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High Definition CD or HDCD - What is it exactly?

I have an Audio Aero Capitole MKII and always thought it had the ability to read HDCD's. I thought this until recently playing an HDCD on a friend's CEC CD player which has a small light that appears that tells you that it is reading the disc as an HDCD. The improvement and realism in the sound was awesome. The realism in sound reminded me of SACD in many ways, although I don't have much listening experience with either HDCD or SACD.

What exactly is HDCD and why can't the Aero Aero (at this price point) play/read these types of CD's?

One more thing...I burned a copy of the HDCD, but the CEC player did not recognize the copy as an HDCD.

Your comments are appreciated. Thanks,
128x128gerryn

Showing 4 responses by ghostrider45

ghostrider45
449 posts
 
Czbbel - Interesting - the HDCD process only results in a 20 bit data stream, so I wonder why Microsoft wants a 24 bit card.
ghostrider45
449 posts
 
The HDCD encoding is embedded in the audio data on the disc (low order bit modulation) and should survive a disc copy. If the CEC player failed to recognize the copy as an HDCD it means that your copy software did not make a bit-for-bit copy of the original disc.
ghostrider45
449 posts
 
BTW, the HDCD license that the manufacturer needs in order to sell a player with an HDCD decoder requires that the player have an indicator for HDCD disks. It also requires that the level of non HDCD disks be 6db lower than HDCD disks. Some manufacturers put a defeat switch inside the player for this gain reduction - it doesn't violate the license if the end user disables the gain reduction.

For a long time Pacific Microsonics would not grant a license for a software implementation of HDCD (I.e. Wadia, Theta, Krell, etc) - you had to buy their decoder chip (PMD-100 or PMD-200). I think that stance has shifted since Microsoft bought them.

ghostrider45
449 posts
 
Czbbel -

Duh - of course! I wasn't thinking.
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