Steve, what are your thoughts on HDCD? (Asked in reference to upcoming gold CDs.)

Ok. Should I pressume that SBM Direct "try" to lose the less information possible from DSD to 16/44.1 PCM?
That´s why Im saying that is a competitor of HDCD. They both want to give you the maximum of musical information on a CD.

 

Yes, Windows Media Player does indeed have HDCD. I saw the following on the ongoing HDCD identification list at head-fi.org....

Confirmed with my CD of Deanna Carter's "Did I Shave My Legs For This?"

As for Sony not liking HDCD, some its CDs are encoded w/ HDCD....like the Dixie Chicks releases, the remastered CD (and the CD layer of the imported multi-channel hybrid SACD) of Dave Brubeck's "Time Out", some of the titles in the "16 Greatest Hits of ...." series, etc....

 

Ok, so Sony does use or like HDCD.
Is it posible to have SBM Direct and HDCD on a same layer? Aren´t they two kinds of technology used for increase the music information in a redbook CD?

 

It is not possible. SBM Direct converts a DSD data stream to CD Redbook specifications WITH SBM processing. SBM is a dithering scheme in the Least Significant Bit (LSB), which is where the HDCD codes reside. A CD cannot, as far as I understand, be both HDCD encoded and SBM.

 

SO, they are competitors..

 

I don't know why you use the word competitors. They are different methods of developing a CD Redbook compatible signal. If by conmpetitors you mean that they can't both be used at once, that is correct.

 

Yeah, it has nothing to do with Sony but who mastered the CD and which converters they used. The Pacific Microsonics A/D D/A converters are very popular and they are the HDCD encoders.

 

That´s what I mean. I don´t think it´s possible to have to different metods for improving the sound of a CD.

 

Steve, in light of this, I was surprised to see you used HDCD on the new AF CDs. Was it your choice to use it or Marshall's? Does your recent use of it mean that your opinion about HDCD changed?

 

It was said either in this thread or another that Steve had another go with HDCD and was able to make it work well for the gold CDs. So, yes, his opinion has changed.

 

I have never owned an HDCD player so my comments may be irrelevant for some, but I like most of the HDCDs I've heard (Joni Mitchell, Beach Boys, and Neil Young--three of my favorite artists, too, btw) better than many redbooks. Though the second iteration Surfer Girl/Shut Down 2 disc sounds shrill on a revealing system, the Beach Boys succeed in particular for me. I have never felt when listening to a BB CD that it would sound better on LP.

 

And that's what you think of the Rotel 1072?

 

Thanks Keith and sorry for the repeat. That's the problem with multipage threads. You have to read for half an hour to find out if your question is answered!

 

I think he was joking.