Alternate Discs Digital Sound Even Better? SACD DVD-Audio HDCD K2HD CD

December 27, 2018

#298

Gentle reader,

In the early 1980's SONY and PHILIPS got together to create a form of music that was immune to the inevitable wear and fading of LP records and the less-than-high-fidelity of cassette tapes and the impracticality of reel-to-reel tapes.

Digital recording was being used then, but converted to analog for pressing onto LPs. As a result, the tape hiss was gone from the records. Some praised the new digital LPs, others did not think they sounded any better.

The only portable music then was cassette tapes. Some felt those plastic encased slow running (1 and 7/8 inches per second across the heads) 1/8" wide tapes (in stereo, four tracks less than 1/32nd of an inch wide per channel) could not replace the true fidelity that LP records set as the standard. 

No, it was time to make digital music discs of some type. Believe it or not, digital video (with audio) discs had existed since the 1970's. Twelve inches in diameter like LP records, shiny silver on both sides. When made available for consumers, it was called Laser Videodisc or Laserdisc for short. But the technology was still new and had only begun to make it into homes. DVD discs were a long way off.

Thus the partnership was formed by two unlikely peoples, Japanese and the Dutch of the Netherlands. I will not go further into the history of the Compact Disc. Others far more knowledgeable than I have exhausted that subject.

"PERFECT SOUND FOREVER" was the advertising catch phrase for CDs. Like all new things when they came out they were expensive. And only SONY and PHILIPS in the beginning were making players. 

Alas, perfect they were not. In some cases, record companies wanting to catch the CD wave were pulling master tapes and recording them directly onto new CDs forgetting that the tapes were RIAA encoded! Thus, they sounded awful.

As time went by, there were moans from audiophiles and others decrying the limitations of CDs. Many claimed that they did not sound like the LP versions of the same album. They had no warmth or life. Some swore they sounded choppy.

Like the audio/video VHS verses Betamax video tapes, and much later HD-DVD verses Blu-Ray discs wars, a pair of new much higher fidelity music formats came out competing for buyers: SACD and DVD-Audio.

SONY and PHILIPS again collaborated on Super Audio Compact Discs. Digital Versatile Discs (not "video" like many think) although physically the same size of CDs hold a tremendous amount of more information over CDs due to much smaller pits and lands being used. SONY and PHILIPS chose to create audio-only discs also using smaller pits like DVDs. Both formats hold 4.7 gigabytes of music.

I have chosen to have this image to be full sized. Whether you see it that way depends upon the device you are viewing this on. It is one side of my 200 CD capacity disc tower. 

At the top are all of my test CDs. Many are ones I made from downloadable files from the French speaker maker, FOCAL. With Chesky's GOLD STEREO AND SURROUND SOUND SETUP DISC at the bottom of the group.

Below that are 22 out of 23 of my SACD collection. The one not seen is the six-disc boxed set of SACDs of the London Symphony Orchestra's LIVE performances of all nine of Beethoven's symphonies.

At the very bottom are my 19 HDCD discs. They are a form of CD that has been encoded to improve the sound over standard CDs. For an in depth look at all of the forms of storage that have come about for the five inch shiny discs, feel free to look here:
All About The CD, HDCD, and SACD Audio Disc Formats 

I have owned a great number of "Universal Players" many from Denon and OPPO as well as other brands. Plus, I have owned a number of SONY SACD players. Just now, when looking through my "SOLD" files I see players that I should have kept. Hindsight is so 20/20.

To simplify matters, I will show-and-tell you about the three advanced formats that I have in alphabetical order. So, DVD-Audio is first.

In the listening room system is an OPPO DV981HD player, I am getting mixed signals from various sources as to whether it plays and decodes HDCDs.

All of the formats and bells-and-whistles are printed on the top edge of the player. See? No HDCD is shown. 

Today, I added this tablet sized TV to the system to setup the OPPO to chose the DVD-Audio/Stereo playback instead of the DVD Stereo portion of DVD-Audio discs. First time I played one, DVD appeared on the OPPO player's tiny screen.

I had to plug the OPPO's AC cable into an unswitched outlet on one of my Adcom ACE-515 power conditioners. So that it will not lose the settings. I decided to keep the wee TV there just in case. 

The first DVD-Audio disc I bought, some years ago was the iconic soundtrack from Henry Mancini for the brilliant film The Pink Panther. I made a CD copy of it and later sold the DVD-Audio disc. Trying to find it now is...frustrating. Why are things we once had and sold now selling for SO much more?

To begin my new collection, I bought the one on the lower right. To be frank, it sounded like crap. I am not sure if it was me or a lousy recording. Or perhaps it was playing the stereo DVD portion. I am re-listening to it right now and so far, is sounds much better.

Beethoven's 9th symphony is my favorite and I have a LOT of versions of it.

I also like Brahms' 1st symphony. Especially the forth movement. 

This Beethoven is the latest purchase and I've listened to it again today and it sound's fantastic! 

Note, by the disc's size, how much larger these DVD-Audio cases are! Why? The Mancini was in a standard CD case. 

Next are HDCDs, there are several different names attached to the "HD" portion of the name. The above linked article will tell you them all. They are 20-bit recordings instead of the standard CD's 16-bits.

Here are all nineteen of them. Many different types of music. More than 5000 HDCD titles are out there, see:
Goodwin's High End - HDCD Recordings  
They play in all CD players. The extra four bits that are encoded into them will not affect standard playing. The players simply ignore that encoding.

