Reference Recordings only doing hybrid cd/sacd now, sad I'm gone.



This was a letter I sent to them, after their reply that they are no longer doing 24/96 hdcd PCM only CD's, just combined hybrid cd/sacd

" Hi Marcia, I’m afraid to say that will be it for me buying RR recordings then, if they are all going to be hybrid. As I don’t know why but all hybrids not just yours, just don’t seem to have the same quality of sound on the CD layer to me When played on my Esoteric cd only transport.   Please let me know if things change back the way it was"


Cheers George
128x128georgehifi


This is what I received back from RR.
" We do make some new titles as compact disc only, but they are projects that we don't feel are appropriate for surround-sound which we include on the SACD releases. I do hope we don't lose you as a customer.  
The CD layer on a hybrid SACD "should" not sound any different than a stand-alone CD release, we use the exact same DDP that we would send to a CD plant to make a compact disc. But I understand there may be something in your playback system that does not work well with the hybrid discs."

They do sound different as I have done the comparison, maybe it jitter count or something I'm not sure.
And there was a Hybrid disc that wouldn't even play the cd layer of the disc on my Esoteric Transport yet it would play a burnt copy of the disc when the cd layer was copied to a blank on my computer which played it.

Cheers George
@georgehifi

" . . they are no longer doing 24/96 hdcd PCM only CD's . . "

When I ripped a few HDCDs, they are read by my computer as 24/44.1 which is what I I am pretty sure they are, at best.  What is your information?.

Also, does anyone make HDCD decoders anymore?  If not, how can you expect RR to keep turning them out?
George, you don't care for SACD? Esoteric makes some "pretty good" (;-) machines that will play them (and standard CD's).
Maybe your laser needs some adjustment. Make a copy of the CD layer on the RR disc using your computer to CD media and see how it reads.
SACD is DSD with a flag, I’m an R2R Multibit man, I’ll leave it at that.
And no the laser is fine.

Cheers George
If you feel that strongly about I would switch to downloads for RR.  I just remembered that I purchased the Opera Dances disc as a download from HD Tracks and it is terrific
If you feel that strongly about I would switch to downloads for RR.
Sorry done the A/B, and now I don't do downloads.

Cheers George