[Mountain-ear]

I have a new Vision EC DAC on order (upgrading from an Insight DAC), and I was just wondering how the Vision DAC handles HDCDs.  By the way, I'm not advocating the HDCD format.  I just happen to have accumulated a few over the years and am wondering if there will be any discernable difference when using the Vision DAC.

Thanks.

Steve

[Charles Calkins]

Steve:
  My old Ultec CD player handles HDCD discs. When I play them through the CD player and then switch to my Vision Hybrid DAC there is a slight difference(Better) through the DAC. However it's that way on all my CD's HDCD or not.

                                                 Cheers
                                                 Charlie

[dminches]

Mountain-Ear, I think you should just e-mail Frank and ask him if the DAC decodes HDCD.  I don't see any mention of it on his web site I would assume not, but you should get a definitive answer from him.

[Tone Depth]

Reading through the Wolfson 8742 White Paper, the 8742 DAC chip used in the Vision DACs does have the capability of directly decoding 44.1kHz/20bit PCM signals.  The paper does not address, however, if the additional 4bits in the HDCD encoding are used to extend the dynamic range beyond Redbook CD standards, as I understand can be done by the Pacific Microsonics HDCD digital filter.

I have a new Vision EC DAC on order (upgrading from an Insight DAC), and I was just wondering how the Vision DAC handles HDCDs.  By the way, I'm not advocating the HDCD format.  I just happen to have accumulated a few over the years and am wondering if there will be any discernable difference when using the Vision DAC.

Thanks.

Steve

[dminches]

I do not understand your comment. If the Vision DAC can decode 20 bits why wouldn't it use the additional information?  At the point it gets the 20 bit word, it no longer "knows" that the original source was HDCD-encoded. At this point it is just 20 bit information, similar to a 24 bit source.

[HAL]

The Wolfson DAC does not decode the HDCD stream info in the LSB of the signal.  It will play back the HDCD recording as a standard 16bit CD, no decoding done, as the process is CD compatible.  This would be the same as if you just put the HDCD into a standard CD player. 

Here is a Wiki link to the HDCD process and it use to have links to units that supported HDCD decoding.  Microsoft now owns the HDCD process. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Definition_Compatible_Digital

Some software for computer playback has HDCD decoding.  Some are not fully HDCD compliant, but close like Foobar2000 with the HDCD plug-in.  This is a way to add HDCD decoding and still use the Wolfson based DAC, as the data is decoded and sent to the DAC.

[dminches]

You don't need a plug-in or an HDCD decoder if you rip the CD to 20 bit (using a program like dbpoweramp).  This eliminates the need for a DAC which decodes HDCD.

[HAL]

Using Foobar2000 with the HDCD decoder plug-in lets me keep the data in 16bit format to save storage space. 

[rbbert]

Using Foobar2000 with the HDCD decoder plug-in lets me keep the data in 16bit format to save storage space.

In what sort of digital format does Foobar output an HDCD?  20-bit, 24-bit?

[Listens2tubes]

On my XP pro install foobar will output as you set it. I use 24 bit. On my win7 it selects the bit rate as per the music in the playlist.