Super High Material CD

Are buying these cd's worth it? Do they really sound better ? What are the opinions on this new product? What makes them better than regular cd's? Thank You!

 

I got my copy of Camel's debut album on High Definition CD.
I haven't compared it either to Universal's remastered version nor to Camel's own remaster.
But after listening to it I can say that I don't need more of those. The sonics are too trebly for my taste. That's what the company calls "crisp and clear" I suppose. Besides to me it sounds annoying at times when you hear the band play all together. Not necessarily my cup of tea.
Maybe extremely muddy recordings might benefit from that material.

Achim

 

These CDs will sound great if the mastering is good, and they will sound poor if the mastering is bad.

I don't believe improvements in CD manufacturing can make a difference in sound. I've never been able to tell a difference between a XRCD and a well-made CD-R copy of it.

I also don't think improvements in mastering technology (higher resolution of A/D converters) matter much as long as the output format itself is limited to 16bit/44kHz.

Japanese companies are champions in marketing these irrelevant innovations, even putting a "HD" label on a CD that is 25 year old technology and making people believe it's a new format.

Next year it will be the K2000R-TurboBit-HD-NASA approved-CD ...

 

Actually Pacific Micronics were not Japanese.

 

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=127465

 

Amazingly, because I expected these to just have something like added compression like JVC's "K2 HD" process, this new material does make a difference.

I bought Gentle Giant's Octopus, and it is not remastered. I was able to detect no EQ moves made or anything. Same TT as their previous release of this one in 2001 and that is confirmed as the same mastering the 1989 WG Line CD used. I'll test it in EAC to be sure the peaks haven't changed, but what I noticed was a lessening of the the "tinny," some might say "digital" sound.

More tests are needed, but the process could be something.

As far as the mastering, they seem to be repressing the titles on CDs with this new surface without any new work, and using whatever the currently in print or recently used mastering was, so it's important to establish whether one is okay with that. If you are, then yes, it'll sound a tad better. If you don't like, say, the Stones remasters or the work Suh Gur did on the Rainbow catalog, you won't like these, as the difference will only be minimal.

But it does seem to be a sort of "softener."

 

Seems like a lot of effort went into developing the plastic for incremental improvement (if any). A "simple" remastering by a good mastering engineer would be more likely to yield a better result. As someone previously mentioned, they are tackling the wrong end of the CD production chain if they want to improve the sound.

 

It's all in the mastering...period.

get the vinyl stigma out of the mind...

 

I actually meant JVC. Their marketing is about making people believe their CDs have a higher digital resolution than "regular" CDs.

The name "XRCD" (= extended resolution CD) is the best example, but also the latest version of their K2 mastering process, which is called "K2HD", and explained in very ambiguous, un-scientific terms ("packing the information"):

http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/flair/e/k2hd/index.html

 

I bought the three Stones titles, and two others. Unfortunately, unless the CD layers of the Stones SACD's are the same as the current remasters, I don't seem to have the latest remasters of the titles that I have, making comparison difficult.

I listened very quickly to Beggars Banquet and compared it to the CD layer of the SACD, and did not notice any striking differences. I'll try again this weekend, but I am not too optimistic.

I am happy to see people making strides in improving the medium -- I prefer the heavier CD cases that they used in the old days; I also prefer the slightly thicker Polygrams to the wafer thin ones. But, I agree that the marketing -- "Is this the same musical source?" "Once you've heard it, you can't go back!" -- is ridiculous. I'd be interested in the EAC waves.