On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 19:11:06 +0000, Ronnie McKinley
wrote:

In uk.rec.audio Stewart Pinkerton wrote:

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 11:27:45 +0000, Ronnie McKinley
wrote:


Anyways, tell me about HDCD. In your opinion are the discs worth seeking out
or just "snake-oil" marketing?

(Didn't realize I already had a few HDCD discs in my music collection until
the LED on the Naim CDP read the discs as HDCD)

They were an interesting sideroad that seemed to come to a dead end.
While they're technically interesting, I can't say that I've noticed
any actual improvement in sound quality. YMMV, as I've only heard a
few of them.

The only one I can honestly comment on, Natalie Merchant - 'Ophelia'
playing this now on the CDX the album sounds a whole lot different than
I previously recall it sounding. A lot more dark and sinister To some
extent, it almost seems like a whole different recording, like a
different master, or summat? But then again, it may be all in my mind

The best thing HDCD ever did was give us the excellent
PM100 digital filter - especially if you disable the
licensing-required 6dB attenuation of 'Red Book' CD......

"disable the licensing-required 6dB attenuation" - in simple terms could
you expand on that? And if disabled what effect should one expect? And,
is this easily achievable on the Naim CDX? And, finally, has this
anything to do with the PIC (programmable integrated circuit)?

If the PM chip is in place, then you should ground pin 15 to disable
the 6dB attenuation which cuts in when *not* playing HDCD. This was a
condition of licensing by Pacific Microsonics, clearly intended to
give an unfair advantage to HDCD. The good news is that this is one of
the best digital filters ever made for normal CD replay.

Removing the atenuation simply raises the output level of 'Red Book'
CD by 6dB, which may give you a slight improvement in dynamic range,
depending on the rest of the output circuitry. Sorry, I'm not going to
recommend any detailed mods to the CDX - you might sue me if it melts!
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering