Rotel rcd951 and hdcd's?

[oldson]

bought the above player as back-up for when my pc is belly-up.

2 questions
1) anyone have any knowledge of the player, as in quality etc?

2) are hdcd's, in general, worth bothering with?
thanks

[dave2010]

bought the above player as back-up for when my pc is belly-up.

2 questions
1) anyone have any knowledge of the player, as in quality etc?

2) are hdcd's, in general, worth bothering with?
thanksre 2 - really not sure. Perhaps will raise the resolution to 20 bits/sample, so you need to use at least a 20 bit DAC if you use an external one. Not sure how many HDCDs are available - not worth it unless there are recordings you want. If you have HDCD discs there are tools which will rip them to a file - maybe DBPowerAmp but I don't have experience myself.

If you just use the Rotel, the results will not only depend on the HDCD quality, but also on the player.

I tried to find a list of HDCDs - http://www.google.com/search?q=list%20of%20hdcds

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/category2/2726/a/HDCD.htm

http://www.goodwinshighend.com/hdcd.htm

Some of those links may help you.

[Stratmangler]

bought the above player as back-up for when my pc is belly-up.

2 questions
1) anyone have any knowledge of the player, as in quality etc?

2) are hdcd's, in general, worth bothering with?
thanks

Just be aware that when decoding HDCD discs the output level will plummet - the extra information drop the overall output level considerably.

I have a few HDCD titles, and they generally seem to be be very well mastered.

Bear in mind that I play my HDCD material from HDD, ripped using dbPoweramp, and streamed as 24/44.1 to a Squeezebox Touch.
When extracting the HDCD data there are 4 redundant bits added, to conform with HD spec.

[oldson]

Just be aware that when decoding HDCD discs the output level will plummet - the extra information drop the overall output level considerably.

I have a few HDCD titles, and they generally seem to be be very well mastered.

Bear in mind that I play my HDCD material from HDD, ripped using dbPoweramp, and streamed as 24/44.1 to a Squeezebox Touch.
When extracting the HDCD data there are 4 redundant bits added, to conform with HD spec.

i assume you mean output volume?

[Stratmangler]

i assume you mean output volume?

You assume correctly :)

[ursus262]

I used to have one of these CD players. Sounded very detailed and neutral, but a bit thin

[oldson]

You assume correctly :)

i am now confused:scratch:

have ripped a hdcd to foobar.
on playback it is considerably louder than the standard cd rip.

so much so, that i have to turn it down from my usual playback level.

please explain:)

[Stratmangler]

i am now confused:scratch:

have ripped a hdcd to foobar.
on playback it is considerably louder than the standard cd rip.

so much so, that i have to turn it down from my usual playback level.

please explain:)

Do you mean that you ripped a CD using Foobar ?

I used dBpoweramp to rip HDCD discs, and the resultant files show up as 24/44.1 - there are four redundant bits added, as standards have changed over the years, and 20 bit files are not natively dealt with by many software media players.

I have set up dBpoweramp to see and rip the HDCD information, and afterwards do a replayain scan to see the recorded levels.

[oldson]

Do you mean that you ripped a CD using Foobar ?

I used dBpoweramp to rip HDCD discs, and the resultant files show up as 24/44.1 - there are four redundant bits added, as standards have changed over the years, and 20 bit files are not natively dealt with by many software media players.

I have set up dBpoweramp to see and rip the HDCD information, and afterwards do a replayain scan to see the recorded levels.

no , ripped using eac.
playback via foobar.

[Stratmangler]

no , ripped using eac.
playback via foobar.

You need to rip the files with dBpoweramp, which has also had the DSP plugins installed.
The files you have ripped are going to be vanilla CD standard.

You can download and instal a trial version of dBpoweramp, and the DSP plugins from here http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

[oldson]

You need to rip the files with dBpoweramp, which has also had the DSP plugins installed.
The files you have ripped are going to be vanilla CD standard.

You can download and instal a trial version of dBpoweramp, and the DSP plugins from here http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

is there a noticable improvement over 16 bit though?

[oldson]

do hdcd players output 20bit through their digital outputs, or are they restricted as sacd players?

[Stratmangler]

is there a noticable improvement over 16 bit though?

Sometimes - depends on the mastering.

[Stratmangler]

do hdcd players output 20bit through their digital outputs, or are they restricted as sacd players?

That I do not know.