Here's a (probably) dumb question. Does anyone make a player that plays SACD AND decodes HDCD? I guess HDCD failed in the marletplace. Too bad. The few I have actually sound better...even when played on an old Sony boy ray player...than many of my SACDs played on my good player. I do have an older NAD cd player that decodes HDCD in a second system but I don't can't move it into the main system every time i want to hear n HDCD. Having 1 player to do both would be ideal.
I think it sound magnificent, especially if you have a cd player or dac that had the last hdcd chip, the PMD200, the 100 was very good still but the 200 is something else.
The Grateful Dead mastering and release team use it for everything they release on CD. I wish it was offered on more DACs. My new digital rig is the Pro-Ject CD Box RS2, Lampizator Atlantic or Bricasti M3, so all sounds great…but darn it, I wish I could take advantage of HDCD for the ton of Dead I listen too.
By the way I was listening to a RR recording yesterday. Great stuff.
Yeah!!, the RR cd's, hdcd or non hdcd 16/44 or the 24/96, blow all forms of music sources away for me, even the RR download stuff, except if you ever get to listen to the original master un-transfered recording from the studio, on your system.
^I believe all but the last generation of Oppo’s were capable of HDCD decoding. HDCD’s will play on standard CD players, but without the benefit of the HDCD decoding. I’m a fan of HDCD. Some of my best sounding discs are RR HDCD’s.
Yep, Oppo 105 does it. I can also stream it via an HDMI cable from my Oppo 105 through a D.BOB to my Holo Audio DAC. And yes, Reference Recordings are some of the best in redbook and even better in HDCD.
105's can be had for well under 1K. Your talking about the 205 which doesnt have HDCD capability. You can also Rip SACD thru the 105 which you cant do with the 205.
A while back in Audiogon someone of note said they (Oppo) detect HDCD cd and turn a light on, but don’t have the Pacific Microsonic Devices PDM100 or PMD200 decoding chip in them to actually decode HDCD, this "could" be because all Oppo’s use Delta Sigma (bitstream) conversion??
Because if you look in that list of dac/players I posted and seach for PMD100 or PMD200 you only get dacs and players that use them that are R2R ladder dac chips not Delta Sigma.
Yes an Oppo will stream the HDCD info to another dac that has a PMD100 or PMD200 hdcd chip in it and you will here hdcd. But it’s own dac looking at this Oppo 105 will not as there in not PMD chips in it https://ibb.co/WVmh7qg
This is from other forums around, and there are a few that question it. "I opened my Oppo HDCD capable DVD player, and I don’t see a Pacific Microsonics chip."
No-one on the net can confirm any PMD100 or PMD200 inside any Oppo player, can anyone here to put an end to this speculation???
Apology, I have been calling the company that produced the hdcd PMD100 and PMD200 chips PMD (Pacific Microsonic Devices) where in actual fact it's PMI (Pacific Microsonic Industries), sorry guys. Also I forgot that Microsoft bought PMI way back in 2000
In 2000, Microsoft acquired PMI to boost its strength in digital media, and the HDCD codec was later added to Windows Media Player, making it the first software player to support it. There are thousands of HDCD titles and numerous HDCD CD players on the market.
Again maybe it's just a light that says hdcd is being played as WMP doesn't know what dac you have, that's got the HDCD decoder chip in it or not. Cheers George
No-one on the net can confirm any PMD100 or PMD200 inside any Oppo player, can anyone here to put an end to this speculation???
I cannot be definitive. OTOH, if JRiver can decode HDCD in software, I see no reason to reject the idea that others cannot also do it in firmware. Can you suggest a performance test to determine whether there is decoding?
I cannot be definitive. OTOH, if JRiver can decode HDCD in software, I see no reason to reject the idea that others cannot also do it in firmware. Can you suggest a performance test to determine whether there is decoding?
Maybe burn two discs, one with the software hdcd switched off and see if there’s a difference when played back at the same level on a known real chip based hdcd player. But you have to be careful, I believe hdcd can sound slightly louder in dynamics.
" If you play it back without HDCD encoding, the quiet part is simply louder so it’s like dynamic range compression. As the quiet part arrives, HDCD encodes a flag that tells the DAC to reduce the amplitude. The DAC is working in 24 bit so it can shift it down without loss of resolution. Then as the music gets louder again, the HDCD encodes another flag telling the DAC to "go back to normal". ."
Thanks for the tip. HDCD flew under my radar since I was working overly when they were created. The library has a few and they do indeed sound better on my rig AND ....
My Cambridge Audio CXU plays SACD, Blu Ray, and HDCD. But try to find one. I bought it after Oppo stopped making players, but chose it instead of the pricier Oppos based on its streaming Youtube and comments by some who had compared its sound to the Oppo players.
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