24/96 Format

What about HDCD is it a noticeable improvement in the CD format?--Or more just smoke and mirrors?

Don't feel bad about being confused as you say, there's always a lot of others just waiting for someone else to ask the question do they don't have to. I suggest for a good starter that you pull up the Web site below and click on the review & interview articles posted there from a Stereophile Magazine issue covering these very questions. At the very least you will gain a considerable amount of highly informative information from one of the most competent and reliable sources in the Hi-End Industry. www.museelectronics.com/download.html

The question as I see it might be regarding CDs that say recorded or remastered using 24/96. These are CDs and not DVDs ....right? So, is the 24/96 format that is being used, for example, by RCA in their HP releases decodable by anything at all including a DVD player? In answer to Ferrari, I find HDCD to be incredible. Although it is pretty much a "dead" format, it is still wonderful to hear. There are some great recordings on the classical side by a label called "Reference Recordings". This could possibly be the same path that SACD might take.

HDCD is a propietary system for recording more than 16/44 onto a regular CD. HDCD discs can be played back on an ordinary player and the effect is a bit like analog compression. Played back on an HDCD compatible player, the effect on well produced CDs (like Ref classicals) is startling. However, many HDCD encoded discs (like lots of the Rock stuff, e.g. Mirror Ball?) sound so processed anyway that the HDCD process almost seems irrelevant.

Answering JTINN's question regarding whether 24/96 "CDs" that have been recorded using 24/96 format are decodable in 24/96 using anything, including DVD player, it is my understanding that these are still CDs and not DADs and cannot be decoded at all regardless of digital processor used.