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…
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Sidebar 3: Measurements
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…
Sidebar 4: Specifications
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,…
There are all sorts of ways of having fun, and just as many ways of spending money. Most of the time, spending money is necessary to have fun; whether it's going to a movie, having dinner out, scrapbooking, playing video games, whatever—nothin's free.
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…
On Sunday, I took a walk through Inwood Hill Park—the last existing glimpse to the natural wonder that Manhattan once was. Tulip trees and red-backed salamanders populate these woods. Along the paved trail, a playful soul chalked in instructions for hikers:
"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…
Saturday–Sunday, October 5–6, 10am–6pm: The annual High End Prague hi-fi show will be held at the Corinthia Towers Hotel. The admission price per day is about $5 US and includes automatic entry into a "hi-fi lottery," with a chance to win Monitor Audio loudspeakers, Focal and Grado headphones, IsoTek electronics, and more. A percentage of the money earned from High End Prague goes to the Czech UNICEF. For a complete exhibitor list and more info, visit www.high-end-praha.cz.
Various Artists: Selected Signs III–VIII
ECM 2350 through 2355 (372 6163 through 372 6168) (6 CDs). 2013. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Jan Erik Kongshaug, Peter Laenger, Stephan Schellmann, others, orig. engs.; Kongshaug, Christoph Stickel, sequencing engs. AAD? TT: 7:19:56
Performance *****
Sonics *****
ECM 2350 through 2355 (372 6163 through 372 6168) (6 CDs). 2013. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Jan Erik Kongshaug, Peter Laenger, Stephan Schellmann, others, orig. engs.; Kongshaug, Christoph Stickel, sequencing engs. AAD? TT: 7:19:56
Performance *****
Sonics *****
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.…
At the time of my August 2011 "As We See It," I was using a Wilson-McIntosh system. That system is still with me and still gets quite a bit of use. Its location, however, has changed. In its place is a system that I can't see switching out or needing to replace: Wilson Alexandria XLF speakers with VTL Siegfried Series II Reference monoblock power amps, TL-7.5 Series III Reference preamplifier, and TP-6.5 Signature phono stage. It might take a small army of people to move it, but beyond that, I think I'm good to go.
This system has taken my listening sessions to an entirely different…
The older an audiophile becomes, the faster time flies. Has it really been 60 years since Saul Marantz founded the company that bears his name? Has it really been almost 50 years since that company was acquired by the Tushinsky brothers and Superscope? Has it really been 33 years since Superscope sold Marantz to Philips, just in time for the launch of CD? Has it really been 13 years since Marantz Japan acquired the brand's assets and, a year later, merged with Denon to form D&M Holdings? And more significant in the context of this review, has it really been almost 35 years since Ken…
Finally, I connected one of the Mac mini's USB ports to the NA-11S1 and streamed audio data to it using Pure Music. Now I could play everything in my iTunes library with the Marantz, including the AIFF and 192kHz ALAC files it had stuck up its nose at with the other inputs! Even DSD-encoded DFF files—but see later.
Remote Control
A word on controlling the NA-11S1. Its display is too small for me to see from my listening seat, which made using the remote control awkward. It was also a pain to use the remote's numeric keypad to type search keywords the first time when looking for…