LOSING IT IN VEGAS

The EIA states that 103,000 people attended the 1988 Winter Consumer Electronics Show during its January 7-10 run in Las Vegas, but most observers consider this figure grossly inflated. In the opinion of a similarly large number of Show watchers, this CES was rather dull, what with the scarcity of new product introductions and the dollar/yen situation hanging like an omnipresent dark cloud and affecting all buying and marketing decisions.

The third edition of the "R-DAT Follies" played to a less than packed house. Once again, a few companies boldly proclaimed they would accept orders and soon be shipping R-DAT units. And once again, by the end of the show they had to concede that their marketing plans were premature.

Although such factors as the foreign trade bill and a shortage of critical DAT parts from vendors in Japan were cited as reasons for the hold-up, most felt it was still the uncertain outcome of the National Bureau of Standards' Copy Code tests that was the real culprit. But now all of this may be academic, because word has come from the Bureau that they were able to accelerate the tests and that results would soon be in.

Thus, by the time you read this, perhaps sweet reason will have prevailed and the whole absurd Copy-Code issue will be nothing but a bad memory.

The demise of the Copy-Code will open the R-DAT hardware floodgates, and while initial prices will be fairly high, consumers will have quite a wide choice of machines in the home component, automotive, and portable categories. To me, the most fascinating R-DATs will be the fantastic little portable recorders. Their potential for "fun-type" applications--parades, outdoor concerts, and the like--all with the ultra-fidelity of digital recording, is virtually unlimited.

Casio claims to have the smallest and most lightweight of the R-DAT portables. Their DA-1 measures just 4.7 inches wide, 1.7 inches high, and 5.7 inches deep and weighs only 1.6 pounds. Technics also has an R-DAT portable, the SV-MD1. It measures 8.3 inches wide, 1.6 inches high, and 4.8 inches deep and weighs 3.2 pounds with its rechargeable Ni-Cad battery, which provides 2 1/2 hours of recording time. The unit can also be powered from a car battery and a.c. The small size of the SV-MD1 is partially due to the use of a 15-mm recording head drum instead of the standard 30-mm R-DAT drum. Also, eleven LSI chips were developed for the Technics. The SV-MD1 uses two A/D converters with digital filtering on special LSIs incorporating a new multi-stage noise-shaping system with 64-times oversampling.

The system is said to avoid zero-crossing distortion and maintain phase linearity. Many of the features of standard R-DAT units are also provided on these portable R-DAT recorders. Pricing of the Casio is about $1,000 in Japan, while the Technics is about $2,300 over there.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Compact Disc's introduction in the U.S. The CD was appropriately celebrated at the WCES with many new players in all price categories and, more importantly, by significant advances in CD technology.

The current buzzword in CD players is 18-bit quantization. Companies showing new 18-bit players included Sony, Technics. Stax, Pioneer, and Onkyo. Sony also introduced eight-times oversampling (352.8 kHz/S) on its CDP-507ESD and top-of-the-line CDP707ESD players. Pioneer and Stax also use eight-times oversampling, via an arrangement with Sony.

There have been several quasi-18 bit CD players on the market; these have 18-bit digital filters, but their output goes into 16-bit D/A converters.

With high-level signals, these systems act like conventional 16-bit converters.

With low-level signals, the extra two bits are shifted or switched in order to use the more linear portion of the D/A converter. This gives rise to measurable--if not necessarily audible--switching noise.

The new Sony linear 18-bit D/A converter, in combination with the newly developed CXD-1144 18-bit/eight-times oversampling digital filter, provides complete utilization of all 16-bit signals at both high and low levels.

