Is TSS In HDCD?

[The Heartical Don]

Well, forgive me the stupid question, I am not at home... is it? And what difference does it make? Is the HDCD encoding still 'viable', i.e. is it in common use?

[Tristero]

Well, forgive me the stupid question, I am not at home... is it? And what difference does it make? Is the HDCD encoding still 'viable', i.e. is it in common use?

It is in HDCD, as are most of Mark Linett's recent productions, but he is one of the few producers I can think of that still uses this format at all.  My Blu-Ray player is compatible with HDCD, so I've listened to TSS that way quite a bit and it sounds nice, though it's not a huge difference like you might hear with other hi-rez formats (SACD, DVD-A).  YMMV.

[chris.metcalfe]

TSS is in HDCD and it's noticeable on an HDCD player. Sounds pretty good on my other player too.
I have most of the Joni Mitchell, Doors and Grateful Dead catalogue on HDCD from the past decade or so, as well as a few jazz albums by Davis, Brubeck etc, but other than that and the Linett output it's patchy.

Difference? Adds more depth and resolution. Other than some specialist players still available at high prices I think the only way of getting the hardware is one of the multi-format Bluray players such as Cambridge Audio. I haven't heard them but they are supposed to excel at sound quality.

[chris.metcalfe]

double post

[The Heartical Don]

TSS is in HDCD and it's noticeable on an HDCD player. Sounds pretty good on my other player too.
I have most of the Joni Mitchell, Doors and Grateful Dead catalogue on HDCD from the past decade or so, as well as a few jazz albums by Davis, Brubeck etc, but other than that and the Linett output it's patchy.

Difference? Adds more depth and resolution. Other than some specialist players still available at high prices I think the only way of getting the hardware is one of the multi-format Bluray players such as Cambridge Audio. I haven't heard them but they are supposed to excel at sound quality.

Cheers for that (and also to Tristero above). Thing is: my means are quite limited at the moment, but it seems I can lay my hands on a 2nd hand Rotel consumer player in good condition, for next to nothing, that has the HDCD chip on board. Would be a nice addition, since indeed, the 2000 two-fer edition is also in HDCD, as is the Pet Sounds Sessions box.

[Dr. Tim]

Once again into the b(r)each boys: if you have a Windows XP laptop/desktop or better, HDCD is built into Windows Media Player and starts automatically when the disc plays.  If the computer's D/A converter is decent that's all you need.  Now, for beter-sounding playback of the resulting signal off of a PC, you may want to get a good USB digital-to-analog (D/A) converter that will plug direct into your audio amp/system.    One of the cheapest and best for the money is the Music Streamer, but there are many others.

Maybe it's just me but, listening to the CDs through the processor, I have real trouble hearing the noises, hiss, clicks and other audio artifacts discussed in other threads.

HDCD processors are available, on new and used CD decks, and as stand-alones.  Other artists fond of HDCD: Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Mark Knopfler.  Some classical labels like Reference Recordings use it too.