HDCD To MacMini To Ayre QB9 Twenty DAC

I have recently ripped a few HDCD discs onto my server.  I run Roon with an Ayre QX5/20 as an endpoint and the Ayre recognized the files as HDCD when they were selected and played.  I had never seen the specIal HDCD indicator light up before and I have had the QX5/20 for over a year.  Sounded very nice. 

 That’s a relief. I remember when I first downloaded a DSD file to my hard drive. That was a learning experience and then Audirvana hosted my DSD files. However, I don’t believe Audirvana will transport HDCD.

Hey goofyfoot, did you ever figure out how to make it work (play HDCD discs / tracks to your QB-9 Twenty)?

How are you liking the 'Twenty', by the way?

Hi toddraymond,

I ended up buying a Bryston BDP Pi and since using it, I have noticed my Ayre DAC on the HDCD setting. The Bryston is a considerable improvement over the MacMini and the Bryston/Ayre Twenty combination is like a dream.

Unfortunately, I'm not getting any playing time in as my amplifier has been with the technician these past three or so months.

Hello @goofyfoot. Thanks for reporting on the BDP Pi!  I'll have to look into that.  Am considering a JCAT USB card and doing Mac Mini > JCAT > QB9 Twenty, but will also look at the Bryston unit.

You can use the program dBpoweramp to rip the CD to a 24 bit flac,  that way you can use any dac to play the file and not loose any of the dynamic range that HDCD offers.

toddraymond,
My amp was repaired and now I’m back up and running. Yes, as reported earlier with the Bryston BDP Pi, I’m seeing the h44 reading in the display which indicates that my Ayre is reading the HDCD file.

80s_forever,
thank you for the advice!

goofyfoot OP
The only HDCD’s that I’m aware of owning are the Rhino releases of Grateful Dead shows

Here are 368 that were marked HDCD there are thousands, Reference Recordings always use it for their MOR and Classical issues

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=&album=HDCD

More here 560
https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=List_of_HDCD-encoded_Compact_Discs

And here
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hdcd-list.65414/

13,000 here!!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.discogs.com/search/?format_exact=HDCD

Cheers George

goofyfoot

Good to read that you are back in the game. Neil Young is a proponent of HDCD as well. Most of his CD catalog has this codec.

Happy Listening!

All-right, well that just proves how out of touch I am. The early Joni Mitchell HDCD's interest me. Recently, I purchased a Japanese paper sleeve of Nick Drake's 'Pink Moon' and was taken by how open and analogue it sounds for a cd. I spoke with my friend who works at the local record store about Japanese paper sleeve releases and was told that it's always a risk to pay up for them unless you know for sure that they are exceptional. However many are no better than your average red book release. Anyone got any ideas on this topic?

Neil Young is a proponent of HDCD as well

From what I was told, he’s also a huge "anti compression" advocate as well and helped finance the Dynamic Range Data Base website https://dr.loudness-war.info/ along with other noted musicians.

The early HDCD’s interest me.

Always get the 1st releases as they are usually the least compressed, most of the stuff streamed and download are later re-issues that have been squashed (compressed).
EG: https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/year?artist=Traveling+Wilburys

Cheers George