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.
HDCD To MacMini To Ayre QB9 Twenty DAC
Here I am, waiting as patiently as possible to receive my newly upgraded Ayre QB9 Twenty DAC. With the upgrade comes the ability to playback HDCD cd’s. The only HDCD’s that I’m aware of owning are the Rhino releases of Grateful Dead shows. What I don’t know about is whether I just rip the HDCD onto my hard drive and then my DAC will read it that way? Also, I’m thinking that Audirvana won’t transport the HDCD signal even though it will with DSD files. Any insights would be very much appreciated.
Thanks!
Thanks!
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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. |
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 |
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 |