HDCD VS SACD

i must preface this with the disclaimer that i know little of the processes related to sacd or hdcd. i do understand the encoding and playback in basic.

i no longer use cds for playback, only ripped files to my hd streamed with a logitech transporter and then to a berkeley alpha dac. the alpha dac was designed and built by the same guys who created the hdcd code (and sold it to msft)so it is integrated well into this dac. whenever a signal is received encoded with hdcd, the hdcd light goes on showing this decoding action (also verifying a perfect rip). i have several records that have this and there is a very noticeable improvement in stage, detail, dynamic and overall realism. i was surprised at how the ripping process maintains the code and it works seamlessly.

neil young uses this on most records, joni mitchell quite a bit, laurie anderson as mentioned above, paul simon on you're the one, emmylou harris wrecking ball, willie nelson teatro and many more. one thing that stands out to me on this list is the fact that these are all very very good recordings and pieces i often like to show off with!

i do not know how to rip sacds but i think there is a way. i have some and used to play them and they have a very different sound than hdcd. these are super detailed and dynamic and often multichannel. like comparing hi rez downloads to redbook cd.

interesting thread...

kieth johnson from spectral and rr recordings was also part of the group that developed hdcd. i meant to write that in my last post but forgot as usual...

Am I sure of what? That there are few HDCD discs and that there are none being issued these days? Yup. There never were many but I do not have a count. In my own collection, they probably number a few dozen. OTOH, I have thousands of SACDs and I am acquiring more each week. In fact, I have disposed of many more SACDs than I have ever had of HDCDs.

As far as I care, HDCD has become irrelevant, unfortunately.

Kal

Blindjim - HDCD is not encoded in 20 bit words. The word length is 16-bit. The claim is that it is "equivalent" to 20 bit performance.

Part of better sound quality of HDCD is the fact that only (or mostly) very well recorded CDs (or remastered) are issued as HDCD.

Fafafion

Huh?

Try rereading my last paragraph.

if your RB source is top notch and your SACD player only converts DSD to PCM output, it's entirely possible the RB could sound better than the SACD.. as the SACD aspect is not the optimum DSD throughput. BTW not all SACD are purely DSD masters front to back, as I understand it and so some of my own SACDs indicate.

I also have some SACD discs which simply do not sound any better than the orig RB CD to me…. Just as some CDs don’t sound very good either. Hence my mention of the ‘process’ being as important as are those higher res numbers to achieve HIGH FIDELITY in the recording, and the note on the system’s needs to fully realize the benefit of such software!

An extreme ex would be playing back an HD, or SACD disc via a boom box vs a home audio system, given both can play those formats.

BTW… regardless the range of the speakers, be they full or limited, the advantages of more resolute discs will reveal themselves within that band width the loud speakers can reproduce. So a full range speaker isn’t a necessity to see the benefits of a well recorded high res disc… it’s merely more advantageous to have such reproducers on hand.

Kijanki

My bad... the article I read was a while back. I must have confused the statements. Could have sworn it was 20 though. Must be more as you say here though as I can’t find any note of the word or sampling rate changes with HD CD, only an encoding decoding process that is added to the hardware/software for enhancement of that format over standard RB Cds.

I did see where several chip makers have added the decoding in some of their chips, eg., Burr Brown 1732. MS Media Player from version 9 up also have this tech included into them for HD CD playback. One note said MP would at times show the HD logo when playing a HD CD.

The term High Definition gets thrown about a lot too and doesn’t always hold purely to the technology PMI developed originally.