HiWire

Same here... I like normal music more than "audiophile recordings", generally. It would be nice if more recordings were done at that level, but there is a stereotype of audiophile recordings (e.g., look at the catalogs of Mo-Fi, Audio Fidelity, Analogue Productions, etc.)... safe and predictable and old. They're all great canonical albums, but there's nothing new or surprising. Given the low sales volumes, that's a sustainable approach.

The Cars I finally got around to listening to this one (listened to the Elektra HDCD on my home system and my portable a few weeks ago for reference) – the Red Book layer of the SACD. There's a definite improvement – I'm hearing a lot more, period. The guitars are fleshed out with more body, the vocalists seem less "ghostly" (despite the ever-present reverb), the drums are deeper and more propulsive, the synthesizers are more detailed... overall, the sound is much less harsh. On the HDCD, the album is all leading edges, sharp and brittle. The Mo-Fi mastering is a lot deeper, soundstage and stereo image are far better defined and you hear more instrument/vocal resonances (missing on the HDCD) and it's easier to separate the bass guitar lines, for example, even while the synth is leading. On one of the later tracks, the synth seems to be almost in another key than the one I'm familiar with. The synths are a bit less loud and overwhelming, but have richer-sounding tones in exchange. Anyone who likes this album is in for a treat. Almost needless to say I'm picking up Heartbeat City right away. I seriously doubt the Audio Fidelity version will stand up against the new release.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik (avoid the remastered editions):

Yes, that sentence jumped out at me too. It sounded a lot more like marketing copy than a serious analysis. Without measurements and technical descriptions, we fall back to audiophile mumbo jumbo.

A bit more information on why USB audio quality varies: http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2016/05/gordon-rankin-on-why-usb-audio-quality-varies/

That's annoying... in the Hydrogenaudio thread, the posters mentioned a lot of inconsistency in HDCD recordings (even coding HDCD on one channel!) and the developer, kode54 (as well as Charlie Hansen), wrote that a lot of recordings didn't use the Peak Extend function and virtually none of them used Low Level Range Extend. The more I read about HDCD, the more I find out what a mess it was in implementation by the recording studios. Also, people seem to fight about it a lot on the internet – so much noise for such a small, random assortment of albums. No wonder hi-fi manufacturers wanted to stop paying royalties for it. Looks like Steve Hoffman abandoned HDCD five years ago: https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,87874.0.html

It's been hard for me to tell the difference between Red Book and SACD quality on various rigs... I think the hi-fi manufacturers are still chasing a moving target when it comes to optimizing digital sound quality. Ayre's apodizing filter of 2009 (apparently also in Meridian players) was news to me and Stereophile seemed to love it... my player uses an upsampling DAC and the previous Arcam players used dCS's Ring DAC. DAC technology seems to change very quickly and I don't think most of us are capable of understanding all the technology. At the end of the day, you still have to do a lot of listening to make a decision. I do enjoy Stereophile (and Tyll's) attempts to measure and quantify output, but a lot of what we hear probably can't be measured yet. Also, the manufacturers make a lot of noise about their DAC chips but you usually don't get as much analysis on the analog output stage or power supply, which are critical. I'm relieved the great jitter scare is over for now.

Ugh... hope you were able to get another player. I spent some time researching Ayre's C-5xeMP laser replacement last night, just out of curiosity. The Sony laser in my Arcam CD36 is still going strong. I don't put that many hours into it.

Your results might be a bit inconclusive (Lateralus popped up a few times in the discussion): https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,79427.msg716859.html#msg716859 and https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,79427.msg716795.html#msg716795 and https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,79427.msg787661.html#msg787661

The HDCD flag stayed on when I played Beck's Midnight Vultures, regardless of whether the feature was checked or not. The Audio Fidelity version of the Cars' Heartbeat City, which is what I was listening to when I wrote the first post, seems to have encoding errors. I could use foobar to check, as indicated in the Head-Fi thread. Microsoft is fairly unclear about what 24-bit audio does, other than to claim that HDCD will play back at "full audio quality. The audio quality of standard CDs is not affected." Speaking of the Model One and Two – it's interesting to see that Berkeley Audio Design's Alpha DAC Reference Series 2 still has a HDCD light and they advise converting DSD to PCM on the computer rather than on the DAC: http://www.berkeleyaudiodesign.com/alpha-dac-reference-series-2/ A paean to Keith Johnson's work: http://www.ultraaudio.com/features/20090201.htm The developer of the foobar2000 HDCD decoder says it will reduce a HDCD recording by about 6 dB: https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,79427.msg734218.html#msg734218

I think it was more of a theoretical technology at the time of its conception. With current technology, it's more practical – I think high-end players and amplification are capable of resolving the information. Coincidentally, the technology reduced playback quality on non-HDCD players (albeit as the least significant bit), kind of like Dolby did with compact cassettes. Too bad it's long past its applicable date... it's a musical freebie for a random bunch of albums. Other than the Oppo, I don't know of any in-production disc players that can decode HDCD. There is a bit more technical info on HDCD from "CHansen" in that Head-Fi thread – Charlie Hansen, founder of Ayre Acoustics: http://www.head-fi.org/t/65414/hdcd-list/570#post_12725140

