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Anyone still excited about HDCD ?

With all the talk about SACD an DVD-A no one seems to bring up HDCD. Note: I not looking for a HDCD vs SACD battle here.. I will be picking up a universal player for my HT system but for 2 channel I decided SACD did not buy me much especially given the lack of software. I just picked up a redbook player that includes HDCD so I thought why not give it a try.. and I like it. It seems to me that there are more choices for high end player that include HDCD than SACD (altough this seems to be changing) I have my cd player behind me in the room which makes it really easy to do a blind A/B test. It HDCD sounds better to me than normal decoding. I mostly notice a deeper, bigger soundstage. Naturally it does not do multi-channel but then again multi-channel has a whole set of requirements and issues that 2 channel does not. While it may not be "perfect" (since nothing ever will) or not as accurate as SACD/DVD-A maybe HDCD is good enough for 2 channel...
btrvalik
czbbcl's avatar
czbbcl
1,752 posts
 
HDCD is very nice but nobody is supporting it.

Chuck
btrvalik OP
61 posts
 
While Bill Gates is no audiophile he's also no fool. If it competed with a Microsoft product I could see doing a deal to kill it but I don't see any reason to kill it. I'm wondering if he bought it as part of his plan to take over the living room the way he took over the office. Maybe this will be a future component of media player to enable better fidelity. Who knows maybe old bill will wind up doing audiophiles a favor as a side effect to dominating the entire world....
garfish
1,840 posts
 
HDCD was (is) just an improvement of standard Redbook CDs, and they play in regular CD players, but the player does need HDCD decoding circuitry to take advantage of it. It's not a competitor of either SACD or DVD-Audio.

If Bill Gates bought the HDCD technology, he must have some use for it. At the time it was developed by Pacific Microsonics, HDCD was an advanced dithering process that made redbook CDs sound better-- but perhaps it has other applications as well?. Cheers. Craig
lugnut
1,190 posts
 
To clarify my above post, shortly after the purchase many manufacturers began complaining about the increased cost for using the chip in their players. I know I'm cynical about Mr. Gate$ movtives, but give me a reason not to be.
rwwear
2,848 posts
 
I know that Krell has stopped adding it to their processors because of the higher cost.
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