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In Reply to: Do HDCD's always sound compressed thru 16-bit DACs? posted by Aleksunder on March 4, 2007 at 16:29:43:
HDCD has a feature called "Peak Extend" which compresses peaks by 6dB. An HDCD player will re-expand the peaks, non HDCD players will not.However, Peak Extend is an optional feature - I don't know if the Roxy Music HDCDs use it (I know the Joni Mitchell ones do).
A far more likely (but depressing) reason is that the remasters employ a lot of compression. Unfortunately that seems to be the norm these days.
Follow Ups:
The Roxy Music "remasters" are credited to Bob Ludwig, which is why I bought all 5 albums (on trust - I DO know who he is) in one go, despite a pact with myself to never buy a CD mastered after 1998 again, with certain exceptions.They sound absolutely horrible.
I assumed the compression/limiting practices used on contemporary CDs would have been mutually exclusive with "HDCD" mastering standards (20-bit resolution?).
But having listened to "sea change" and "lateralus" again (having put them away soon after buying them), It seems I was wrong.
*** I assumed the compression/limiting practices used on contemporary CDs would have been mutually exclusive with "HDCD" mastering standards (20-bit resolution?). ***No, unfortunately applying compression is almost as easy as pressing a button (and completely independent of the HDCD encoder), and you can even compress 24-bit recordings to the max :-(
It's very hard to buck the trend - I'm using compression in my recordings as well, otherwise it's hard to achieve a particular sound or have average levels that are "reasonable".
But I try and limit my compression to around 3.5dB, occasionally 6dB for very problematic material.
But why - WHY sell CD's with a "HDCD" logo on them (and further, with such doyens as Bob Ludwig's name on the credits) when they are .... just more of the same over compressed/processed shit?A rock recording that replay-gains at -10dB in Foobar is barely 12-bit resolution (if that), let alone the "extended resolution" of HDCD!
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