In the world there are many coincidences. I am half-Czech on my mother's side. We have two TINY dogs, the smallest breed in the world in fact, they are Prague Ratters. We were told they were Miniature Pinscher puppies. And the three HDCDs above were all made by the City of Prague Symphony Orchestra. 
One of the most-recorded orchestras of all. They are very good and put out excellently performed and mastered music. 
One thing they specialize in is compilations. 007's music on the left, American TV score themes in the middle and a two-disc distillation of the incredible score from the three Peter Jackson films: The Lord of the Rings.

Speaking of film scores (scores are the music composed for the film, which add to the drama. Soundtracks are ALL of the sounds of the movie, sometimes music companies get that mixed up) these four are all HDCDs. 

I like Latin music and dancing. I cannot do either. I also love Big Band music of which a large portion is called Swing. The one on the right, is original recordings, so high fidelity, how?

In the 1980-90's, "Smooth" Jazz became quite popular, with many radio stations specializing in it. I came to love it and have hundreds of CDs and LPs from many artists. I also like what I call "traditional" Jazz, but do not "get" it like some people do.

It all started when I bought the one in the middle. Reference Recordings is a label and the professor Johnson listed on the covers is behind their success. But, just because in has their RR on it, does not make it a HDCD.

I tried a hunch. I turned on the little TV and the OPPO player. I then put a HDCD in and closed the tray. In a few seconds, HDCD appeared on the TV screen. So, YAY!, it plays and decodes HDCD discs.

Just like Darth Vader said in Star Wars, "There is another....". In this case, one of the more expensive CDs that I've bought. It came all the way from Japan.

"K2 HD Mastering CD" is on the top left, "24 Bit, 100kHz Mastering" in on the top right of the gold strip on the cover.

Manufactured in Japan. One can buy them locally via Music Direct. But they are not keen on discount pricing.

Again, I have chosen full size for this image, so that you can hopefully read all of the explanations as to how they improved the sound over standard CDs. 

These are the last two pages of the attached "liner notes" that came with the CD. It's case is actually a hardback book. Of course, it is too big to fit on a CD rack. These are serial numbered limited editions. This is S/N 0680.

And finally, the alternate disc format that I have the most of, SACDs. The first two albums, when I bought them, I didn't realize I was getting SACDs. 

This is all of them. Mostly classical music with exceptions for some that feature music from films, plus silly sound effects.

The aforementioned box set of LSO Beethoven symphonies, plus four other performances.

Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is another favorite of mine as is a lot of Aaron Copland's music.
RCA Records has recorded a large number of their classic and fine sounding "LIVING STEREO" recordings on SACD. 

Gershwin, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and more. Danny Elfman is well known for his film scores. I'm still not sure if I like this music he created.

TELARC has always been known to get the sound right with their recordings. Especially with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Four recordings from them above plus Sibelius on another label.

The two albums that I bought, not knowing they were SACDs, are; the Tchaikovsky 1812 on TELARC, (I have the extremely challenging LP, which at the time, was the most I'd ever paid for a record), and The War of the Worlds. I also have that on LP. 
You may recall a song called, Forever Autumn sung by Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues? It is from this album, which is narrated by Richard Burton.

The cool thing about SACDs is than MANY are Hybrid discs. They have two music layers. A standard CD layer with it's large pits and lands and beneath that, but readable through the CD layer, is the SACD layer. Often in stereo AND six-channel surround sound. 
SACDs only have analog output. That is to prevent them being copied digitally. So, to enjoy all six-channels, one would need a receiver with six-channel RCA analog inputs. 

See the "MULTI CH IN", above? Like that. They may differ in appearance or naming on your equipment.

So, the 1812 and War discs played fine in my CD players due to their CD layer. Once I looked at the cases and liner notes did I see: SACD and began to look into the format. 

We have often spent some of our Saturdays at the various thrift stores around here. Before I retired, I stopped at many of them on the way home from work. I spied the above box set of LSO SACDs, on the bottom shelf mixed in with the DVDs. It was STILL SEALED! $1.99 later and they were mine! 

Lastly, this is the DENON DVD-1920 that I bought to play all discs in the two systems that sits inches from me and this computer. It does not list HDCDs. The newer and more expensive models do play and list them on their faceplates. Including this beautiful silver one that I USED to have:

My DENON automatically displays which disc you have loaded: CD, SACD, DVD or DVD-Audio on it's display screen. In the case of my black one, it automatically loads the DVD-Audio source. 

Since the OPPO does not display the disc format (other than  DVD) I have to use the little TV to make sure it has chosen the correct format. When I have done so, the red DVD is not illuminated.

Final thoughts. Firstly, I think most CDs sound wonderful. I have a Nakamichi CD player and it is one of the better ones as far as quality of sound. I have more than 2000 LPs so am certainly a believer in their fine sound.

Secondly, can I, at 62, tell any difference of these extended range discs over the standard ones? Yes. I cannot point my finger at exactly what sounds better. I do know the bass is more realistic and what highs I can still hear sound more....present. Plus, the soundstage seems more robust. A music connoisseur I am not. But I know what sounds good and what doesn't. To me.

Now, if this article has peaked your interest, go ahead and buy a universal player, there are many used ones on eBay and other sites and in stores have new ones.

Make sure the one you choose has the ability to play the type of discs you want to try out. Most DVD players will only play DVD-Video discs and regular CDs. 

Once again, thank you SO much for taking the time to read my words and view my photos. It is your kind words and encouragement that keeps me cranking out these articles.

Scott
December 27, 2018
#298