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Beware of DAT. If, despite the limited availability and high cost of digital cassette machines (and their companion tapes), you still feel irresistibly tempted to be the first on your street to invest in the new medium, buy with caution. The analog-to-digital converters in some of the first-generation DAT machines have a linearity defect at moderately low recording levels.

Their performance is fine at high levels (near 0dBFS) and at very low levels (below –70dB). But from –30 to –60dB, the encoding defect in some machines produces distortion…

The copy-protection debate has created the impression that if DAT recorders are sold without Copycode scanners, everyone could start churning out perfect digital copies of CDs. But in fact the design of DAT already incorporates two basic obstacles to digital CD piracy: copy-protect flags and incompatible sampling. Thus the proposed imposition of Copycode scanners in DAT recorders would seem to be a superfluous third level of protection.

The coding standard for the Compact Disc, established in 1981, provides for an optional copy-protect "flag…

The proposed action by the Congress of the United States will cripple the DAT machine and eventually make all forms of legal audio copying impossible. Well, since that time the National Bureau of Standards has ruled that the CBS Copycode audibly degrades sonic performance, triggers falsely, and can be easily defeated by someone with a little electronics knowledge. The RIAA reacted to this announcement by quickly abandoning their support for the CBS system, but warned that this retrenchment was not a signal that DAT could now be sold in the US and further stated…

That is exactly what was happening in Washington in April through June. The American record industry is so horrified at the prospect of a "perfect" home-recording medium—the new DAT system—that they are doing their best to legislate it out of existence. Or, at least, to de-fang it. Believing their own propaganda about "Perfect Sound Forever," they are afraid the new DAT system which the Japanese are poised to unleash in the US will allow their…

The software encoding of CBS's aptly-named "spoiler" system consists of a very narrow 20–50dB notch in the audio band centered at 3840Hz, between the musical notes B-flat and B. The copy-protection chip in the recorder measures signal energy in that band and compares it with the energy in the adjacent bands, and if it finds a large difference (indicating the presence of the notch), it shuts down the recorder. The chip has no effect at all on DAT playback, since the detection notch is not in the signal circuit, but merely runs parallel to it to feed the…

May 18, 1987
The President
The White House
Washington, DC

Mr. President:

I am editor of America's oldest magazine for serious audiophiles, and I feel your support of the music industry's DAT anti-copy bill (HR-1384 and S-506) is ill-advised. Here's why:

First, the anti-copy encoding affects a range of musical frequencies spanning five whole notes, in the area where the human ear is most sensitive. It HAS to degrade the recorded sound, whether or not some people have the acuity to hear it. (Experienced…

I put a question to my Japanese hosts toward the end of a particularly impressive traditional meal: What status does traditional Japanese music have with the Japanese themselves? In all the several days I had been in the country, I had heard barely a note of Japanese music, whether on radio, television, or even back at the works when we were having hi-fi gear demonstrated.

The answer was monosyllabic and instantaneous: "None." OK, there's probably a tinge of Oriental inscrutability about this answer, but it really does seem that Western (read…

Ah, the Persuasions...! These guys and their acappella Brooklyn street-corner doo-wop can make me feel good faster than any group I know. After listening to this strong, loving recording, I listened to all their other records one after another. Best kind of rave I know.

This issue of Stereophile celebrates The Persuasions' first and latest albums, 20 years apart (see my feature on the Enigma Retro reissues from the…