[Whitebread]

Anyone make a DAC that can do HDCD?

 

[pbirkett]

TAG McLaren DAC20

 

[Whitebread]

Does the player have to be HDCD compadable for me to access the other 4 bits on an HDCD?

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Whitebread Does the player have to be HDCD compadable for me to access the other 4 bits on an HDCD?

No. The player simply needs to output the bitstream. The outboard DAC will decode HDCD even if the player is strictly redbook.

 

[Whitebread]

I thought so. Does anyone know about how much that DAC costs?

Also, is DVD-A just a "beefed up" CD where the audio is still PCM but at a greater bit depth and higher sampling frequency? Or is it a completely differenct type of compression?

 

[pbirkett]

You have to contact TAG McLaren themselves for that DAC, and I think its about £450 or £500... not sure how much in your money...

 

[Whitebread]

Quote:

Originally posted by pbirkett You have to contact TAG McLaren themselves for that DAC, and I think its about £450 or £500... not sure how much in your money...

Sweet Jesus!!! Thats a load of money!!!! Forget that.

 

[nately]

You could get a used Adcom or Parasound for a couple hundred dollars. They have the most common budget (used - original retail tends to be around $1000 but most of these models are 5+ years old) HDCD DACs out there. I don't own enough HDCD encoded discs for it to be worth trying though, so I have no personal experience with the format, but I imagine that's the easiest way to try it out...

 

[Whitebread]

Thanks!

 

[Carlos3]

The MSB Link III has an HDCD option.

 

[aos]

From what I remember the only difference is digital filter - it's got to be Pacific Microsonic (aka Microsoft) PM100 or PM200. 16 bits gets in, 20 (?) goes out. DAC obviously needs to have enough bits (20+ ?) but otherwise it's just a regular DAC chip.

I was just thinking about HDCD this week - it looks to me like it's a dead format because I haven't seen anything on market here that uses it as opposed to two years ago.

 

[bcwang]

Cambridge Audio S700 also supports HDCD. It's both a DAC and an isolation platform.

 

[Whitebread]

Thanks for all the recomendations guys. I searched Audiogon for Adcam and Parasound DACs and found many, some selling for as little as 175. I believe the cheepest one retailed for 800. Most of them had HDCD support.

I was thinking about HDCD also. Consider the fact that I can get a DAC, which will make my system sound better for very cheep, why not get one with HDCD support, they are cheep as well. Right now I'm not realy intrested in DVD-A or SACD as the music I listen to isnt avaliable on it. I do though have some HDCD discs and I'd like to take advantage.

 

[srobertson]

Quote:

Originally posted by Whitebread Also, is DVD-A just a "beefed up" CD where the audio is still PCM but at a greater bit depth and higher sampling frequency? Or is it a completely differenct type of compression?

DVD-A either uses raw 5.1 PCM with "beefed up" specs as you said, or a lossless compression format that stores exactly the same PCM in a smaller space. This is like putting .wavs in a computer into a zip file; it is unlike mp3, which translates pressure into frequency and then removes data.

FYI: PCM is not a method of compression; theoretically, it is an exact copy of the sound pressure at the mic. The only reason some can percieve it as being compressed is that the "theoretically" comes from an absence of the infinite sampling frequency and precision required for absolute perfection (which gives vinyl an edge in some ears, despite its also inherent inability to fully render a pressure wave).

 

[Whitebread]

O, ok. So, if I were to record something at, say, a bit depth of 24 and a sampling requency of 92khz or greater, I could just rite it to a DVD, put it in a drive that can read a DVD and play it, provided the DAC can use all of the bits and the high sampling frequency. If not, the transport should tansfer all of the infomation on the CD out the Digital out for a capable DAC to decode. My Pioneer DVD player has 20 ot 24 bit/192khz dac.