Brett: I just bought my first HDCD and it's just a mess. Let me explain.
I went to V*rgin Records -- I can't believe this board won't let me post the word V*rgin... which rhymes with surgeon -- at Downtown Disney (West Side) last night. I specifically went to their "special formats" section of the store. I saw an Eric Clapton HDCD amongst the other special formats they had (SACD, DVD-A). It had a "special" pricetag of $9.99, so I thought I'd give it a try.
Well, I brought it home last night and put it in. Only the FIRST SONG on the CD caused the letters "HDCD" to come up on the display of my H/K AVR-525. I wasn't too happy with the fact that only the FIRST song was HDCD. I also notice that the CD doesn't have any HDCD labelling on it... only the outside package did!
So, I don't know what's wrong or that was just a sampling. In any event... the sound seemed much more detailed. I took the CD and put it into my other DVD player that didn't have HDCD capability. The playback was different... I even used the DACs in my H/K so they'd be on the same footing.