I came across an album that is on HDCD and CD (and vinyl). (1) Is HDCD that much better than CD? I'd also like to put the album on my iPod in an Apple Lossless codec. (2) Will I run into any problems there? The CD is about $10 and the HDCD is about $30. It would be nice every now and then to listen to it in higher quality (with my home theater equipment), if there is that much of a difference. It is too bad that the hybrid SACD has gone OOP. Some yokels on the Amazon Marketplace think that it is a collectors item and want $258 for it used. I wouldn't pay that kind of money for even my top-three-stranded-on-a desert-island albums.
I have a few CDs that are HDCD and the technical concept behind them seems to be that the master recording is done at an expanded frequency range so compared to the average CD the most noticeable difference is they tend to play significantly louder. With the limitations of 16 bit technology, whether they are audibly any better than a normal CD is somewhat debatable especially with that difference in volume AND the varying quality of all recordings done in the studio anyway. I can't, though, ever recall paying a premium for them and in your example three times as much? Forget it.
