Kinda late joining this discussion, but here goes....
In response to Gardengirl's response on 09/03/04, Hong Kong Universal is not a HDCD proponent. I am betting that the CDs you have purchased are from mainland China, where everything is "tagged" with HDCD, whether it is HDCD-encoded or not. I am very suspicious of any recordings manufactured and released in China. |
Is this format, HDCD, still something that artists, record labels, recording engineers want to use? Whose choice is it to use it on a recording? |
Here's one for you and it's an incredible CD: Brian Wilson's "Smile". Well worth the wait. |
Not all the Dick's Picks are HDCD. Later in the series they started releasing HDCD recordings. Keep in mind these were live soundbard shows for the most part taken from reel to reel mixes and not the best example of what hdcd can do. As a Deadhead I can say they sound way better than the non-HDCD Dick's Picks releases as well as the 150+ live shows I have in my archives. |
If your into acoustic guitar and mandolin, just about every cd on Dave Grisman's acousticdisc.com is hdcd, for about $13 each. |
ABB,
I've had more time to spend with these disks and it gets a little deeper than I first thought. At closer inspection under a desk lamp I must admit that two of the Cd's I've bought (5 total) are not exactly perfect. There are very light scratches and smudges on them. The others looked brand new. I only have the one (Nora Jones) to compare HD to regular 16bit sound quality and as I said I think the HD is better. The rest are relatively new releases. All disks play fine but here's the kicker one's not even registering as a HDCD on my player. I emailed the seller and he offered to refund my money. I don't know whether to recommend China as a source for new HDCD's or not.
If your are still interested I would just go to eBay and search the music category for "HDCD". If you plan on buying more than one make sure you buy from the same seller to save shipping on charges. They're a few people selling the same CD's for one penny and you will notice that the same CD's are auctioned off over and over. Just wait close to the auction end and bid your $0.01. I did that three times with the same seller to save on shipping. The seller ID was "dtgbys" I still might take a chance on a few more. |
Bunner100, could you give me the ID of the ebay seller you bought from? I would like to bid on some of his auctions. Thanks. |
Grateful Dead "Dick's Picks" series is HDCD. www.dead.net |
3 more from Hong Kong > Diana Krall Live in Paris, Queen Best of for 10 years (2 CD's) and a 2 CD set of Diana Krall that included most of Live in Paris plus ;-( I was very disappointed in the quality of the discs - they had a couple "bumps" and some scratches - these were NEW, UNOPENED. I didn't feel the sonics were as good as the Verve Music US releases. These are on the Universal label. I would NOT recommend them. Microsoft did buy HDCD technology btw from Keith Johnson and company. |
Received the three CD's from China a few days ago. All where mint and sealed. One of them I already have in the regular format ("Nora Jones, Come away with me") and In my humble opinion the HD version is far superior in sound quality. |
The only place I have ever seen new HDCD's for sale here in North America was in a high end audio equipment shop. The selection was limited and the prices ridiculous. I would think they where all imports. I will try to follow up on the cd's that come in from China as soon as I get them. |
Bunner 100,do you know of any recent HDCD releases in the U.S.? Also, could you please let me know what your $0.01 HDCDs are like once you get them from China? Thanks in advace! |
None are bootlegs that I have received and all have been factory sealed. Check the feedback of the sellers. These guys sell a ton of CD's if they where fishy deals you would have heard about it. Try to buy multiple disks from the same seller so you will get discounts on combined shipping like I did with the 0.01 CD's I just bought. There are a some new releases in HD in China. I received Dido's new CD which included a bonus CD with remixes and stuff from her 1st. CD as well. I also bought Moby's 18 B-Sides CD which I think just got released here in North America and is also a two CD set with bonus material. One thing I must say is that in both cases the jewel box did not survive the trip and the center section which holds the disk in place had some broken tabs. One Cd had some scratches on the playing surface from sliding around but a little car wax and careful buffing fixed that. All disks play perfectly and are gold in color. I paid about $12.00ea. including shipping for those and I must say they sound excellent using a Linn Genki CDP. I will have to wait to see what the $0.01 Cd's that I just ordered are like but I am pretty confident from the sellers history they'll be fine. A lot of the China releases are double CD's with bonus tracks and not available around here unless someone imports them. I know someone that just bought a Patricia Barber HDCD for $43.00 and I saw one go for $7.99 including shipping last week. You can also find HDCD's in North America in fact there are a few on Audiogon right now. I've bought a few in North America and the UK as well with prices ranging from $6.99 - $22.00. Ebay seems to be a good option for the few HDCD people left out there to find music in HD. You just have to keep searching all the time.
And yes Microsoft did buy the HDCD technology hence its demise.
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Bunner100, have you recieved any of the Chinese HDCD CDs yet? I have heard that some of those on eBay are bootlegs. What do you think? |
Try Ebay. I search for HDCD's on ebay from time to time. I have been buying a few lately and most are coming from China. I just bought three yesterday for a grand total of $0.03 with shipping charges of $19.97. Not hard to see where they're making their money but still a lot less than the import shops. |
The HDCD website does not seem very up-to-date. In fact, I have look at it pretty extivensively and have found a lot of mistakes and CDs that are HDCD that are not included there. I have found that CDs encouded with HDCD on my Cary 308 to be VERY SWEET. I hope more new releases or reissues are HCDC. |
I heard that Microsoft had bought Pacific Microsonics and that the first thing they did was to pull the plug on HDCD - I could be wrong. (in fact I hope I am, I just recently bought the Classe CDP 1 with an 'HDCD' decoder.) Anyone else hear about this nasty rumour ? |
I listen to almost all types of music. Most of it, however, is country. A lot of the recent country albums are HDCD. |
neil young, mavericks and beck all were hdcd |
Ummm, have you tried perusing www.HDCD.com for this info.?
-rw- |
