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  1. #1
    Forum Regular Demetrio's Avatar
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    Arrow XRCD: the most incredible sounding discs I have ever heard

    I would never imagine CD could ever sound that good till the day I listened to an XRCD some time ago. The XRCD in case was this:

    => THE SHEFFIELD LAB DRUM & TRACK DISC


    I was absolutely astonished as I listened to that disc and I just wanted to get more of that brilliant sounding stuff since then. These are others I have already bought until now:

    => HAROLD FARBERMAN - Grooving Classics

    => JAMES NEWTON HOWARD & FRIENDS

    => DAVE GRUSIN - Discovered Again Plus

    => DADAWA - Sister Drum

    => HE XUN-TIAN - Paramita


    And I still have this on my current want to buy as soon as I can find it:

    => DIRE STRAITS - Brothers in Arms


    Anybody else here also in love with this kind of stuff?

    Demetrio.

  2. #2
    3LB
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    cunning linguist 3LB's Avatar
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    I wonder what happens if you rip from an XRCD (I haven't even tried). I ownly own two or three, and that's because I won them. I looked up the website (First Impressions Music) and they are pricey. FIM is more for the obscure music seeker, since they seem to specilize in remastered old albums of the Decca label.

    I believe XRCD is the JVC corp's equivalent of HDCD, though some say XRCD is better. I have ripped HDCDs in the past and the encoding (or whatever) seems to be on the CD-R - I say that because my computer (Windows Media Player) and one of my DVD players recognize the tracks as HDCD and display it as such.
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  3. #3
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    What you're hearing has nothing to do with XRCD, but with the quality of those Sheffield Lab recordings. Those recordings were done live in studio, using no remixing and minimal miking and multitracking (Sheffield's Harry James big band recording was done using a single stereo-tube mike). This type of recording is difficult because it requires a tremendous amount of prep work, and everything has to be done in one take. There's no room for cleaning things up or choosing between different takes during post production.

    But believe me, you haven't heard anything until you've listened to the direct-to-disc versions of those recordings. That's because the direct-to-disc LPs took the board feed directly to the cutting needle without a tape intermediary. And it's also because Sheffield Lab was inherently biased towards vinyl and analog.

    To that end, Sheffield Lab made sure that the LP would sound better. At the time that many of these recordings were done, Sheffield was on an anti-digital campaign and they cited their own CD releases as proof of the format's inferiority. Indeed, a lot less care was taken in how they prepared the tape feed (which is the original source for the CDs). Those tapes were only intended for use as back ups, and have audible background noise.

    But, even after Sheffield saddled down those tape feeds, the rest of the production quality is about as high as it gets, and that's what you're hearing. The XRCD process (which is basically a mastering process that uses higher resolution DACs) does nothing that any decent mastering engineer can't already do.
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  4. #4
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3LB
    I wonder what happens if you rip from an XRCD (I haven't even tried). I ownly own two or three, and that's because I won them. I looked up the website (First Impressions Music) and they are pricey. FIM is more for the obscure music seeker, since they seem to specilize in remastered old albums of the Decca label.

    I believe XRCD is the JVC corp's equivalent of HDCD, though some say XRCD is better. I have ripped HDCDs in the past and the encoding (or whatever) seems to be on the CD-R - I say that because my computer (Windows Media Player) and one of my DVD players recognize the tracks as HDCD and display it as such.
    Completely different products.

    HDCD is an encoded format that embeds data into the bitstream to purportedly increase the dynamic range. Problem with HDCD is that it also raises the noise level when played back on a CD player without a HDCD decoder. The presence of HDCD is less consequential to how a CD will sound, because a crappy recording will still sound bad no matter what additional encoding got applied. And just because the HDCD flag gets turned on does not mean that a mastering engineer will do a good job with the transfer.

    XRCD is a mastering process that uses higher resolution DACs during the transfer, and a puportedly higher quality manufacturing process. IMO, the purportedly improvements brought on by XRCD can be just as easily achieved by simply taking more time and paying more attention to details such as the processing and EQ settings during the mastering process. XRCD probably already does this, so of course it will sound better. But, without the XRCD label, JVC cannot charge twice what a regular CD costs. It sounds a lot less impressive to just say that a CD was "remastered."

    Ripping a XRCD is no different than ripping from any other CD. If the title sounds good when played back on disc, it will probably sound at least decent as a digital file.
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  5. #5
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    I have a copy of the Dire Straits album you mention and it does sound impressive, but not a huge improvment over the last remaster I bought the SBM (Super Bit Mapped whatever that means) circa 1996.

    I always preferred the earlier DS albums soundwise, Brothers in Arms has that 80's stadium sound they adopted.

    The one to go for the very best version seems to be the SACD one if you have SACD capability according to this article http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m.../ai_n29211597/

    On a similar recent note I picked up some Beatles unofficial remasters by someone called 'den0iZer' I don't know the technical details of what he did or used but they are very good. Undeniably 'hot' I supose it depends on your system set up but I can't help but like them especially the earlier albums Rubbers Soul, Revolver and Magical Mystery Tour. Anybody else familiar with these versions?

    Cheers
    Mike

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