XRCD question

[goatspeed]

I was wondering if current SACD or DVD-A players also play the XRCD format disks. I haven't had alot of luck finding players that explicitly say they support XRCD.

[lumiere]

I was wondering if current SACD or DVD-A players also play the XRCD format disks. I haven't had alot of luck finding players that explicitly say they support XRCD.

Basically, anything that plays Re Book CDs plays XRCD.

Cheers

[Woochifer]

XRCD's not a format, it's a label for a lineup of CDs that were mastered using some technique that JVC developed. Any CD player will play them. In my experience, they do sound very good, but that doesn't mean that a CD without the XRCD label cannot sound equally good.

The only real "upgraded" CD format that requires a special player to play back as it was intended is HDCD. That format piggybacks some additional bits on top of the CD bitstream to increase the resolution. It's backwards compatible with regular CD players, and you can find the HDCD feature on a lot of CD and DVD players. I've never tried out HDCD, so I can't comment on the audio quality. Apparently, Microsoft now controls the format, so I have no idea what its status current is. Most of the listeners searching for higher resolution have moved onto SACD and DVD-A, which are true high resolution formats that don't need bandaid techniques like XRCD and HDCD.

[goatspeed]

Thanks for that excellent info. My questions are answered.

I read a review on the XRCD of The Eagles: Hell Freezes Over and noticed that it was XRCD format...so I was wondering if I could play it in my sacd/dvd-a player. Looks like it will! Thanks again!