Looking for thoughtful recording company - no HD

[JackD201]

Add Pope Music to the list.

 

[muralman1]

Yes, Amir. HDCD is an interesting concept. I just wish I could marry my sound system to the HDCD format. I may get there. My amp and preamp builder plus mod man extraordinaire has mentioned to me he is thinking towards making a CD player. He hasn't gone wrong with me yet. I don't see why a NOS player's signal can't be run through an HDCD circuit. I could be wrong about that. As it is, you still have to get a player that can do HDCD before you can hear it. The players that are out there just do other things wrong, like oversample, and filter.

I was looking at the Oscar Peterson disc. I read a review that had the guitar coming directly out of one speaker, and the piano coming out of the other. I have old discs that are made that way, and I find it distracting. I think I will start with Pepe in, "Flamenco."

 

[amirm]

There is nothing special about an HDCD transport. The magic is an HDCD decoder which sits in front of a 20 bit DAC. So yes, your DAC could be upgraded to support HDCD but that would require a DSP or now obsolete motorola HDCD decoder.

 

[mullard88]

Amen to post #21.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Yes, they are. Passionately, artfully and lovingly done. Having worked with Winston, I can attest to the meticulous care that he takes in everything he does.

Cool. I'm somehow missing the link to the catalog. Can you point me in the right direction?

P

 

[Steve Williams]

www.fimpression.com

 

[ack]

Yes, Amir. HDCD is an interesting concept.

I read the entire patent some time ago and have tried to summarize all the major points (it is really repetitive at times); see HDCD patent overview. The emboldened points is all you need to read at first if you are in a hurry, but I suggest you go through the entirely article which is extremely smaller than the patent itself (which took me well over 10 hours to read).

Edit/addendum: The following claim is what made me buy the Berkeley Alpha DAC (which implements the brick wall filter in the digital domain); the only other such option I know of is the Spectral SDR-4000S Pro player (which doesn't decode hi-rez, unlike the Alpha, thus not much of a long-term investment for me):

NOTE 3: An important advantage is that the "brick wall" low-pass filter required to prevent Nyquist--Alias errors can be implemented as a digital filter, which has highly reproducible characteristics free from phase distortions. The characteristics of this filter can be chosen dynamically based upon an analysis of the high resolution signal to minimize distortion. Hence major filter and analog to digital encode system problems such as pre-echo, transient ringing, group delay anomalies, missing code errors, alias distortion and beats are greatly reduced or eliminated.

 

[garylkoh]

I read the entire patent some time ago and have tried to summarize all the major points (it is really repetitive at times); see HDCD patent overview. The emboldened points is all you need to read at first if you are in a hurry, but I suggest you go through the entirely article which is extremely smaller than the patent itself (which took me well over 10 hours to read).

Wow! That is dedication. I haven't managed to plow through the entire patent.

There are three types of CDs that are HDCD encoded, and the decoder can only handle one type at a time. The scheme that Amir described is dynamic range compression/expansion.

The other are Peak Extension, and Digital Interpolation.

Since Microsoft bought the patent, Windows Media Player has HDCD decoding included. There is also a software plug-in for Foobar. My NOS DAC, the Weiss Minerva handles HDCD just fine if it is pre-processed by software.

 

[ack]

Wow! That is dedication. I haven't managed to plow through the entire patent.

It's actually research before a purchase (as you may have also seen on my new-speaker search in the Magico V3 thread); I just updated my post, pointing to the very important Note 3, which for me, is all the explanation I need to understand why the Spectral 4000 and Berkeley Alpha DAC sound so spectacular.

 

[RUR]

...why the .......Berkeley Alpha DAC sound(s) so spectacular.

As you and I have discussed on another forum, the fact that two of three HDCD inventors are principals @ Berkeley doesn't hurt! ;-)

 

[garylkoh]

As you and I have discussed on another forum, the fact that two of three HDCD inventors are principals @ Berkeley doesn't hurt! ;-)

The Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC indeed sounds wonderful. I can't wait to get one into my own listening room to have an extended listen - and they have already said that I can have one to try out after RMAF. Yippee!!

Actually, the two HDCD inventors are Prof. Keith Johnson and Michael "Pflash" Pflaumer. Only Pflaumer is in Berkeley Audio. The other two principals Rene Jaeger (also a fellow member of the Pacific Northwest Audio Society) and Michael Ritter, are alumni of Pacific Microsonics but not the inventors of HDCD. Rene was the Product Manager at dbx, inc. the original developers of the compression/ expansion algorithms in the 1970's.

I hadn't mentioned the Alpha DAC because of the thread owner's antipathy towards over-sampling DACs.

 

[RUR]

Gotcha. I had thought Ritter was party to the patent, as well. When I blind tested several DAC's in my system late last year, the BADA sounded incredible and was the easy (subjective) winner.

 

[garylkoh]

It's actually research before a purchase (as you may have also seen on my new-speaker search in the Magico V3 thread);

You certainly do your background work thoroughly!!

I just updated my post, pointing to the very important Note 3, which for me, is all the explanation I need to understand why the Spectral 4000 and Berkeley Alpha DAC sound so spectacular.

Agreed! I think that the Berkeley Alpha DAC is far more musical compared to the Playback Designs. I still need to do the comparison between the Weiss and the Berkeley. I'm a manufacturer, but I don't make DACs and I have no intention of ever making DACs so I hope no one objects to my saying this.

 

[muralman1]

Guys, I really appreciate all the info on HDCD. I can tell you with certainty I don't need HDCD. Also, the transports and players loaded with HDCD chips are not of any use to me. Like I said, my system is allergic to over-manupulation of the signal, digital or analogue.

I am not trying to emulate vinyl with this system. This system has crushed vinyl a long time ago and has marched on to greater rewards. I have Dave Bryant's, "Eternal Hang," on now.... This will blow anyone's hair back.

 

[RUR]

Gary, the DAC 2 was one of the DACs in my comparison and was, IMSO, inferior to the BADA. I've not heard the new DAC 202.

 

[ack]

This may be diverging a bit, but elsewhere on the net I've posted subjective comparisons of my digital vs analog sources, with the same recordings where available (I understand that mastering can differ from transfer to transfer, but this is the closest to an objective test I can run)... In the end, Reference Recorings/HDCD through the Berkeley wins hands down *in my system*, as the more resolving and natural sounding source; extremely close behind is my analog with just about any other recording (outperforming any non-HDCD disc), followed by Dorian, Chesky and Pope non-HDCD digital (generally, in that order; I only have a single FIM XRCD at the moment). Am dying to build a hi-rez server to try 24/176 through the Alpha, but I feel I am only 6 months away.

Here's a Dorian that will surely thrill you and raise the hairs on your back with the sound and power of winds: http://www.amazon.com/Your-Ears-Only-Proteus-7/dp/B000007SAO

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Add Pope Music to the list.

Are they still alive?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

There is nothing special about an HDCD transport. The magic is an HDCD decoder which sits in front of a 20 bit DAC. So yes, your DAC could be upgraded to support HDCD but that would require a DSP or now obsolete motorola HDCD decoder.

As well as a 20bit NOS DAC. ;-)

 

[ack]

Are they still alive?

Nope.

 

[garylkoh]

Gary, the DAC 2 was one of the DACs in my comparison and was, IMSO, inferior to the BADA. I've not heard the new DAC 202.

Ken, I don't run stock..... my Minerva/DAC 2 totally blew away a new DAC 202. I didn't think that it would be worth my while to get a new DAC 202 and do all my mods to it. That's why I want to listen to the BADA in my own system - I think that it will have the potential to blow away my Minerva.