How to rip 20-bit CD(and retain all 20bits) Options

[ben]

I have a 20-bit Telarc CD, and would like to extract it onto my computer. However, I'm not really sure how to go about this without having the WAV truncated to 16-bit. I only have a 16bit soundcard right now, so it's going to get chopped off anyway, but I just want the original, unaltered music in the file.

Any ideas?

[Jebus]

I am assuming it is a HDCD. This has been discussed many times here with (AFAIKT) no real conclusions made. Some people insist that 20-bits cannot be extracted without special hardware. Some think it is just marketing, and there is actually no additional bitwidth on the disc at all. It appears to me that the 20-bit playback of HDCDs is a proprietary feature of windows media player 9 (and some hardware players), and therefore no ripping utilities exist.

I really wouldn't worry about it though - the extra 4 bits just give you more dynamic range, or which most modern music doesn't use. (They don't even use the 16-bits of regular redbook, in the interest of compression). Ripping as per normal to 16-bit wave should not (in theory) loose any critical information as a result.

Compression will eventually dither down to 16 bits anyhow, so don't sweat it!

edit: oops, put SACD instead of HDCD. fixed

This post has been edited by Jebus: May 8 2003, 21:01