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XRCD Technology

I have received promotional material for these discs, but I don't really know what they are. What I gather is that they have been mastered using 24 bit digital resolution, and higher sampling rate. But I thought that this has long been true of all mastering equipment. Whatever the precision of the mastering process, the final result has to be truncated (or rounded) to 16 bits for the CD product.

The discs I have seen are performances that have always been recognized as superb examples of the original recording process. I suspect that if these discs really are above average it is probably due to the good work done 40 years ago..not the recent mixdown which, at best, can only avoid screwing things up.

Tell me why I should buy one of these things, instead of another SACD.
eldartford

Showing 2 responses by smoothjazz

smoothjazz
24 posts
 
The XRCD of Gustav Holts' 'The Planets' with Zubin Mehta directing is by far the best version of this work I have heard, and I own about 5 different versions of this work on CD. In at least this case the XRCD is superior to anything else out there, except perhaps a live concert!
smoothjazz
24 posts
 
The detail is great, but also the pacing and entire performance is very dynamic-first rate. I would describe it as scintillating. As far as other versions, they seem to be less involving, less dynamic (older recording technology?) and in some cases directed intentionally at a slower pace. The Previn and Karajan versions are very good, but the Mehta XRCD is much better.
The same could be said for other classic works; I loved the Leonard Bernstein version of Dvorak's 9th on SACD, and thought it was the best, and regret that I no longer have an SACD player.
I am hoping that high REZ downloads will eventually replace some of these 'best' recordings.
Of course this is subjective too, if you search these works on Amazon, there are many passionate audiophiles that prefer their favorite versions of the classics.
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