Media Reports
Respun Green, Recessive Nonsense, Homemade SACDs
By Barry Fox
Remember the controversy over defacing CDs with green felt-tip pens? The aim was to improve sound quality by absorbing stray red laser reflections that might cause jitter in the data read from the disc. Sony’s audio division in Japan is now backing an intriguing project which tests the theory.
A batch of new SACDs from Sony Music has green labels. This is not “green” to help the environment; it’s to help audio quality by lightening the burden on the servo mechanism for the player’s tracking head and to introduce fewer errors for the player’s error correction to handle.
Sony UK’s audio guru, Eric Kingdon, was demonstrating a high-end Sony system at IFA in Berlin, using a green label SACD version of the L.A. Allstars (Birdland: XSCL-10004).
Other green label SACDs include the L.A. Allstars “Afro Blue” (XSCL-10005); Sacred Rhythm of Bali (XSCL-10007); Masayoshi Takanaka “The Man With The Guitar” (XSCL-10006); Allan Holdsworth “All night wrong” (XSCP-1000); and Emi Fujita “Camomile Best Audio” (PCCA-60019 from Pony Canyon).
The project was inspired by Sony’s Japanese audio engineers Takashi Kanai and Motoyuki Sugiura.
Sugiura has compared the new green label SACDs with the original SACDs of around five years ago and finds the difference “amazing.”
Sony plans public demonstrations at audio shows so that interested consumers can judge for themselves.
COLOR PATTERNS
Well done to Sony for head-on tackling the controversy over green-inking CDs, by promoting green label hybrid SACDs. Perhaps other manufacturers with unusual claims will now follow suit.
I am still looking forward to the full results of tests promised by Russ Andrews in his effort to counter the put-down by the UK’s watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority over claims made for his hugely expensive cables (www.asa.org.uk/asa/
adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44177.htm).
“We are insensed (sic) at what we feel is a serious injustice,” Andrews responded. “We have commissioned a Research Scientist to investigate our claims and provide such evidence.”
So far only preliminary results have been published which contain vague claims such as: “can be clearly expected to reduce noise and distortion in audio circuitry.”
A “peer-reviewed White Paper” was promised for November, but by January it was still not ready.
More if and when it arrives.
WORTH THE PRICE?
In the meanwhile check out Denon’s US website, which is offering the chance to pay $499 for what appears to be a 1.5m Ethernet network patch cable of the type that usually costs only a few dollars (www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp).
Denon’s AK-DL1 has “woven jacketing to reduce vibration” and this “thoroughly eliminates adverse effects.” It also has “direction marks to indicate correct direction for connecting.” These “signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer.” The AK-DL1 is made from “high purity copper” which “will bring out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction.”
I used the customer query option on Denon’s website to ask what causes vibration in a network cable and what the adverse effects are, how high purity copper wire brings out nuances of a digital signal, and why signal directional markings optimize signal transfer.
Within minutes I received what looked suspiciously like an automated e-mail reply.
Although the AK-DL1 may look like an ordinary Ethernet cable—the similarities end there—“the cable is designed in such a way that vibration is all but eliminated so that sound being passed is as pure as possible.”
“That being said,” Denon admits, “this cable is not going to provide you with much of a difference unless used with top of the line equipment across the board.”
What kind of equipment? Denon suggests one of its DVD players that costs $3800 and a Denon amplifier costing $7000.
“When connected to the proper equipment in the proper manner, this cable will provide you with a definitely improved listening experience,” Denon assures.
That’s neat. Pay ten grand to hear the benefit of paying $500 instead of $5 for an Ethernet cable.
Since Tandy Radio Shack gave up on the UK, I have bought my electronic components and connectors from a chain called Maplin that filled the Tandy gap. Recently there has been an unhappy trend in Maplin stores from low-cost stuff sold loose or in simple bags to fancy equivalents in posh packaging. Witness the “Digital Audio Optical Lead” which has “24k gold plated connectors” because this “gives a better connection.”
Perhaps Maplin’s apparent discovery that gold is a specially good conductor of light explains Maplin’s assurance that “there is no loss with optical cables so there is no maximum length.”
RECESSIVE NONSENSE
As we move into recession I fear we will see more audio nonsense. But we may also see more interest in making things work rather than junking them and buying something slightly newer. This should give hi-fi companies with good after-sales service a chance to succeed over cut-price competition.
Ben Bauer headed the CBS Technology Centre in the US during the glory days before Sony took over CBS Records. In the 1970s he invented the SQ quadraphonic system, and the strain of trying to get it accepted quite literally killed him—he had a heart attack but carried on working from his hospital bed. SQ (and Sansui’s rival QS system) laid the foundation for the Dolby Pro-Logic cinema and home video surround systems.
