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DAT is a format unlike any other. The tape cassettes use 1/8"-wide tape running at 0.3"/second, and run on what is basically an ultra-miniature VCR that records in a series of diagonal stripes across the tape (helical scan). The recordings have extraordinarily robust error correction (footnote 1), and can use several kinds of place markers that together constitute a rudimentary, but effective, editing system.

A start identifier (ID) signals the beginning of a recorded selection, and can provide a seek point for high-speed searches to specific locations on the…

What really pisses me off about SCMS is that it wasn't even necessary. The CD standard already included a provision for placing a marker flag that would prevent any digital copying, but for whatever reason, it seems no CD manufacturer ever used it. (This may have had something to do with a Supreme Court ruling that consumers have the legal right to duplicate copyrighted stuff for their own private use.) But that CD anti-copy flag could be used to invoke a modified SCMS that would limit duplication of copyrighted material to a single generation, but would still allow…

Because the DTC-2000 is the first consumer product with Super Bit Mapping, I was eager to look at its technical performance and investigate Sony's published claims and technical graphs of what SBM does. But first, let's look at the DTC-2000's D/A and A/D converter performance.

The unit's maximum output level was 2.5V when fed 0dBFS, 1kHz sinewave data. Output impedance was a moderate 295 ohms at any audio frequency. The DC levels at the output were very low, measuring just 0.9mV (left channel) and 0.1mV (right).

The line input impedance measured 43…

Description: Rotary-head, helical-scan digital audio tape recorder with built-in Super Bit Mapping to increase low-level resolution. Inputs: high-impedance unbalanced microphone, line, TosLink digital, coaxial digital. Outputs: fixed-level line, TosLink digital, coaxial digital. Controls: AC Power, Auto Start ID On/Off, Write Start ID, Renumber Start IDs, Erase Start ID, Clock Set, Counter Mode, Counter Reset, Counter Memory, SBM On/Off, Emphasis On/Off, Margin Reset, Source/Tape monitor, Record Level, Record Mode, Input Selector, drawer Open/Close, Stop, Play,…

Some people like fancy watches. I like to look at Rolexes and Patek Phillippes—but the idea of wearing something costing 20 grand or more, maybe a lot more, at the end of my simian arm where I can bang it to bits on a doorframe, strikes me as insane. Oh, well; I don't badmouth people who buy or wear such things, just because I choose not to…

"Listen to the sounds."

I stood inside the designated listening square and closed my eyes. To my right, I heard cars rushing on the not-so-distant Washington Bridge. I thought of pink noise. To the left was the nothingness of the salt marshes and above green leaves rustling. From all around, birds chirped, tweeted, and brrrrrd…

The most indelicate, if not gory, term in all of music is the ever-popular "bleeding chunks." The bane of classical audiences cursed with lazy pops conductors, bleeding chunks are movements of works—or even parts of movements—strung together in that abomination known as a medley.…

This system has taken my listening sessions to an entirely different…