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High Definition CD or HDCD - What is it exactly?

I have an Audio Aero Capitole MKII and always thought it had the ability to read HDCD's. I thought this until recently playing an HDCD on a friend's CEC CD player which has a small light that appears that tells you that it is reading the disc as an HDCD. The improvement and realism in the sound was awesome. The realism in sound reminded me of SACD in many ways, although I don't have much listening experience with either HDCD or SACD.

What exactly is HDCD and why can't the Aero Aero (at this price point) play/read these types of CD's?

One more thing...I burned a copy of the HDCD, but the CEC player did not recognize the copy as an HDCD.

Your comments are appreciated. Thanks,
128x128gerryn

Showing 1 response by timrhu

timrhu
2,779 posts
 
Tobias, that's the clearest explanation I've read.
I've been a big fan of HDCD for sometime. My first experience was with Joni Mitchell's "Blue," amazing depth and deail. I have noticed many unmarked cds are HDCD encoded with no indication on either the label or cd. There is a thread listing favorite HDCDs here and a rather lengty one at audiocircle.
One of my favorites is Stepen Stills "Manassas."
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