The scene was a London seminar scant months before the Japanese launch of Compact Disc in fall 1982, and less than a year before the official US launch at the 1983 Chicago Consumer Electronics Show. Sony…
search
In his very English way, Sony's then managing director for the UK, Tim Steele, was getting a touch, er, desperate. His oh-so-cultured voice rose a smidgen as he resorted to a direct selling of the benefits of what he was talking about. "Look, you're all sitting on riches," was his fundamental pitch. "You can sell music-lovers your entire back catalog all over again—at a higher price!"
CD changed all that. To all extents and purposes, the consumer medium is the master. While the retail pricing of CD can still be kept low enough to minimize cloning—yes, you can photocopy a book belonging to a friend, but it's cheaper and less time-consuming to buy your own copy—the fact that a CD-R or DAT copy of a commercial CD is bit-for-bit identical both to it and to the master is a scary concept to music-biz lawyers.
With Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio, the record industry had an opportunity to correct this, which they saw as CD's fundamental flaw. This can be achieved in three ways…
Mary is a scientist living in a distant galaxy. She and her fellow humanoids are just like us, but their knowledge is highly advanced. It's so advanced, they've solved the most daunting problem in science—understanding the brain and mind. They know everything scientifically possible to know about the brain's neurons, its architecture, and how consciousness, ideas, feelings, and memories occur. Perception and sensation are understood, too. Mary knows exactly how light and sound waves become colorful visions and beautiful melodies. On her planet, aspiring neurobiologists are out of luck. There…
If you read Stereophile regularly, you already know that all audio equipment does not sound the same. But did you know that a given piece of gear can sound better or worse depending upon how it's set up and used? With a few simple tweaks, you can bring out the best in your audio system.
What, exactly, is a tweak? It's anything you do to a piece of audio gear to improve its performance. Many tweaks are simple and require no specific technical know-how. Others, far more complex, are best left to experienced technicians. In this article, I'll focus on simple, inexpensive tweaks that you can…
Once your gear is properly connected, reread the manuals to make sure you understand all the controls and features: make sure you know where the preamp's mute switch is; familiarize yourself with every selector switch and button (polarity, source, mute, power, etc.); check your speakers for bass or treble boost or attenuation controls. In other words, learn your gear's capabilities and proper use before you do something to damage it, and in order to realize its maximum sonic potential.
Many preamps have separate selectors for the main output and the source being used for the tape deck. If…
Audio equipment can almost always benefit from a good stand or rack. In general, stands and racks provide rigid foundations that help isolate equipment from its environment. Excellent products are available from Arcici, Target, Sound Anchors, Merrill, Solidsteel, Chicago Speaker Stands, Sanus Systems, AudioPrism, Bright Star, and others. In addition to providing a proper foundation for your equipment, racks can look good and help you organize an otherwise jumbled array of hi-fi gear.
Connecting everything
Your different components are connected with various plugs, lugs, and wires; in…
Dressing
Tonearm leads, digital cables, interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords should be kept as far away from one another as possible. In addition, all cables should be kept as far away from electronics as possible. There will be obvious limitations to these rules, so when cables must cross, they should form an X where they meet---if possible, raise one of them up off the other.
Tonearm leads, digital cables, interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords should be kept as far away from one another as possible. In addition, all cables should be kept as far away from electronics as possible. There will be obvious limitations to these rules, so when cables must cross, they should form an X where they meet---if possible, raise one of them up off the other.
Many audiophiles feel that their systems sound better when all the cables are raised off the floor---especially if the floor is carpeted. While a number of commercial products are available to keep…
Many of us have too many things to plug-in to too few outlets. How you handle this problem is likely to significantly impact the performance of your audio system. Most simple extension cords or power-outlet strips can degrade the sonic performance of your system. The better solution is to have more outlets at the wall. While costly, this may prove the best alternative in the long run. Other options include using products, such as the Adcom ACE-515 AC Enhancer, that offer more outlets.
A number of products have been specifically designed to clean up the electrical power source that you…
CDs also benefit from periodic dry-cleaning: With a lint-free cloth, rub the shiny underside (the playing surface) from the center outward. Never rub in circles, as this can mar the surface in scratches tangential to the spiral of encoded information, thus increasing your chances of creating a glitch audible on playback. If you're uncomfortable holding and cleaning CDs, you can buy one of Radio Shack's or Discwasher's cleaning devices. Various liquids and machines are available to wet-clean CDs, although wet-cleaning hasn't proven as popular or as effective as with LPs.
However, CD-…
High Fidelity Audio/Video Systems: A Critical Guide for Owners
by Howard Ferstler
253 pages, $23.50 softcover. Published by McFarland & Company, Inc., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. Tel: (919) 246-4460.
by Howard Ferstler
253 pages, $23.50 softcover. Published by McFarland & Company, Inc., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. Tel: (919) 246-4460.
The year is 1976; it's the Bicentennial, and the whole country is rediscovering its roots in a one-fisted love affair of red, white, and blue. It's a time of wood-paneled station wagons, Jimmy Carter, and great globe-shaped afros, of hourly interruptions during "M*A*S*H" and "All In The Family" by Harry Reasoner with yet another "Bicentennial Minute." Everyone's got big sloppy…