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Hmmm...

It would seem that Christine's problem with reading comprehension is contagious.

I would agree with you that to correctly play HDCDs *that are encoded with peak extend and/or low level extension* an HDCD decoder is required. I never said otherwise. What I did say were two things. I will say them again in a slightly different way, in hopes they will sink in this time.

1) Contrary to Christine's assertion. There are NOT multiple filters that switch on-the-fly in an HDCD decoder. This means that one of Christine's claims for the benefits of HDCD decoding does not actually exist.

2) If an "HDCD" disc is recorded without the mastering engineer activating the "peak extend" and "low level extension" features, THEN THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO ADVANTAGE TO USING AN HDCD DECODER.

This is because there are only three things added by the HDCD encoder in this situation:

a) Dither during the A/D conversion.

b) Multiple digital filters that are selected on-the-fly.

c) Good sounding circuitry and power supplies designed by Keith Johnson.

Please note that there is NO advantage to using an HDCD decoder in this situation because an HDCD decoder does NOTHING different in this situation than does any other playback circuit.

But here is the kicker. Short of asking the original mastering engineer, I know of no way to know which HDCD discs use "peak extend" and/or "low level extension". This means that THERE IS NO WAY OF KNOWING WHICH "HDCD" DISCS REQUIRE HDCD DECODING FOR CORRECT PLAYBACK.

This is the point that I made to Christine in my first post in this thread. I have no idea what percentage of HDCD discs use "peak extend" and/or "low level extension". It could be 5% or 95% or anywhere in between. The point is that there is not as much benefit to HDCD decoding as one would think, based on the fact that not all so-called "HDCD" discs will benefit from HDCD decoding.


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