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Do HDCDs sound terrible on non HDCD players?

Being an analog guy I have but a small collection of CDs and only a handfull are HDCD encoded. All of them sound terrible on my non HDCD player with thick lower midranges, smeared, closed-in textures and a general lack of cohesiveness. For reference my player is the original Rega Planet and the HDCDs are as follows: Olu Dara, In This World, Steve Earle, El Corazon, Garcia and Grisman, Shady Grove, Neil Young, Silver and Gold. Any opininons?
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sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Sounds like it is the cables to me. I had similar results with Kimber and Audioquest when I demo's them a while back. Try a pair of Nordost Blue Heaven (used around $100 to $125). Or borrow some if you can. If out of your budget, then the Nordost Solar Wind.
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sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Since you do not have an HDCD decoder, those CDs are just a plain old vanilla CD to your Planet. They should play no different then any other CD. They might just be lousy sounding CDs.


So back to your original question: No, HDCDs do not sound terrible on non HDCD players in my opinion. I have many HDCDs and can attest to it from years of personal experience.

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