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Opinion and comment on the changing audio scene. by Peter Dobbin A Renaissance in Audio: True Innovation Is Here Again SOME TIME IN THE LATE '70s, the notion surfaced that audio was a mature technology. Industry commentators whispered that performance was as good as it ever really had to be; gimmickry and flash, they asserted, were replacing the innovations and break throughs of audio's golden years. As the economy nose-dived and audio sales softened, trade journalists lifted their pens to pronounce that the industry was in its senescence; one otherwise unremarkable trade journal went so far as to announce the imminent demise of the traditional audio industry. Well, naysayers and cynics be damned. If originality and creativity are the keys to the success of any endeavor, then their rekindling in audio marks the beginning of still another growth cycle. Even we true believers at HIGH FIDELITY were a bit taken aback recently by the number of truly ground-breaking developments announced within a period of just a few months. Yet, products like the Philips/Sony Compact Disc, the Polk SDA-1 loudspeaker, the Carver TX- II tuner, and Sony's recently announced frequency-modulation technique for attaining heretofore unachievable VCR sound quality provide startling evidence of the audio industry's essential creative vitality. No single development in the long history of home audio playback has carried with it the potential of the Compact Disc (CD), and I am convinced that this digital format will quickly replace the analog LP as the medium of choice. In head-to-head comparison with audiophile quality LPs, CDs don't always provide an immediate overwhelming sonic improvement. But after repeated playings, as the soft vinyl LP begins its inevitable sonic decline, the CD version still sounds great; ten thousand plays later, the Compact Disc should still show no signs of wear. In an economy where return on investment has become increasingly important, the impact of CD will be immediate: Even the least sophisticated record buyer will quickly realize that CDs are worth the extra few dollars. And as prices for both players and discs come down, what will remain to deny the CD format preeminence? Moreover, CD is just plain fun. In the month or so that HF has had its player, no one who has used and heard it has failed to ask when he could get one. Its range of automatic features-search, scan, random access, and so on-make even the most automated analog record player seem slow and clumsy. CDs will not, however, remain as audio-only devices for long. Their enormous information storage capacity is simply too attractive. It would take several thousand floppy discs (the magnetic medium most commonly used for data storage in personal computers) to hold the same amount of information as can be recorded on just one hour-long side of a Compact Disc. Considering how many pop recordings contain less than an hour's worth of music, what's to prevent a company like Warner Communications from eventually issuing CDs with forty minutes of music, plus a bonus of computer programs and video games pressed into the remaining disc space? Sony's CDP-101 player does not contain the digital output necessary for direct interface to a home computer, but it would be easy for player manufacturers to add the necessary taps for access to the stream of binary data being read from the disc. The future of CD seems limited, in fact, only by the imagination of hardware and record manufacturers. Bob Carver, possibly the most fecund talent in audio, has managed with his TX-II tuner to vanquish two seemingly intractable hobgoblins of FM reception: multi-path distortion and noise due to weak signals. The approach is truly revolutionary (see test report), and it sounds great, making pleasurable stereo listening possible for multipath-ridden city dwellers as well as for music lovers located great distances from transmitters. At $550, the TX-11 will at first find a limited audience. But the resourceful Mr. Carver is no doubt already looking at ways to make the technology available at lower prices. And should some enterprising car stereo manufacturer succeed in obtaining a license from Carver, the effects on mobile stereo FM quality should be startling. Reported on in detail here, the SDA-1 loudspeaker represents an altogether unique rethinking of what a loudspeaker can and should do. While others have attempted to recreate the original sound field of a recording by manipulating the audio signal electrically, Polk tackles the problem acoustically. As explained by designer Matthew Polk, the operation of the SDA-1 stereo loudspeaker system seems altogether self-evident; in fact, you wonder why it wasn't done before. Unlike some electronic image enhancers, the effect it creates holds up across a wide listening arc. On some recordings, the SDA-1 speakers seem to melt away, leaving in their place a sonic portrait so palpable in its left-to-right positioning and depth as to leave auditioners agog. Analyzing the theory behind the design of the SDA-1 is rather difficult going at first, but it's ultimately very rewarding to work through. Having done just that, I can only express my hope that Mr. Polk will publish his results, which shed new light on the fundamentals of stereophonic recording and playback. The speaker, in essence, poses a number of thorny questions about audio basics, and grappling with them leads us to wonder about the possibility of developing other loudspeakers capable of still more dramatic effects. Could a single pair of loudspeakers, for instance, be made to produce a "quadriphonic" effect? At the least, we expect that Polk's new and very unconventional approach to loudspeakers will influence other designers for years to come, and perhaps record producers as well. It is sure to shake up a few people. Though details are sketchy, Sony promises to show working prototypes at this month's Consumer Electronics Show of a Beta-format VCR equipped with a recording system capable of audio performance as good as (or better than) that of some studio recorders. Sony claims a dynamic range in excess of 80 dB and a frequency response of 20-20,000 Hz, which would spell dramatic changes in how we think of video sound. We have no idea how far Sony really is from marketing such a VCR, but the news itself is sending shock waves through the video establishment. As I see it, the ultimate effect of "Beta HiFi" will accrue to the benefit of the audio industry. The marriage of audio and video, though much talked about, has been slowed by the poor quality of video sound. Anyone who plugs a typical VCR's audio output into a full-range home audio system is quick to regret the move. With a true high fidelity stereo sound track on videotape, however, such a mating will quickly become the norm. Even "TV junkies" should eventually come to appreciate the subtleties and drama of high fidelity audio playback. A common thread is discernable in all four of these products. Each of them, in its own way, takes a step beyond audio tradition, either in how it tackles a problem already accepted on the high fidelity agenda or in what it implicitly adds (in the cases of Carver and Polk, especially). This is the other side of technological maturity: As the old problems give way, new challenges and opportunities present themselves, and designers' imaginations are unleashed to roam unexplored territories. In this way, the very definition of what constitutes high fidelity is widened and deepened. We see that our journey is not done. The contribution of stagnating sales to this furious round of innovation is fascinating to speculate on. It cannot force invention, but it can foster its acceptance. Would manufacturers be in such a great rush to bring digital audio to market or to improve video sound if it were not seen as a tool for generating consumer demand? Perhaps, but I doubt it. It's almost always easier just to keep doing what you're used to. Over the years, I've auditioned many allegedly revolutionary new components that failed to yield significant audible improvements over established designs. I don't think we'll be seeing as much of that in the weeks and months and years to come. Audio manufacturers seem to be taking their first serious encounter with recession as a signal to return to their roots in the spirit and sub stance of innovation. Rather than becoming a mere appendage on the body of the consumer electronics industry, audio is once again reasserting itself as the heart and life blood of the rapidly diversifying home entertainment scene. -HF Also see: |