CD Format
Posted by: DarkWhisper on 09 January 2015
Can someone explain the reason there's different format Cd's.
Some of my CD's make the red light come on my CD5XS. I thought cd was a CD.
Audiophile, SACD, HDCD. slightly puzzled
I mean £30 for a SACD.. are these uncompressed copy's?
DW,
SACD is an entirely different format to CD and cannot be played on standard CD players. The format was designed by Sony and initially could only be played on dedicated SACD players although they can now be played using Sony's Playstations and some universal DVD/Bluray players. They require players which have a DAC which can decode their DSD coding.
HDCDs are a type of CD and can usually be played in most CD players. If I recall correctly they are encoded such that they can give 20 bit playback resolution on compatible players compared to the normal 16 bit resolution of normal CDs.
DW,
I should have said there are now 'Hybrid' SACD discs which have both a SACD and a CD layer and that the CD version can be played in normal CD players.
An interesting read...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc
Also for SACD you need the 6 analog RCA out connected to your Amp. And they can reproduce 5.1 channels. I have to say I enjoy the 5.1 SACD of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds.
HDCD, there are limited CD's out there with this on it and the CD player has to have the decoder in it.
where is the red light on your cd5xs?
cd5xs decodes hdcd, and if you insert a hdcd compatible disc, you should briefly see "hdcd" appear on the fascia and there is a small green light that stays on during playback.
most newer Neil Young discs, Joni Mitchell and also Beck are hdcd.
most newer Neil Young discs, Joni Mitchell and also Beck are hdcd.
And all the Rhino Grateful Dead ones, IIRC.