And the winner is: HDCD edition, decoded. There are two commonly circulating versions of this CD, one with the HDCD encoding and one without. The only way to tell them apart is to carefully examine the tray cards inside the jewel case. The original release features a more cream-colored back tray card with light magenta colored text on the spine, while the later issue features a back tray card whose shade is much closer to white and much sharper, black text on the spine. The later back tray card also features the HDCD logo and lacks the text referencing how "The music on this Compact Disc was originally recorded on analog equipment..." The earlier issue features the old SPARS code of "AAD" on the disc's surface, while the later one instead has the HDCD logo in the same place. The catalog number on both is the same, which is unfortunate. The overall print job on the cover artwork is also much cleaner on the HDCD release.

As seen in the waveforms, the volume boost on the second issue of No Secrets is substantial, but this is mitigated quite a bit when the audio is decoded. What's more important here are the actual listening experience and the subjective quality of the audio. The original CD release has (nominally) better apparent dynamics, but it comes across sounding very flat and lifeless with weak stereo separation. The later disc, even without decoding, plays a lot better upon the ear, being fuller sounding with much more "body" to the music, and having strong stereo separation. The differences are enough that it is the clear winner in this comparison despite my concerns over a couple of tracks. That being said, I still find myself disstisfied with the listening experience after decoding, because I can hear the effects of compression in the audio stream in some places. In my opinion, the definitive digital source for this material is the 1987 compact disc release of The Best of Carly Simon, at least for the four songs from No Secrets which make an appearance on it - that disc sounds full-bodied and clear, with crisp highs and lows and full dynamics.