This isn't a definitive tip, but I think I might have gotten the HDCD player I was looking for – free of charge. Most of us know that HDCD technology was developed by Pacific Microsonics and later acquired by Microsoft. What I didn't know was that my laptop (ASUS N56VZ-DS71) was capable of playing HDCD... my old desktop system used a Sound Blaster Audigy, which was a decent sound card for its time. This new laptop uses a Realtek High Definition Audio codec, which most of us would laugh at, since it's been the default audio solution in millions of systems for about the last decade... however, I believe it has full support for 24-bit audio. To enable HDCD playback, you have to use Windows Media Player (v12 since Windows 7): 1. Click on the Organize button in the toolbar, and click on Options 2. Click on the Devices tab 3. Click on Speakers in the list of devices and click on the Properties button 4. In the new window, check the following box in the Performance section: Use 24-bit audio for audio CDs (there is a warning to turn this option off if you encounter playback problems) That's it! Oddly, the HDCD logo only appears in the lower left corner of the window when I do the opposite (i.e., uncheck Use 24-bit audio) to play the disc. The volume level gets noticeably louder without 24-bit audio enabled. I'm not sure if that means the functions have been reversed by accident or the increased dynamic range of HDCD means quieter playback. Overall, everything sounds great and the noise floor might be a bit lower (literally). I rifled through my music collection and noticed that I don't have that many labelled HDCD albums... just a few albums by the Cars and all the Roxy Music discs (except Avalon, which I have in SACD). Also Beck's Midnight Vultures and Dire Straights' Brothers in Arms. You have to be careful with HDCDs because quite a few discs were recorded on HDCD equipment and thus light up properly on HDCD players but aren't actually encoded in HDCD. You could call it a musical Easter Egg hunt, like so many other things in audiophilia. Here's a handy list of HDCDs from Head-Fi: http://www.head-fi.org/t/65414/hdcd-list Happy listening!

The Grassy Knoll – Electric Verdeland, Vol. 1

Is there any technical info on the new amps? Will they be released this year?

Tell the kids not to search for GIFs in iMessage: http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/15/12929890/imessage-hardcore-porn-gif-ios-10

St. Vincent – Marry Me

Punk + New Wave = Fun Blondie – The Platinum Collection

Their original self-titled album was basically a collection of hit singles... an incredibly accomplished debut. The following albums varied in quality (I'm not sure why so many people like Candy-O – it has a nice jacket cover), but their guitar/synth sound evolved into their penultimate pop album, Heartbeat City, which has a kind of era-defining quality. Nobody will ever accuse the Cars of having deep lyrics or pretentious concept albums like Pink Floyd (who I also like), but I enjoy their stripped-down approach to pop songs. I've always been fascinated by this transition period, when classic rock morphed into post-punk, corporate rock, New Wave, synthpop, hair metal, etc., partly because it was the music of my childhood. Albums like Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night or Bad Company's Desolation Angels hold a kind of morbid fascination over me. My next purchase from Mo-Fi will be the Pixies' Trompe Le Monde.

Pretty specious, right? Proof that I am a sucker for punishment – I also have the Cars' Panorama as a Japanese SHM-CD. The original release seems to be out of print.

The Cars – Shake It Up Mobile Fidelity has gone and released a few more of the Cars albums (The Cars (1978) and Heartbeat City) on SACD. I generally avoid re-purchasing albums I already have, but comparing the Audio Fidelity gold discs (and the Elektra HDCDs) against the Mo-Fi SACDs makes for an interesting audiophile experiment. That's what I tell myself, anyway. :o)

Apple is including Lightning port earpods (headphones) with the new iPhone and they are also including a Lightning-3.5mm jack adapter. It's still going to be a pain in the ass, though. I can foresee the elimination of the headphone jack in the rest of their products in the near future as well – a lot of money will be made on adapters and new Lightning headphone/mic products. I'm curious about the technical details of their wireless solution – no doubt they are charging 3rd parties to develop new products for wireless audio. Regarding Lightning – I wonder if they will formally step up to USB 3.0/3.1 speeds on this interface, if they're going to bank so heavily on it.

Well, they killed the headphone jack (an act of courage)... and nobody is surprised. That Beats acquisition makes a lot of sense in retrospect. It won't affect me for a while, since I'm going to be using the iPhone 5S for the next few years.

I found an interesting French review (with measurements) of the Audiocom-modded BDP-105D today: https://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.hdfever.fr/2014/07/14/test-oppo-audiocom-105d-signature-et-reference/ Really wish we could audition these players...

Mark Ronson & the Business Intl – Record Collection Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It's Blitz!

Thanks for the recommendation – I'll see if I can try it out at my local dealer. I'd like to combine it with the JitterBug out of my laptop.