I've noticed that quite a few reissues, particularly of jazz recordings, are being released in higher resolution. I just picked up The Eminent J.J. Johnson, Volumes One and Two, and noticed that "all transfers from the original analog tapes to digital were made at 24-bit resolution". I can't take advantage of that, however, because my CD player's dac has only 20-bit resolution. As far as software goes, I've been impressed by the higher-resolution discs so far. I also haven't found them particularly difficult to find, especially when I'm not searching for them at all!
Hardware-wise -somebody please correct me if I'm wrong- I believe that any CD player that claims to support HDCD should also be able to handle higher resolution material. Most manufacturers also list specifications, which should include the dac's resolution.

If a player that bears the HDCD logo handles high rez formats, I believe it's by coincidence only. HDCD is a separate encoding format made to work with standard Red Book CDs and HDCD encoded CDs. It was developed by Pacific Microsonics and is now owned by Microsoft last I heard.

The discs are standard CDs, released by Blue Note.

HDCD - while it stands for "High Definition Compatible Digital" - has has nothing to do with higher resolution formats such as 24/96. HDCD came out prior to SACD and DVD-A. The phrase "high definition" now means something else and is confusing.

HDCD is an encoding/decoding process that allows a mastering engineer to obtain some dynamic range expansion and improved digital interpolation on 16 bit Red Book CD playback. The HDCD process places a control signal in the least significant bit of 16 bit audio samples during encoding. Those few CD players that can decode HDCD CD's recognize the signal and decode the disc. All CD players can play an HDCD encoded disc however without any degradation of quality.

The AIX disc's that I have are DVD-A in 24/96 and 24/192 formats. These play only on a DVD-A capable player. My DVD player will output a full resolution digital stream to an external DAC via coax S/PDIF. Played in this way the AIX discs have superb sound.

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I've noticed that quite a few reissues, particularly of jazz recordings, are being released in higher resolution. I just picked up The Eminent J.J. Johnson, Volumes One and Two, and noticed that "all transfers from the original analog tapes to digital were made at 24-bit resolution".

Almost all classical and jazz recordings these days are mastered at 24-bit resolution, often with a higher sample rate than the CD's 44.1kHz. My own Stereophile recordings are mastered at 24 bits/88.2kHz, for example.

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I can't take advantage of that, however, because my CD player's dac has only 20-bit resolution.

Doesn't matter because the hi-rez master has to be dithered to the CD's 16-bit standard and the recording on the CD only contains 16 data bits. However, the low-level hi-rez information is preserved in the activity of the lowest of those 16 bits on the CD, and if your DAC does indeed have up to 20-bit resolution, it will retrieve this information.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Thanks, John! You've cleared things up a lot for me. I appreciate your taking the time to explain everything. Also, thank you to the others who clarified the HDCD distinction. I was aware that HDCD is a different format and wholly separate from "high resolution" recordings, but it has been my observation that many players offering HDCD decoding also seem to feature higher-res dacs. Thanks again and happy listening!