AR's Official HDCD Thread

[velo_road]

It's been mentioned above; spinning this one while working...

Jazz
Duke Ellington: Piano In The Foreground * (Columbia/Legacy CK 87042)

While remastering this disc, it looks like the engineer used the Pacific Microsonics AD Converter (evidenced by the HDCD indicator showing up) on a number of tracks, but not all of them. No PE or LLE applied on the HDCD tracks, but the Transient Filter indicator flickers YES very often. Still, it's a great disc!

[velo_road]

Soundcheck, a show on WNYC (John Schaefer host), had on the Turtle Island Quartet today...didn't they make a disc back in 1999-2000 using HDCD? Yes, it's been noted earlier - Art Of The Groove. Just ran my copy (HDCD noted on the disc and notes) through Foobar...looks like PE throughout, no evidence of LLE or TF used.

[velo_road]

It's been a while...HDCD looks to be passe, with SACD, BluRay audio, and hi-def digital downloads available to those seeking sound quality above that of redbook CD. Still, there are a number of HDCD encoded discs released, officially or 'under the radar'. A lot of Linn's CD layer of their hybrid SACDs are HDCD. For the holiday season this year I picked up their Dublin 1742 version of Handel's Messiah; the HDCD encoded CD layer has no PE or LLE, but the TF seems to be engaged frequently. The same can be said of their Mozart symphonies sets played by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Charles Mackerras conducting. On those discs both layers sound great, but of course the HDCD layer is no match when compared to SACD. And, of course, Reference Recordings still puts out HDCDs.
I hope those dedicated to HDCD will continue to post their findings, to keep the flame alive.