Hdcd

There seems to be a number of HDCD fans here. I have Fresh Aire III on HDCD and sound quality, dynamics, etc is quite amazing on my system.
My receiver does the HDCD decoding so for me to listen to HDCD, it's the coax out of my Marantz into the receiver.

My question is: Would not a good CD player with a decent DAC outperform the DAC in a receiver? Sound better, or just as good?
It's late and I can't do a full experiment tonight.. just wanted to get some opinions.

What I will try to do is copy the CD, and make sure I still have HDCD come up on my receiver. If this works, I'll leave the copy in the Marantz, put the original in the Rega and switch back and forth.

The first track, Toccata is a great track for testing. Actually, when I first got into audio in the late 70's, this was the disc/track that most salespeople were using to demo.

Yes, a well done HDCD encoded CD will sound quite spectacular. And one thing I've noticed is that there are quite a few CD's that have this encoding that are not mentioned anywhere on the CD label or case. And yes a burned copy of the original CD will still have the HDCD information on it. Heck I even found out that streamed WAV, WMA Lossless and flac retain the HDCD info, which I thought was too cool.

Re CD player DAC's vs. Receiver DAC's, yes with a high quality mid end to high end CD player, the caliber of sound is pretty obvious. Now once you reach a level where the DAC's used (among other things) in the receiver or preamp is on par or better than the ones used in the CD player, then the SQ is a bit more difficult to distinguish. But in most of my listening tests, using various receivers (Onkyo, Yamaha, etc) and even pre/pro's (Integra Research, Sunfire), my CD player out performed them. Now things have changed a bit, as my current pre/pro's (Denon AVP-A1HDCI) DAC's actually sound as good as my CD player. This really impressed me.

But for the most part, it's going to be hard to beat a very high quality CD players sound quality.


Seth

Check out this list of HDCDs. As MickeyVee pointed out, many CDs are HDCD-encoded but there is no mention of it on the packaging. I have an HDCD-capable CD player, and I love having this feature. My Oppo 970HD, which is now my DVD/SACD player, (and all other Oppos as far as I know) also has this feature. It does make a difference. Some artists' CDs, like Keiko Matsui, are all available in HDCD. It gives me the impression that the artist truly cares about the quality of the recording.

I think there is one other thing to point out is most retail outlets either do not know about HDCD's or never notice some CD's have been recorded that way. I have bought several at the regular prices.
The other thing which is cool is unlike SACD which is a different animal anyway, HDCD's can be played on any standard player and if your player will actually do the decoding even better.:music:

Jeff

Not to hijack or cause a controversy but. . . it has been reported that copies of CDs sound better, I concur, than the original so this may affect your test. I made a copy of Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static and compared it to the original and the copy had better HF openness and detail and the mids were cleaner and more dimensional. I need to copy a HDCD to see if the HDCD copies and if the results are similar.

Copies "can" sound better, but it is dependent on the type of disc (quality - data area, polymer clarity, label, depth of label, etc.), the speed of the burning, software doing the burning and the ability of the burner to properly burn, and the quality of the original, to just name a few issues.

Similar to the days of copying our records to tape.

DTB300 said:

Copies "can" sound better, but it is dependent on the type of disc (quality - data area, polymer clarity, label, depth of label, etc.), the speed of the burning, software doing the burning and the ability of the burner to properly burn, and the quality of the original, to just name a few issues.

Similar to the days of copying our records to tape.

Click to expand...

I agree with all you wrote. 1:1 copies with data verification are the "best" IMO with higher speeds less so. Definitely write to the buffer and then to the disc, no disc to disc direct copies.

OK.. this is getting complicated. I'll copy using Roxio Toast (one drive) and check the parameters first. To be honest with you, although my system sounds good, it's not top notch and I may not even be able to tell the difference.

For me, it would just be an interesting, unscientific and fun comparison.

Rega Apollo CD without HDCD decoding using internal DAC and analog out versus the Marantz 7001 via coax to a Rotel 1067 receiver which will do the decoding.

Either way, through the Rega or Marantz, the sound is pretty much the best my system can do other than a good SACD or 96K DVD-A.

Thanks for all the info!

What was going to be a simple little experiment is turning out to be a little frustrating.

Round 1: Original in Rega, Copy in Marantz. Rega is very nice but Marantz a clear winner in dynamics, drum snap and decay.

Oh yes, what about the copy thing.. switch CD's..

Round 2: Copy in Rega, Original in Marantz.. uh, oh.. Rega seems to be coming out on top again with the dynamics and very cool drum decay. All else seems equal in both tests.

Round 3 on the weekend when I'm fresh with another copy so I'm comparing copy to copy. Then try again with an HDCD with some female vocals.

Think I'll just sit back and enjoy the rest of the CD.. (copy in the Rega).. isn't that why I bought this rig

HDCDs are excellent even if you don't have an HDCD decoder chip. They seem to be recorded or mastered well.

Mobile Fidelity 24K Gold Ultradisc blank CDs are about the best quality you can find for creating your own CDs or copying CDs but they are expensive and hard to find. But worth it if you want to go all out on high fidelity CD recording. Acoustic Sounds sells them and maybe some of the other high-grade audiophile media stores.

http://store.acousticsounds.com/browse_detail.cfm?Title_ID=14431