Is there anywhere that I can find a list of HDCDs with peak extend? I just found out how to decode them and so far I only know a few titles: Any recent Neil Young title(at least remasters of vintage material) The Cars S/T America- Human Nature(which is a pretty horrible album)
Mark Knopfler - all HDCD encoded albums (except for Shangri-La) Joni Mitchell - Warner albums (some discs use both Peak Extend & Gain features) Neil Young - Warner albums Green Day - Nimrod Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback (Boxset) The Cars - Candy-O, Panorama use HDCD Peak Extend feature & benefit dynamically from being played decoded
Also: Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing: The Very Best Of Dire Straits Jimi Hendrix - The Ultimate Experience (HDCD) albeit with Peak Extend feature these 2 discs are not that great DR-wise...
I'm sorta glad that I don't even know what that means...off to listen to some music now. Not sure if it's extended or not.
Stephen Stills S/T remaster Michael W. Smith - I'll Lead You Home Mindy McCready - Ten Thousand Angels and If I Don't Stay The Night Cyndi Thomson - My World
The Beach Boys- Pet Sounds- single-disc twofer decodes. Helps what I thought what a pretty bad sounding disc sound a good deal better. The other Beach Boys HDCDs I decoded do not have this feature.
Dave Brubeck's Time Out HDCD does have peak extension but is not labeled HDCD. The Mindy McCready If I Don't Stay The Night isn't labeled HDCD either but it is an HDCD with peak extension as I have mentioned.
So enlighten me. Is HDCD Peak Extended any different than simply playing HDCD encoded discs on my Oppo, or is there some secret HDCD Peak Extended mode that I don't know about? No sarcasm intended, genuinely curious.
BTW do the HDCD's with Peak Extend feature present that you mentioned in your posts actually have maximum decoded level increased above standard -6dB? I know, the ones that I mentioned do, f.e. Nimrod's decoded maximum level is ~0dB.
Here's a visual example of an HDCD encoded title that uses peak extension (Hitchin' A Ride from Green Day-Nimrod). Above is the HDCD decoded version, below is the undecoded version (levels have been adjusted to approximately match each other). Quite the improvement in SQ as well.
One of my when I get a round tuit projects has been to list out all of the HDCD titles I've ripped and list out the HDCD features of each. The necessary info is all in my tags. I just need to list it out in a text file. This thread might be the kick that I need to actually do it.
