Luxman, 1-3-1, Shin-Yokohama Kouhoku-ku, Yokohama 222-0033, Japan. Tel: 81 (45) 47-0-6980. Web: www.luxman.co.jp. US distributor: On a Higher Note, PO Box 698, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693. Tel: (949) 488-3004. Fax: (949) 488-3284. Web: www.onahighernote.com.
Behringer, Music Group Services USA, Inc., 18912 N. Creek Parkway, Suite 200, Bothell, WA 98011. Tel: (425) 672-0816. Fax: (425) 673-7647. Web: www.behringer.com.
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Sidebar: Contacts
Ed Meitner is one of those rare individuals who charts his own course in audio product design. From his platterless turntable of the mid-1980s to his new Intelligent Digital Audio Translator (IDAT, reviewed elsewhere in this issue), Ed Meitner's products have been distinguished by original thinking and innovative engineering. Although not all his designs have been commercially successful, in each he has attempted to advance the state of the art by rethinking fundamental principles.
Ed is also pursuing an ambitious project that would radically change the way recordings are made. It began…
Harley: Tell me about your design philosophy—how you think audio components should be built, and priced, and how they should function.
Meitner: If we want to advance the state of the art, we might be stuck initially with something that looks like it is more expensive than it should be. But if electronics are handled properly and the design is elegant, the product is just going to get cheaper and cheaper.
But the design has to be simple. I don't like band-aid designs with massive amounts of chips and all sorts of stuff hanging around. To me that means it doesn't work. That's my…
Meitner: When you record something as simple as an electric guitar with a standard microphone and you realize you can't even play it back through a 10" speaker when the sound was produced by a 10" speaker, it makes you wonder what is missing. That sound is a simple event. It doesn't take big technology to pick that up. There's nothing mysterious about what's coming out of this 10" speaker. There won't be anything fast in there. There won't be any complex events happening. It will probably be a bandpass of some kind. So why can't we get that back? Close-miked, far-miked, it doesn't make any…
There are as many ways of designing a digital-to-analog converter as there are engineers. One approach is to select parts from manufacturers' data books and build the product according to the "application notes" provided by the parts manufacturers. This is the electronic equivalent of a paint-by-numbers kit.
A more creative engineer may add a few tricks of his own to the standard brew. Bigger and better regulated power supplies, careful circuit-board layout, tweaky passive components, and attention to detail will likely make this designer's product sound better than the same basic…
Although the IDAT implements its filters with the same the Motorola DSP56001 Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chips found in other custom-filter processors, they are used in a unique way. To understand how the IDAT's filter works, a little background in digital filters is helpful. Digital filters come in two varieties, Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) and Finite Impulse Response (FIR). IIR filters can be optimized for time-domain performance; they can have less ringing, overshoot, and pre-echo than FIR types. This makes them ideal for processing waveforms with steep attacks—like musical…
First, the IDAT's overall perspective was somewhere between the No.30's laid-back ease and the Gen.III's more forward and incisive character. The IDAT was more upbeat, energetic, and driving; the No.30 was more subtle, refined, and had greater treble resolution. More on this later.
There was, however, one aspect of the IDAT's presentation that grabbed me right away: an extraordinary ability to convey the music's rhythmic qualities. This characteristic was unmistakable, and clearly the best heard from any digital processor. There was a cohesion, a fundamental rightness to the music's…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: 21-bit digital/analog converter. Digital filtering: 8x-oversampling DSP-based "Intelligent" design. D/A conversion: four 20-bit DACs per channel in "Class-A Data Scheme," balanced in digital domain. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz +0, –0.3dB. THD+noise: less than 0.01%, 20Hz–20kHz (no level specified). Output impedance: 300 ohms unbalanced, 600 ohms balanced. Jitter: less than 100ps RMS, no periodic jitter. Inputs: coaxial on RCA jack, Toslink optical, ST-type optical (one each). Analog outputs: one unbalanced stereo pair on RCA jacks, one balanced…
Sidebar 2: Review System
The IDAT was driven by the Theta Data II transport via its ST-type optical output, or a Museatex CD-D deck through a coaxial connection. The new Proceed PDT 3 transport also drove the IDAT via its ST-type optical output.
Loudspeakers were Hales System Two Signatures (with and without the Muse Model 18 subwoofer) driven by VTL 225W Deluxe monoblocks or a Mark Levinson No.23.5.
Loudspeaker cables were 3' runs of bi-wired AudioQuest Sterling and Midnight. Interconnects included Expressive Technologies IC-2, AudioQuest Diamond, and AudioQuest Lapis (…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
As John Atkinson wrote in the December 1992 issue of Stereophile about the relationship between measurement and sound quality ("If It Sounds Good..." p.15) a product should offer good engineering as well as good sound. This was certainly the case with the IDAT: its measured performance was superb.
The IDAT's output level when decoding a full-scale, 1kHz sinewave was 3.094V (left channel) and 3.122V (right) when driving a 100k ohm load. This is nearly 3.8dB higher than the standard 2V output level. From the balanced outputs, I measured 4.669V (left channel)…