In some circles (not this one) you will get a good deal of debate about whether ANYTHING matters much in CD players. Certainly the specs you mention are irrelevant (because virtually every player on the market measures so well that the distinctions are meaningless).
HDCD is a specially encoded CD that supposedly sounds better when played back on an HDCD-compatible deck. Only a small minority of CD releases are HDCD disks (see www.hdcd.com), but there are enough out there that this feature is worth considering. (Not all encoded HDCDs are labeled as such.)
"Redbook" simply means that a CD conforms to industry standards. "Redbook CD" is practically redundant, but it's used sometimes to distinguish CD from SACD.
As for the price differential, that is justified by the market's willingness to pay. In many cases, high prices in this field reflect the lower efficiency of small manufacturing runs. Caveat emptor.
HDCD is a specially encoded CD that supposedly sounds better when played back on an HDCD-compatible deck. Only a small minority of CD releases are HDCD disks (see www.hdcd.com), but there are enough out there that this feature is worth considering. (Not all encoded HDCDs are labeled as such.)
"Redbook" simply means that a CD conforms to industry standards. "Redbook CD" is practically redundant, but it's used sometimes to distinguish CD from SACD.
As for the price differential, that is justified by the market's willingness to pay. In many cases, high prices in this field reflect the lower efficiency of small manufacturing runs. Caveat emptor.