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If you peer back into audio history, you'll discover that long-term formats are generally established at the mass-market level and then perfected or re-invented by those with audiophile inclinations. One could argue that SACD and DVD-A are attempts at turning that rule on its head. But the slow start exhibited by both formats (with the copy-restriction issue a new and rather large stumbling block) indicates that, once again, the mass market needs to get involved before we can really move forward.

It would be prudent to suggest, therefore, that both DVD-A's and SACD's progress will be in fits and starts until either or both formats finally hit the mainstream for some reason other than their potent fidelity. As JA points out in his October "As We See It", the new high-rez and multichannel features offered by the current DVD-A and SACD configurations are tempered by the removal of benefits we've had in the past—such as always being able to make full-bandwidth copies of titles that we've purchased—and that makes format change a tough sell.

Setting aside the troublesome competing formats and copy-restriction issues, if DVD-A and SACD are simply included in the majority of new players, starting at mass-market price points, then one or both might have a long-term chance.

To get the mass-market ball rolling, one of the largest suppliers of digital audio chips, Cirrus Logic, announced last week that it is releasing a new series of chips that will enable low-cost DVD-A machines in the $100 range to hit dealer shelves in mid-2003. Cirrus' Terry Ritchie says the CS98200 chips will include a built-in hard-disk-drive interface for audio server functionality and sport eight channels of PCM at 24-bit bit depth and 192kHz output rate. The CS98200 chips will also support the Verance watermarking system, and include two channels of I²S input at 24-bits/96kHz for possible recording uses.

In addition, Ritchie reports that his company is in licensing talks with Sony and Philips to include SACD decoding in the next generation of inexpensive chips. Ritchie indicates that a universal SACD/DVD-A low-cost Cirrus chip may appear sometime in 2003 or early 2004, enabling manufacturers to create universal players at much lower price points than the current $1000 offerings. Ritchie adds that it is too soon to tell how low the prices will go for the next generation universal players.

Also last week, at the Audio Engineering Society Show in Los Angeles, Cirrus introduced two new digital audio interface products for the professional and consumer audio markets. The company says the new CS8416 192kHz digital audio receiver and the CS8406 192kHz digital audio transmitter enable consumer and professional audio products to exchange 192kHz S/PDIF and AES/EBU audio data.

Cirrus claims that the CS8416 exhibits extremely low jitter performance of 200ps and will be targeted for inclusion in A/V receivers and "DVD receivers" with DVD-A capability, DVD recorder systems, personal video recorders (PVRs), multimedia speakers, digital mixing consoles, and automotive audio systems.

According to Cirrus product literature, the CS8406 digital audio transmitter accepts and encodes audio and digital data, which is then multiplexed, encoded, and driven onto a cable/optical transmission interface. The device also features a flexible three-wire serial digital audio input port and includes a differential line driver that allows longer cable lengths.

Cirrus' Terry Leeder says that the two products will work together "to help manufacturers enhance audio performance for rapidly emerging DVD-Audio products."