How To Make A X-Dac V3 Do HDCD

[XTRProf]

I feel cheated that there are many CDs with HDCD encoding with 20 bits that I cannot enjoy. So how can I mode the X-Dac V3 so as not to feel cheated? Or how to mode a Dac to decode those encoding.

TIA all answers and solutions.

[dejanm]

Aug 15, 2008 0:10:17 GMT XTRProf said:

I feel cheated that there are many CDs with HDCD encoding with 20 bits that I cannot enjoy. So how can I mode the X-Dac V3 so as not to feel cheated? Or how to mode a Dac to decode those encoding.

TIA all answers and solutions.

I do not know the chip set in MF X-DAC V3 unit but generally speaking you need a decoder that is capable of decoding HDCD signal. That would practically mean that you will have to replace your receiver and DAC chips. I am not sure though whether you can find easily chips that are pin-compatible with those used in V3 - if you can find them at all. They also have to work on the same frequency as your existing chip set in order to avoid replacing your clock curcuit. So this is where you have to start - to try to find pin compatible chips that are capable of HDCD decoding. I am a bit sceptical about the succes of that search, but you can try it. Everything else would mean a change of the board and that practically means to re-design the whole unit. I do not believe that this is your intention ...

It is interesting though that V2 has HDCD decoding capability.

To be honest - I do not think that having HDCD decoding capability is very important.

[XTRProf]

Aug 15, 2008 21:27:50 GMT dejanm said:

Aug 15, 2008 0:10:17 GMT XTRProf said:

I feel cheated that there are many CDs with HDCD encoding with 20 bits that I cannot enjoy. So how can I mode the X-Dac V3 so as not to feel cheated? Or how to mode a Dac to decode those encoding.

TIA all answers and solutions.

I do not know the chip set in MF X-DAC V3 unit but generally speaking you need a decoder that is capable of decoding HDCD signal. That would practically mean that you will have to replace your receiver and DAC chips. I am not sure though whether you can find easily chips that are pin-compatible with those used in V3 - if you can find them at all. They also have to work on the same frequency as your existing chip set in order to avoid replacing your clock curcuit. So this is where you have to start - to try to find pin compatible chips that are capable of HDCD decoding. I am a bit sceptical about the succes of that search, but you can try it. Everything else would mean a change of the board and that practically means to re-design the whole unit. I do not believe that this is your intention ...

It is interesting though that V2 has HDCD decoding capability.

To be honest - I do not think that having HDCD decoding capability is very important.

Yes, you are right. It involves a complete redesign and may not be that worthwhile considering unless we have plenty of time to waste and research. What you have posted here is very similar to the answers I got from another forum.

Actually, I thought that it will be a simple solution like just cascading a HDCD decoding chip to the dac chip but seems that it's not as simple as that now.

Thanks for your view on this.

[XTRProf]

Aug 18, 2008 10:59:48 GMT mrarroyo said:

I have listened to the same CD out of a NAD C542 deck w/ HD decoding and also using that deck as a transport feeding the X-Dac V3. IMO I prefered the sound out of the deck w/ the HD decoder. All t he other gear in t he chain remained the same.

Of course! You are getting REALTIME 20 BITS resolution (as recorded) compared to upsampling of 16 bits material which doesn't represent the realtime information.

[dejanm]

It is true that HDCD sounds better than "normal" CD for obvious reasons. My point is that there are not so many hdcd discs on the market. The situation is somehow similar to the situation with sacd: sound is really superior, but the amount of available discs is limited.

[XTRProf]

Aug 18, 2008 14:36:32 GMT dejanm said:

It is true that HDCD sounds better than "normal" CD for obvious reasons. My point is that there are not so many hdcd discs on the market. The situation is somehow similar to the situation with sacd: sound is really superior, but the amount of available discs is limited.

Err, actually when you are talking of Asian or Chinese material, there are many in the HDCD format. Also, if you are into jazz, CBS had remastered many discs in HDCD format but not printed on the labels. Good examples are many Dave Brubeck remastered discs. Ya, Time Out is one of them. Also, audiophile labels like Linn and FIM SACDs, the CD areas are in HDCD.

As for SACDs, there are in fact quite a number. But as to whether the genres suit us, that's another issue. To check up titles availability, I always used



www.sa-cd.net/



For DVD-A and Bluray titles, you can check up my music freak buddy website of:



dvd-a.info/




Hopes this helps in anyway.

[dejanm]

XTRProf,

Thanks for these links. Very interesting stuff. Lot of classical music but not much what I am looking for. That's probably the problem that I have ...