Hi. Yes, HDCD-compliant CDs store additional information encoded in the least significant bits. And when you make a bit-accurate rip, it will have this information included. So, it should be totally possible to decode a good lossless 16-bit HDCD rip into something better. However, HDCD is a proprietary method as far as I know, and now Microsoft owns the intellectual property. It might well be that a software-based HDCD decoder not licensed by M$ would be illegal in some countries, but it's definitely possible if a dapper coder would get ahold of the HDCD specs.
However, supposing that the resulting stream would be 20-bit, it's a very odd format, that isn't directly supported by most programs or soundcards - it would probably need to be converted into 24 bits or something... although that isn't a detrimental process with a good algorithm, and could easily be integrated in the software decoder itself. I love the idea, myself. -- RmM _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
