Is this ripping HDCD to the HDX?

Any lossless File format can hold a HDCD.  It just needs playing back through a DAC capable of decoding the format.

dbPoweramp has a DSP setting that will rip HDCD to 24/44.1

So does that mean I can burn an HDCD disk on my PC and dbPoweramp decides the 20bit into 24bit 44.1kHz ready for saving to the HDX DOWNLOADS folder??

Yes

Excellent advice, thanks.  I am about to do this with my HDCDs now.

Do I also check the +6dB amplification as well, or leave it unchecked??

Thanks.

I left it unchecked.

As it's in the digital domain it probably won't affect the sound quality as such but may affect the usable range on your volume control and possibly give a bit of a shock when you play them if they are ripped at a higher level from the rest of your collection!

Yes, it is however noting the ripping HDCD is only an approximation, albeit good approximation... the actual HDCD control bits control the Pacific Microsonics DSP to then create a bit stream for the DAC , and the public domain HDCD encoder used by some of the rippers have been developed by approximately reverserse engineering the more popular HDCD operands. To truly decode HDCD you need to use Pacific Microsonic licenced software/ hardware. The Naim CDX2 is one such device that does this. (But can’t rip of course). I believe there are a few / were a few specialist DACs that did this as well. If you used a DAC with Pacific Microsonics licenced capability, then you would always need to rip your HDCD as a standard CD rip with no DSP approximations etc... unfortunately the DSP approximation method used by some rippers is lossy and once done is not reversible ...

Thank you for your explanation Simon. I do not really have to add much to add ... this only reminds me how good those HDCD encoded recordings actually were ... I used to own a CD5X player and it also has the HDCD decoding options. It really made a lot of difference in my opinion.

I did a google search and found out that Microsoft acuired all patents ... 

I can't do a direct comparison between HDCD rips and HDCD discs as I got rid of my CD player (CDS2 - good riddance!). I have compared rips HDCD decoded by DBPoweramp to straight rips and the difference is small but worthwhile in favour of the HDCD rips.

I should say I have a lot of HDCDs as the Grateful Dead and Neil Young both use this format and nothing is more important to me musically than hearing the Grateful Dead in the best possible quality. It was the search for Phil Lesh's bass lines in all their glory that got me into real hifi in the first place. 

Pev, HDCD approximated rips by dboweramp should probably sound more attractive to a straight rip. A straight rip of a HDCD would probably  only sound better if you were feeding the straight rip into a Pacific Microsonics enabled DAC.. think of it ever so slightly like playing an MQA file through a non MQA DAC, albeit HDCD is a lot more benign.

Simon

You can also use dBpoweramp to rip HDCD to 24/44.1. 

As with any format, source material quality is paramount. I have a lot of HDCDs, many of which sounded entertaining when played back through the CDX2, in a kind of artificially pumped up way.  I got bored with the presentation after a while. 

Ripping them to 16/44.1, compared to ripping them to 24/44.1 seemed to make a difference. I would say that if you like the larger than life presentation of HDCD, it's worth ripping to 24/44.1. It seems to be preserved somewhat.

It was a fad I went through. One of my favourite albums sounded amazing in HDCD. Like I'd never heard it before. And that was true, because I'd never heard it played back with the EQ emphasis that the HDCD version put on it. Then it was released remastered from MFSL in standard (gold) CD format and that sounded a lot better. Then it was remixed in 24/192 and a flat transfer of the original tape was included in 24bit. That's now my go to version. You can't beat the original if it can be got.