20-bit Archive

Blue Note xrcd24 Reissues – a Cause for Celebration

by John Sunier | Oct 13, 2013 | Special Features

For years the XRCD re-issue series from JVC put out among the very best “Red Book” CDs of any jazz label. Their attention to detail was beyond reproach.  Original issues in the 1990s were manufactured in the JVC manufacturing plant in Yokohama, Japan. They involved the use of the 20-bit Sony PCM-9000 magneto-optical disc combined with JVC’s K2 20-bit analog-to-digital converter. Jitter and distortion were largely eliminated. The end product produced the highest quality transfer from the original master tapes to compact disc. At that time JVC issued primarily releases from  Fantasy/OJC, well before those labels were sold to Concord Records. [Although these discs are down-sampled to CD 44.1K/16-bit standards and are playable on any CD player, we are still listing these latest versions individually in our Hi-Res Section because the fidelity has been enhanced to the point that they now truly sound more hi-res than standard CDs…Ed.] In 2006 Elusive Disc took over the JVC XRCD line when JVC USA shut down their operations here. With former JVC employee Kevin Berg as production coordinator, and Robert Bantz as executive producer, under the moniker Audio Wave (marketed by Elusive Disc), they have been re-issuing classic Blue Note issues from the […]