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[ferrarabrainpan]

I've analyzed all files in my library. I can see that those files ripped from HDCD discs are recognized as HDCD. I don't know if there is a way to search the whole library and find those files that are tagged as HDCD by JRiver analysis, but I noticed that on some albums that were not ripped from HDCD, some files (but not all) from the album are tagged "1" as HDCD. This is the case with the super deluxe box set of the first Roxy Music album. All AIFF files were ripped using dBpoweramp, for all three CD discs (I ripped the hi-res DVD audio with DVD Audio Extractor). The first track on Disc One is recognized by JRiver analysis as HDCD. It is the only track on the whole album that is tagged HDCD. Consequently, if I have JRiver playback settings to decode HDCD files, that one track gets played at a much lower volume than all the other tracks on the album.

I don't know if this anomaly occurs with other albums I've ripped from CDs in my library, but I have chosen to disable (uncheck) the "Play as HDCD if possible" option. Obviously this is not the fault of JRiver if some CD albums contain isolated tracks that are HDCD-encoded, but I'd rather not have gross variations in playback volume happening when I'm playing albums in my library, which may or may not have such mastering anomalies.

FWIW, I just did a library view of all my albums that were ripped from discs labeled as HDCD, and examined to see if they were recognized as HDCD by JRiver file analysis. It turns out that NONE of my ripped files from HDCD discs by Bryan Ferry, Joni Mitchell, the Beach Boys, the Doors, and This Mortal Coil are tagged as "1" in the JRiver HDCD metadata field. Only one single album ripped from HDCD is recognized as HDCD (Buffalo Springfield), and one HDCD by Beck on which only one track is coded as HDCD.

[JimH]

It turns out that NONE of my ripped files from HDCD discs by Bryan Ferry, Joni Mitchell, the Beach Boys, the Doors, and This Mortal Coil are tagged as "1" in the JRiver HDCD metadata field. Only one single album ripped from HDCD is recognized as HDCD (Buffalo Springfield), and one HDCD by Beck on which only one track is coded as HDCD.

It's possible they weren't HDCD to begin with or whatever you used to rip didn't get them right.

Try ripping a few with MC. 

Re-read the instructions.

It does work.

[dtc]

Many albums/tracks that are labeled as HDCD actually have no HDCD code in them other than an identifier that it is HDCD. For those, there is nothing really do decode. MC has identified those albums/tracks and does not label them as HDCD since they really are not HDCD, except for a header that says they are HDCD.  The usually explanation for this is that the sound engineer used the same equipment for both HDCD and non-HDCD and just forgot to flip the HDCD off but never actually applied the HDCD code. Who knows exactly, but that is the general explanation. There are also CDs that say on the case that they are HDCD but not all of the tracks are HDCD.  All of that leads to a lot on inconsistency in what is actually identified as HDCD.

You can also manually edit the HDCD tag if you think it is set incorrectly for your use.

Personally, I used dBpoweramp to expand HDCDs to 24 bit and just use those without the MC HDCD tag or code. There are some that probably had no HDCD code in them but got expanded anyway, but the extra space used is pretty minimal. MC seems those as 24 bit files, but not as HDCD. I did most of mine before MC incorporated HDCD so, for consistency, when I rip at new HDCD I just follow the same procedure. 

[ferrarabrainpan]

Personally, I used dBpoweramp to expand HDCDs to 24 bit and just use those without the MC HDCD tag or code. There are some that probably had no HDCD code in them but got expanded anyway, but the extra space used is pretty minimal. MC seems those as 24 bit files, but not as HDCD. I did most of mine before MC incorporated HDCD so, for consistency, when I rip at new HDCD I just follow the same procedure.

I did the same thing. I ripped all my discs that were labeled as HDCD using dBpoweramp HDCD ripping enabled, so for each "HDCD" I ripped one copy without HDCD enabled, one copy with HDCD enabled plus the 6dB boost applied and one copy with HDCD enabled without the boost. I could not tell a difference in sound quality between the three except without the signal boost applied of course it is quieter. So those HDCD rips with dBpoweramp are 24-bit and the normal rip is 16-bit. I did those rips shortly before JRiver introduced the HDCD decoding feature. It used to bug me that my OPPO UDP-205 player reads SACD and so many disc formats but not HDCD, but I've come to think that HDCD is a completely useless format that was never anything other than a marketing ploy to make buyers want the new HDCD version of something they already owned on CD.

But when discs are labeled as HDCD when they're not by careless mastering engineers (according to the theory you explained), what difference does it make? It makes me want to take all those HDCD-enabled rips and just delete them. The worst thing is when some tracks on an album actually are HDCD and some are not, because then it seems you'd get volume variations when playing the album in JRiver, as I did when playing that Roxy Music rip and the one HDCD song plays at a noticeably quieter volume. I've owned box sets (Scott Walker) where 3 of the five discs were recognized as HDCD by dBpoweramp though the discs and packaging weren't labeled as HDCD. And now I come to learn I've got loads of discs with printing on disc label and inserts claiming they are HDCD and JRiver says they are not... yet those discs were identified as HDCD when I ripped them... or were they? I guess I should put some of those claimed HDCD discs in my optical drive and play them with JRiver to see what JRiver says about them, if HDCD decoding is applied during playback. I don't even care at this point, since I'm leaving the HDCD option off in JRiver to avoid volume variations during playback on those albums with mixed HDCD/non-HDCD tracks.

One thing I did notice on that one Buffalo Springfield CD where I have both the 6dB boosted HDCD-enabled rip and the rip without HDCD side by side in JRiver library view for comparison is this. The DR (R128) values match perfectly for both versions, but the straight DR values show the rip without HDCD enabled has less compression. Maybe what dBpoweramp did to the music by enabling HDCD is not a good thing?

Confusing, but ultimately pretty much irrelevant.

[dtc]

There has always been a question whether HDCD made a difference in sound or not. For me, the advantage is that the mastering was done with Pacific Microsonics A to D converters, the best in the business at the time and, some say, the best ever made. Plus, they were expensive so only the best mastering shops had them. PM actually sold them at cost and made their money on decoder chips, not the A to Ds. So, even if there was no HDCD code enabled, the mastering was at the very state of the art for the time.

[ferrarabrainpan]

There has always been a question whether HDCD made a difference in sound or not. For me, the advantage is that the mastering was done with Pacific Microsonics A to D converters, the best in the business at the time and, some say, the best ever made. Plus, they were expensive so only the best mastering shops had them. PM actually sold them at cost and made their money on decoder chips, not the A to Ds. So, even if there was no HDCD code enabled, the mastering was at the very state of the art for the time.

This is very interesting to know. Thanks. And of course, the superior AD conversion benefit applies whether or not one is playing a true HDCD on an enabled player, be it a disc player or JRiver software.

There is little debate in my mind about the superiority of SACD to redbook CD. That is one format I believe in. But as always, the quality of the mastering and the mastering engineer if paramount. A finely mastered lossy MP3 will sound better than a brickwalled SACD or ripped DSF file.

[Dawgincontrol]

One thing many people are not aware of.  Not every track on a labeled HDCD disc is mastered in HDCD. 

There may be any or all that are processed as HDCD on a single disc.