. Although other labels use k2 (such as prestige), only XRCD claims to pay such close attention to all phases of the production.

I also did have the opportunity to a/b 2 or 3 titles (on my Linn Ikemi)which were available on both XRCD and Prestige's K2 process and I admit I couldn't hear much of a difference - both sounded great. But if I had to choose between XRCD and other K2 process without the opportunity to compare, I would choose XRCD simply because I have about 12 XRCD titles and not one of them is less than fabulous.

My favs: Bill Evans - Sunday at the Village Vanguard and John Coltrane - Black Pearl

Enjoy the music!

Dire Straits XRCDs as well as others can be found on the Canadian distributor http://www.a4audio.com/home.asp

Prices seem reasonable, I just ordered a slew of them.

Matt

The FIM label (licensed by JVC) has the XRCD2 format.

Ross