Ben visited me a couple of times in London, coming to my student-style flat, but never patronizing me. On one occasion he told a fascinating story about the dark days of the American Depression, long before he started working at CBS.
He would go around his hometown knocking on doors.
“Do you have anything to mend?” he would ask. And usually there was a radio, vacuum cleaner, or lamp that needed fixing for cash.
I already know of one respected technical journalist who has given up writing and now earns a healthy living from fixing home computers that have been crippled by viruses and spyware picked up from the Internet. Others earn good money loading music onto iPods for people who do not like to admit to their friends that they have no idea how to do it.
Good dealers already home-install highish-end audio and video hardware that they have sold at full price. But so far no one seems to be offering an obvious new service: connecting up hi-fi and AV equipment that Average Joes have bought cheap from a supermarket or off the Internet—and making it work.
HOMEMADE SACDS
New home computers from Sony offer users the chance to make their own Super Audio CD recordings.
Sony’s pre-launch announcement aroused curiosity with the promise that new Vaio All in One Windows PCs “can record, edit and play music at SA-CD quality, and even upgrade older recordings to the new standard. Sound Reality can up-convert conventional CD-quality music into uncompressed Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format. Using the pre-installed SonicStage Mastering Studio software, the DSD signal can be re-mastered into 5.1 Super Audio CD, revitalising the original.”
At the London launch event nothing was volunteered and very little known about this new feature. But I managed to establish that it exploits a user option in the new Sonic Stage Master Studio software that comes pre-loaded on new JS and L series Vaio PCs; and the software works in conjunction with a Sound Reality chip built into the new PCs.
Commercial SACDs use the Direct Stream Digital recording format—a very rapid stream of single bits instead of PCM words as used for CD—and the Sonic Stage PC software offers the option to work either in PCM mode or uncompressed DSD mode, to produce either Audio CDs or DSD discs.
The PC can record in DSD format; e.g., from a microphone, and then edit the DSD stream before burning the DSD format files to blank DVD. The DSD discs can then be played back using standard Windows Media Player software but only on a PC with Sound Reality audio device.
The unanswered question is why should anyone want to do this?
DELAYS
LG is the latest company to fall foul of latency—the audio delay introduced by the A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) coding and compression system used to send stereo over a Bluetooth radio link.
Late last year LG proudly announced new TVs with “Bluetooth connection (which) means that viewers can synch-up Bluetooth headphones to the set without any unsightly wires getting in the way, giving consumers the freedom to move around while watching their favourite programmes at maximum volume.”
Knowing from past experience (e.g., of the Motorola DC800 Bluetooth Stereo Transceiver) that A2DP can destroy lip sync, I asked LG how it had solved the problem.
LG now admits it had not checked performance of pre-production sets until I asked the question, but then heard the delay and is now “investigating solutions.”
“Once the main production units arrive they will be tested and if the delay is still there appropriate action taken such as firmware updates.”
UK Marketing manager George Mead confirms: “We need to rectify this. We are working on it. It’s a key factor. We will do everything possible to eliminate it.”
It is hard to see how LG can solve the problem. Delaying the picture to match the audio will require a large memory store, and put the sound ahead of the picture for anyone listening on speakers.
Perhaps this is why LG now ducks my question on how “elimination” is progressing, not just in the UK but all countries where the sets are sold.
TAKING A BITE
Nokia has launched a new music download service to rival Apple’s iTunes. Nokia’s Comes with Music is a very generous offer, and it seems astonishing that the major music companies have agreed to participate.
Anyone who buys a new breed of Nokia phone (such as the Nokia 5310 XPressMusic) gets a year’s free unlimited access to around 4 million music tracks in high quality (192 kbps). The music can be downloaded to a PC, stored and played on the PC and transferred to the phone for portable play. After the free year the music is still playable and more can be accessed if a subscription is paid.
Windows Media Digital Rights Management is supposed to prevent burning to CD, but in practice readily available software can directly capture the music from inside the PC as it plays, store it in CD format, and burn to CD for playback on an ordinary CD player.
Taken to its logical extreme, this new “free” service means there is now no need ever to buy another CD, or pay for an iTunes download.
Setting up the phone, PC, and online access is awkward compared to iTunes. The online site is awkward to navigate and use, too, especially for people accustomed to iTunes. But doubtless Nokia will fix this—once the company’s marketing people do the obvious thing and watch novices struggle to set it all up “out of the box.”
It will be interesting then to see how Nokia and the record companies try to stop abuse. M3
Barry Fox reports on the audio industry as columnist for the British publication Hi-Fi News. His commentary appears in every issue of Multi Media Manufacturer.