[jimmyp58]

While HDCD would be nice, my hunch is that Bryston will focus on the masses rather than on the minority.  There aren't a massive amount of discs in this format and again while it would be nice, I think this is one they may take a pass on.  I'd like it as I have some cds with it but it clearly doesn't dominate my collection nor will it in the future.

[thomaspf]

Sure, given that SP1.7 is a mass market device ......

The SP1.7 is such a niche device that I would rather look at who are the people in this particualr niche. I can tell you about myself.
I wanted a single system for my 2-channel and suround sound needs with no compromises on the the 2-channel side.

Now you could argue I should buy a high end universal player and use the analog inputs which I might do given the time line for a hires digital input but then I don't need any of the DSP upgrades anyhow. However, I wager very few people are buying this particular unit for the plethora of surround sound modes that the industry is unleashing on the unsuspecting customer.

HDCD would be a nice addition catering to the people who bought this unit for it's 2-channel capabilites and are using it's internal DACs.

It is so simple to do and I assume the license cost is marginal. If the mas smarket Rotel units support it then why can't a unit that costs 4 times a smuch.

I even pay extra for this if it is being made available.

Cheers

    Thomas

[jimmyp58]

Mass market device?  Niche device?  We definitely see things differently thomaspf.

Is it geared for the mass market?  Maybe.  I would still venture to say that there are far more folks getting into HT that are still buying receivers than separates; that definitely is a mass market.  I think audiocircle caters to the audiophile group but scour the other forums and there are far more folks buying receivers than separates so I wouldn't necessarily agree this is a 'mass market device'.  Now if you say mass market that is gear toward more of a class of folks that want a great HT processor, then yes because in this group, there is a wealth of processors available.

Niche?  There are scores of folks that are into processors that consider Bryston as well as Lexicon, Rotel, Krell, Arcam, Anthem, Halo, etc.  There are many factors that go into buying such a device.  Perhaps for us Bryston enthusiasts we want the processor that sounds the best and does an equally superb job for 2-channel but most folks would buy Bryston because of other factors besides this 'niche' you are referring to.  I happen to be in the same niche as you because I wanted the very best of both worlds but as a whole, I'd disagree this is a 'niche' product.  I guarantee you that the folks owning the new Anthem D1 as well as those owning the Arcam AV8 would argue this to death.

I couldn't answer definitively one way or the other if adding HDCD is easy or not but again, how many discs are out there with this encoding?  I owned a Rotel RSP-1098 and while I owned several HDCD encoded discs, I did not buy the 1098 because it had the decoding capability.  And when I wanted to upgrade, it never crossed my mind when I considered the SP 1.7, the Arcam AV8, or the Anthem D1 whether they had the capability or not.  Rotel does it for a marketing ploy I believe and they want to be everyone's best value.  And while Bryston is considering digital-to-digital format for multi-channel audio, that is nowhere on Rotel's radar screen.

I believe Bryston is on the right track with what they have planned.  I couldn't say I wouldn't want HDCD but again, given the small market of HDCD discs, I highly doubt they'll spend the money on this.

Jim

[thomaspf]

Well my comment about mass market was obviously meant ironical.

Nothing at this price point is mass market and a surround sound unit that most people wil use in conjunction with DVDs without integrated video support certainly is not.

In this light I doubt that adding yet another surround sound format is going to make this box more attractive than better digital support for 2-channel music.

By looking at the HDCD site there are about 2500 discs on their WEB site. Now, I applauded the move to support 24/96 of which I have about 10 discs and I probably have 50 with HDCD.

HDCD is just an encoding in the lower bits of a standard PCM file. The decoding of the resulting 20bit signal has been written for the typical DSPs, so this is mainly an issue to integrate this into the DSP code base.

Cheers

     Thomas

[Adz523]

Looks like most people on this thread have had a chance to comment and Shane has certainly provided a lot of information generating a lot of excitement.  Question though is when when when, after all timing is everything !!!