[hciman77]

I have just won a Rotel RCD-02 on ebay ($285) and apparently it is
HDCD capable - I dont have any HDCD CDs - are they really that much
better and if so are they typically more expensive - I generally listen
to mostly classical.

 

[Megaptera]

They're no more expensive than other CDs, and sound -- to my ears -- noticeably better. If you have a decent number of CDs, you'll probably find that you already own a few, even, since they can be played on regular CD players and are often unlabeled. Overall, it's a Good Thing to have.

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Megaptera noticeably better.

Absolutely. Unfortunately my present Arcam does not decode HDCD, while my previous NAD did decode. The Arcam is a very noticeably better player but drop a HDCD in the tray and it's disappointing because I remember how good the disc sounded on the decoding NAD.

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Megaptera They're no more expensive than other CDs, and sound -- to my ears -- noticeably better. If you have a decent number of CDs, you'll probably find that you already own a few, even, since they can be played on regular CD players and are often unlabeled. Overall, it's a Good Thing to have.

Well most of my Cds are pretty old or are budget label reissues, do you have any Classical HDCD CDs that you can point me to ? and do record companies issue HDCD and non-HDCD versions of the same recordings ?

 

[markl]

It's a very modest improvement over regular CD. Still, one would be much better off with a well-mastered Redbook CD than a poorly mastered HDCD. The kind of minor gains you can get from HDCD can easily be cancelled out if it's mastered badly.

 

[Megaptera]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hciman77 Well most of my Cds are pretty old or are budget label reissues, do you have any Classical HDCD CDs that you can point me to ? and do record companies issue HDCD and non-HDCD versions of the same recordings ?

Recognise anything on this list?

Typically, a release is either HDCD or not. It has to do with the way it's mastered, rather than how it's pressed, and since HDCDs work in non-HDCD players, there's not much financial incentive for them to do both. That said, you can easily find HDCD re-releases of non-HDCD albums -- The Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing" is an HDCD Best Of, but none of the original Dire Straits albums were ever HDCD.

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Megaptera Recognise anything on this list? .

Several of the works I have, but none of the specific recordings and it is a pretty slim line up and a little bit "pop classics"y for my taste and why is Joe Jackson on the classical list

 

[Megaptera]

Quote:

why is Joe Jackson on the classical list

Heh, the list is, unfortunately, not really up to date or complete. (Or, it seems, entirely well-organized.) There's about 5000 HDCD releases out there, and a lot of them don't have the HDCD logo on them -- it's not unheard of to put in a random album and see the HDCD light turn on.

I'm actually maintaining a list of known HDCDs in this thread. (I make no claims to being more organized than the hdcd.com one

) The classical section isn't too extensive yet, unfortunately.