Anyone still excited about HDCD ?


With all the talk about SACD an DVD-A no one seems to bring up HDCD. Note: I not looking for a HDCD vs SACD battle here.. I will be picking up a universal player for my HT system but for 2 channel I decided SACD did not buy me much especially given the lack of software. I just picked up a redbook player that includes HDCD so I thought why not give it a try.. and I like it. It seems to me that there are more choices for high end player that include HDCD than SACD (altough this seems to be changing) I have my cd player behind me in the room which makes it really easy to do a blind A/B test. It HDCD sounds better to me than normal decoding. I mostly notice a deeper, bigger soundstage. Naturally it does not do multi-channel but then again multi-channel has a whole set of requirements and issues that 2 channel does not. While it may not be "perfect" (since nothing ever will) or not as accurate as SACD/DVD-A maybe HDCD is good enough for 2 channel...
btrvalik

Showing 1 response by btrvalik

While Bill Gates is no audiophile he's also no fool. If it competed with a Microsoft product I could see doing a deal to kill it but I don't see any reason to kill it. I'm wondering if he bought it as part of his plan to take over the living room the way he took over the office. Maybe this will be a future component of media player to enable better fidelity. Who knows maybe old bill will wind up doing audiophiles a favor as a side effect to dominating the entire world....