HDCD cd's

[davide256]

4 hours ago, ArveS said:

Hi,

I am in the process of ripping my cd’s using Windows Media player, version 12 on a laptop with Windows 10. I have some CD’s which are decoded in HDCD format, for instance Neil Young’s album Silver & Gold. When I try to playback this CD on the computer with WMP, it sounds scrambled/distorted. It sounds good on the CD player in my home stereo system. I have read that Windows media Player support HDCD cd’s and a HDCD symbol should lit up in the player to indicate HDCD media. That does not happen. The result is that both playback of audio cd and ripped cd in FLAC or Wav format have distorted sound.

I have also tried to install foobar2000 player and added HDCD component for this player but with the same result as in Windows Media Player. Thankful for any input in this matter.  

Hydrogen audio does say the rip has to be lossless for WMP to work. HDCD had a lot of features that few understood how to implement. It may be more reliable for

you to use dbPoweramp and its HDCD decoder with HDCD rips, that will get you a 20 bit recording that should behave well in any media player.

[davide256]

10 hours ago, ArveS said:

Thanks for replies. I have not tried DBPowerAmp yet. How ever it seems to me in that the hardware/software in my laptop will not detect this specific CD, (Neil Young - Silver & Gold), as a HDCD disc. It is a little bit strange since I have successfully ripped other HDCD discs to FLAC files with the same equipment and software, (for instance Neil Young's album Prairie Wind). For the moment I will keep this CD in my collection for playback via the CD player in my stereo system instead :)  

I guess I could use DBPoweramp to tell me if the CD is recognised as a HDCD cd? (but if the problem is for instance the CD-ROM in my laptop I will still not be able to rip this HDCD disc successfully I guess..)   

Any possibility that you have a normal CD, didn't get the HDCD version? I ran into that trying to get the HDCD version of "the Princess Bride" where

there was the original non HDCD and a subsequent remastered HDCD version. The annoying part of HDCD is it often doesn't say it on the case  label

and sometimes not on the disc artwork either. dbPoweramp will tell you in the logfile if the HDCD converter is enabled that it was used.

[davide256]

1 hour ago, ArveS said:

Hi,

I just want to emphasize first that the Neil Young CD in question sounds distorted when played back directly (before ripping) both in Windows Media player and in foobar2000. That’s leads me to think that neither detects this cd as HDCD and the result is destorted sound. ( I guess that is the expected resuIt if the player tries to play back a HDCD cd as a standard cd? ) I have ripped other Neil Young HDCD cd’s with success ( for instance Mirror Ball and Prairie Wind) though  I was not aware that they were HDCD cd’s so I did not alter any settings regarding this). I just ripped them to flac files and I am satisfied with the result. :)

 

HDCD's have about 6db gain compared to normal CD. If the album hits peak limit more often, that may cause distortion for output. You may want to fiddle with recording gain

to compensate since the apps aren't recognizing the disc as HDCD