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Whitedragem
185
Sep 29, 2019
Work in progress/yet to come <7 (yep looks like order swapped) Further reading curated list of links for further reading: links to specific thread posts that share pertinent info etc What now/Now what? link to an ariticle=> “How to: Rip CDs” (either have How to Rip SACDs under that, or link to current equipment that make for easy SACD ripping and how to setup guide) End?- should offer links for further reading. placeholder graphic (just had camera power die trying to transfer this articles 30 odd pictures)
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Thankyou for your time (ye found it with the scaffolding up,.. Not Yet; still cooking!) > To be made post 6 Special editions/ special cases to look out for / BONUS HDCDs High Definition Compatible Digital was a processing method, at the mastering stage that would render data into a HDCD format. Essentially it was a 20Bit format, although would have scaled well to future disc technologies and still given better than what we ended up with. Sadly anticonsumerism happens. The CD patents that Sony and Philips owned were running out and they needed something new to extract royalties from (Super Audio CD was Sonys next push) SuperBitMapping was a way to get us to rebuy CDs of albums we already had, whilst using a word that sounded better than ‘remaster’. (I have bought War of the Worlds so many times in so many different flavours!!) HDCD was a very real benefit to all consumers in that discs processed to be HDCD still rendered improved results on regular CD players, and any player or DAC (if using the CD player as a transport to pass the digital signal onto an external processing box) that could fully process the HDCD signal (anything with a pacific macrosonics PMD100 and PMD200 chip) would render back 20bit of signal from a 16bit source. Not wanting to make a whole article, here, on HDCD (another time perhaps),.. the format was bought up by Microsoft so it could render compressed music files better than Apple (it was a compression war at the end of the nineties), and Microsoft obviously had not need for it to flourish. Its kinda like they wanted to kill it, as the steps required to turn decoding of HDCD discs on in Windows Media player seem to get more and more convoluted with each passing year. Yes even media player with windows 10 allows 24bit audio playback from ‘certain discs’ if you go deep into the menus and enable the feature (why not ‘on’ by default?).. Of course as media player isn’t bitperfect playback there isn’t much point configuring it anyway, and users would be better sorted with a range of other media playback or ripping software. JRIVER is an example of an alternative.
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HDCDs have an obvious logo that is sometimes found printed on discs or in their covers. More often than not it is completely absent.
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These are all HDCDs except for Florence and the Machine, whom just naturally belong in collections for people who like well engineered recordings.
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The Live album (the band is called ‘Live’) on the left I have bought four or more times. I even found a version which was ‘three discs’ (double audio discs and a DVD). Graceland- just buy it even if you have it. You will know someone who doesn’t.
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The Goldfrapp cover shown above is highly worth seeking out. That is to say just about any disc you see in those cases are worth considering. Many will be High Def formats, or special / deluxe editions. That Goldfrapp was a two disc affair (CD/DVD). I have had a few DVD Audios in those cases as well. Living Colour in the RED CD case. Automatic for the People with the yellow spine. Pet Shop Boys (the orange one above), yes I HAD the launch version (Very Relentless) as I was a fan of their early stuff and would buy even before release. Tool has some very epic first run covers!
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And if you love the band; maybe go to an online site and order a special deluxe version of your all time favorite artists music’. I saw their final concert, (Crowded House) on the steps of the Sydney Opera House (couldn’t get an ice cube in your drink for eight Sydney blocks when concert ended).. everytime I see their ‘two disc’ special edition ‘best of album’ Recurring Dream, I buy it. For the live version of Sister Madly it is worth the asking price everytime.
(Edited)
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