HDTV Forum

I searched on "HDCD" but didn't see anything.

Apparently this standard CD-compatible format is alive and well and I just got a "boutique" vacuum tube CD player with HDCD decoding on-board. I at first thought this was just a by-product of the CD platform the Chinese designer chose to build on but then find out that there is a thriving market for HDCD titles on Ebay, many of the sellers are in Hong Kong, they take PayPal and ship to the US. And, it appears that studios are encoding new stuff in HDCD.

But back to Hong Kong; in the label-art image of titles advertised as HDCD you sometimes can detect both the HDCD logo as well as the stylized "DSD" logo used for SACD. I guess these could be hybrids but I emailed one seller about my confusion and all I got back, after repeated inquiries, was that he wasn't technically familiar with the various formats so if I felt uncomfortable just don't bid/buy.

Anyway, what's my question. Question is, regarding these "Asian" sources, does anyone have any knowledge of or experience with dealing with these folks? Are these rips of Western art do you think? I should look before I write this but is there really a compilation of the best of Norah Jones already? I think she's got two albums out and precious little else but there it is from Hong Kong - gold HDCD. Curious... But, bottom line is where are the good sources for HDCD?

Jim

Well you have perked my interest and I think I will begin looking into all this. I think one of my players supports HDCD but it would not be one of the good ones.

You may already know this stuff but we now have a listing for HDCD in the Audio dictionary/encyclopedia.

viewtopic.php?t=5398

That link provides a pretty good synopsis. The two guys that came up with this are no slouches and yes, Microsoft bought all the patents. According to a knowledgeable friend of mine the claim that even non-HDCD encoded CDs can sound (all other things being fine and good) a bit better is due to improved D/A wave-shaping (interpolation?) firmware algorithms. He mentioned Wadia in the same breath. And, they garnered quite a large manufacturer following that still exists.

So I now think this was a hidden bonus in this sub-$1000 Eastern Electric MiniMax CDP. And, I'm rolling 6DJ8/6922/7308 type tubes in it for even more fun. If you go looking for the more sacred and discovered NOS stuff from Holland/UK/Germany you will be in for a big sticker-shock surprise.

I look for less-discovered equivalents like the 7-volt versions. But that's another story.

Jim