[silverrain]

The mastering process cam make or break a CD, obviously.
I own many HDCD, and I can't remember one ever letting me down on SQ -- but, I use various reference-series Marantz (the pretty gold champagne stuff) players and recorders, all in HDCD, and I have been very happy with the SQ they provide.
I also have a Denon W1500 two-tray HDCD player/recorder that does a tremendous job, too -- of course, it shares the same DAC, and some other components, as the Marantz items, since they are part of the same company, I guess. They have a lovely "house sound".
I had NAD C542 and sold it here last year in the FS forum -- never even tried it out -- just an impulse buy because it was on sale, and owners said they liked it, usually. But, I already had some good stuff, so let it go -- I wish I had at least tried it out, to see if it sounded any different than my other stuff. Oh well.

Anyway, I've been tempted to get a Marantz SA8001 SACD player, just to have one...maybe one day later this year....

 

[Dominat0r]

well, i have a few hybrid SACDs....

Mostly classical, but a few jazz.

I have to say...i can blindly tell between each version. Its not a HUGE difference..i would say its mainly a larger soundstage and a bit more detail on highs.

I think that you would indeed be able to tell the difference between the same album in CD and SACD.

However, some are more then others. I think it has more of a difference in jazz and classical as in rock.

I have listened to Pink Floyd DSOM in cd and SACD...besides just a smidge more detail...was VERY hard to tell the difference. I would doubt my ability to blindly pick between those 2.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morph201 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just goes to show that a lot of it has to do with the mastering process... more so than the gimicky labels they throw on discs (XRCD2,etc...). Of course YMMV ...

Ummm, I was sure XRCD2 IS an upgraded mastering process. All players will benefit from them. It is not a gimmick.

 

[Morph201]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ummm, I was sure XRCD2 IS an upgraded mastering process. All players will benefit from them. It is not a gimmick.

Not trying to derail this any further, but I have a couple of early XRCDs that were pretty much straight transfers.. and the original Redbooks sounded better... Of course this doesn't happen in every case.

 

[Spunky8]

By the way, what is the derivation of "redbook"? Why are regular CD's called "redbooks"?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spunky8 /img/forum/go_quote.gif By the way, what is the derivation of "redbook"? Why are regular CD's called "redbooks"?

The technical book that laid out the specifications for CDs had a red cover. Really. People started referring to CDs as "Red Book" and it caught on.

More detail here:

Red Book (audio CD standard) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By the way, SACD specifications are laid out in the Scarlet Book.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

More info and review of K2HD, where they agree with me that it sounds better than expected from CD, on a regular CD player.

K2 HD Review

 

[Morph201]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif More info and review of K2HD, where they agree with me that it sounds better than expected from CD, on a regular CD player. K2 HD Review

To be honest with you I haven't purchased any K2HD discs as of yet, but from what I read it seems that most of the "mistakes" that were done with some xrcds and K2's (i.e. further compression, noise reduction, EQing) have been corrected using the K2HD process, and there are a lot of people that say they sound great! Which is a good thing! If that is that case, hopefully this format will catch on...

 

[RockStar2005]

Does anyone here know if this album's Redbook layer has the same master as the SACD layer??