HDCD Encoded Discs

[Daniel Taylor]

Given a CD that's encoded with HDCD, when that CD is ripped to WAV, it makes sense to me that the HDCD information would remain intact.  Then, when converted to FLAC, I'd expect that information to still remain encoded.  Finally, when the file is read and sent out to an external DAC, I see no reason that the HDCD would not still be there.

Is there anyone here with more knowledge on this than my own who can confirm this, or explain why it might be otherwise?

[Daniel Taylor]

And I realize that if the file were converted to MP3, the HDCD information would almost certainly be lost.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

I may be wrong but I am not aware if Brennan state that they support HDCD with their machines. They do state that the support standard music CDs. As I understand it if you put an HDCD in a modern CD machine it will deal with the content as though it were a standard CD. 

I believe Microsoft "ate" the HDCD technilogy sometime round 2005?

Fred

[Daniel Taylor]

That's probably true.  I don't expect the B2 to be able to decode HDCD - actually, I'd be surprised if it did.  But it will play an HDCD disc without decoding the extra info.

There are still a bunch of HDCD discs out there.  And of course, the HDCD encoding can only be decoded by one of the players that can do that.  I'm pretty sure my Oppo player can do that.  Now that I've posed the question, I should check if any of the huge number of stand-alone DACs can decode HDCD.  If they can, that would imply that the coded information does ride along on the CD data.

[JFBUK]

Hi Daniel,

what did you rip with ?

I know you don't normally rip on your B2.

I found this about ripping HDCD with DbPoweramp.

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?27540-Ripping-HDCDs-Best-practices

I think most rippers will preserve the HDCD info but will not use it by default. You have to explicitly tell the ripper to adjust the sample size or run a further conversion after ripping to HDCD attributes on

I used CUEtools to re-encode a Neil Young track which I had already ripped with DbPoweramp, uploaded it to my B2 and the B2 plays it with no problem.

John

John

[Daniel Taylor]

Thanks, John.

Quite a bit of information there at that link.  What little I've read (so far) seems to confirm my suspicions.  I guess the most important thing for me to do now is to find out if I have a machine that will even decode HDCD.  ;o)

[Mark Fishman]

Does it matter? Under most circumstances, the extra noise added by the HDCD encoding (when not decoded) should be inaudible; and any extra information provided by HDCD decoding should be masked by (a) program content, (b) analogue amplifier noise floor, (c) room (environmental) noise during playback. Not to mention that if you spend long enough worrying about it, your ears will age so you can't hear it anyway.

In A/B/X testing, 16-bit words at 44.1ksps has consistently been shown to be audibly transparent as a distribution standard. (You need more bits for mixing because of the math onvolved.) There are far more audible defects introduced in the ANALOG stages of playback (improper grounding in the circuits is often the culprit), including at the amp/loudpseaker interface because of reactive loading, than in the sampling and conversion.

[Daniel Taylor]

Ha!  Very good points.  And yes, my ears have probably aged out of this discussion already.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

😁 me too!

Fred

[JFBUK]

I think the average ear age on here probably precludes most of noticing any discernable difference and Neil Young live was probably not the best choice for my test if extraneous noise is a factor :)