Pictured (from left to right): Rhonda Wilson, Senior Member, Technical Staff, Products & Technology Group, Dolby Laboratories; Craig Eggers, Director, Content Creation and Playback, Home Theater Ecosystem, Dolby Laboratories; Poppy Crum, Senior Staff Scientist, Dolby Laboratories pose with some of the most recent titles using Dolby TrueHD with advanced 96k up sampling.
At 12 noon PST today, Dolby Laboratories, Inc. announced the availability of the first Blu-ray Discs premastered using Dolby® TrueHD with advanced 96k upsampling, The process, designed for use by studios, authoring houses, and mastering facilities, elevates playback performance of lossless audio on Blu-ray Disc by using the apodizing filter developed by Meridian.
I have fond memories of the Paradigm Reference Studio 20. When I reviewed the original version for the February 1998 issue of Stereophile, it was the model that started me on my quest to seek out the best affordable loudspeakers. I believe that of all the speakers I've reviewed, the original Studio 20 remained in the magazine's "Recommended Components" longest. When I checked out the speaker's fourth generation, in May 2008, I felt it had significantly progressed in terms of sound quality and value for money. This didn't surprise me, however, as pushing the envelopes of sound quality and value has long been Paradigm's trademark. They've done with this with every one of their speakers I've heard, including the third and fifth iterations of the Atom (which I reviewed in September 2002 and February 2008, respectively), and the more expensive models I've heard at audio shows. So when I was given the opportunity to review the Studio 20's fifth generation, I jumped.