The Bel Canto Aida had one of the lowest output levels I've measured from any processor: just 1.4V when decoding a full-scale, 1kHz sinewave. Unusually, the output level was identical from the unbalanced and balanced outputs. Although the Aida had a low output impedance of 90 ohms, the 1.4V maximum output level may not be enough to drive some power-amplifier/loudspeaker combinations to adequate listening levels without an active preamplifier. The Aida doesn't invert absolute polarity; a positive-going impulse on a CD produces a positive-going output signal. The…
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Introduced nearly eight years ago as the first recordable digital format for consumers, DAT both failed to appeal to its target market and was blocked from formally entering the USA for four years by the RIAA, who feared for the copyright of its members' recordings. However, the DAT medium was enthusiastically snapped up by professionals and semiprofessionals, who found its combination of reliability, CD-compatible signal format, and editing ease ideal for mastering. Sony currently offers a small range of consumer models, from the diminutive Walkman-sized TCD-D-7 DATMan to four-head cassette-…
J. Gordon Holt wrote again about the Sony DTC-2000ES in December 1995 (Vol.18 No.12):
When the review sample of this Super-Bit-Mapped DAT deck returned from RH's testing facility, the drawer-close spring was broken. (The unit had been used, perhaps, 30 hours during my tests, 3 during his.) I was able to jury-rig a repair of this, but shortly thereafter one of the pivots popped out of the tape-loading bar and disappeared into the innards of machine, making it impossible thereafter to load a tape.
Fortunately, the unit I'd purchased (yes, I decided to take the plunge, despite the…
Sidebar 1: Dis'n'DAT
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…
Sidebar 2: SCMS Scams
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…
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.