Sampling at 352.8 kHz results in an extremely dense data stream as the filter outputs seven "calculated" values for every "real" value. Among the benefits of this increased density is better waveform linearity. The CXD1144 filter also allows calculating to the 293rd order, as compared to the 96th order calculations of current quadruple-oversampling technology. These higher order calculations greatly increase filter accuracy, with virtually ripple-free output. In fact, on this new filter, audio band ripple is on the order of 0.00001 dB! Another bonus of this technology is that it allows the use of a fairly simple third-order analog output filter which has improved group delay and phase characteristics ,and whose slope is so gentle that high-frequency spuriae are dramatically reduced. The result is better high-frequency performance and a smoother, more musical output. This development should finally still the shrill discords of the digiphobes and their talk about that more imagined-than-real "digital glare"! The CDP-707ESD, the subject of an "Equipment Profile" in this issue, has a host of other new features. For instance, n common with all new Sony units, it can play the new 3-inch CD singles without an adaptor. Still more sophisticated anti-vibration measures have been incorporated in the chassis and other areas. In addition to its coaxial digital output, the CDP-707ESD has an optical digital output. If you have wondered what the advantage is in using the fiber-optic connection, it lies in the fact that there is no common ground through the cable; digital and analog stages are completely isolated from each other, thereby avoiding the possibility of converter glitches and hum and noise spikes affecting the analog signal. The price of the CDP707ESD is $1,800. Pioneer's 18-bit introduction was the PD-91, the top unit in their Elite line. It too uses Sony's eight-times oversampling system, and it sells for $1,300. Technics entered the 18-bit sweepstakes with four new CD players. Their top model, the SL-P990, has an 18-bit digital filter and uses quadruple over sampling. The unit is equipped with two D/A converters per channel-one for the positive half of the waveform and one for the negative half-and is said to eliminate digital crossover distortion at the zero-crossing point. The SL-P990 has a multitude of convenience features including one that is quite unique, called Auto Peak Level Search. Using a signal output meter, the system can search through an entire CD or a set of programmed tracks for the highest peak signal. Then it will repeatedly play the 3S of music just before the peak and the 3S just after it, to facilitate the setting of recording levels on transfer to another format. A 1 hour program can be searched in 3 minutes. Obviously, this is quite a boon for those who record "customized cassettes.” The price of the SL-P990 is $825, and the unit will be available as you read this.

On the CD software front, there is encouraging news. So many CD processing plants are now in operation that price competition on CD mastering is a reality at last. As a consequence, it is now possible to manufacture CDs for $1.50 to $2 each, instead of the $3 to $3.50 that had prevailed for some time. Many hardware people expect that we will soon see CDs priced between $10.99 and $11.99--and that includes premium recordings.

Most of the major loudspeaker manufacturers had introduced new models at the 1987 Summer CES, so there wasn't much at Las Vegas in the way of new models that would send audiophiles scurrying to their dealers. However, 'or the audiophile in search of high-end exotica, there were quite a few interesting new preamplifiers and power amplifiers.

above: Madrigal introduced the Mark Levinson No. 26 dual monaural preamplifier.

It is said to combine the superb sonic qualities of their previous "minimalist" designs with the input and switching flexibility needed to cope with today's Mark Levinson No. 26 preamplifier multiple audio sources. The No. 26 mates with a separate PLS-226 power supply. Precision-crafted in the Mark Levinson tradition, the No. 26 features new sophisticated circuit topology and design innovations for improved performance. All switching is by remotely powered sealed relays with solid silver, gold-plated contacts. The power supply feeds unregulated d.c. to the No. 26, where four discrete internal regulators--one each for the positive and negative d.c. rails in each channel--operate at all times in Class-A mode.

In recognition of the fact that many people .use CDs as their main music source, a phono input is optional on the No. 26; if desired, it can be either for moving-magnet or moving-coil cartridges. There are five high-level inputs: CD, tuner, AUX 1, tape 1, and tape 2. It no phono input is desired, one can instead have a sixth high-level input (AUX 2). Another option is a balanced line input, and the outputs offer a choice of unbalanced Camac or balanced Neutrik XLR connections.

Among other niceties, the No. 26 has an absolute-polarity switch. The No. 26 is obviously meant to be a companion unit for the Mark Levinson No. 20 and No. 23 power amplifiers. It is currently available at a price of $3,990 for the line-only unit, $4,750 with an MC phono input, and $4,650 with an MM phono input.

Dave Fletcher, whose Sumiko company has imported Supex and Grace phono cartridges for many years, has diversified; he is now importing high end YBA preamplifiers and power amplifiers from France. The products are designed by Yves Bernard André, an electrical engineer and laser expert who worked on turntables for several years with Goldmund before designing his own quite radical and expensive Vecteur turntable.

The YBA, preamplifier and power amplifier are quite meticulously constructed, even to the extent of using André-designed, custom-built capacitors, resistors, and transistors. The amplifier operates in what André calls Class Alpha, which is claimed to have the advantages of Class A without the disadvantage of dissipation in the output stages. Features include the use of quadruple switches to limit contact resistance, and triple potentiometers without hysteresis. The unit has very little or no negative feedback. Transistors are mounted with mica, copper, and silver on the heat-sinks to avoid capacitive effects. A common star ground system is employed. The amplifier delivers 85 watts per channel into 8 ohms, 170 watts into 4 ohms, and 1,500 watts into 0.7 ohm. THD at 20 watts is rated at less than 0.09% from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Rise-time is 3µS at 10 kHz. Current output is rated at 35 to 40 amperes. The YBA, preamplifier and YBA, power amplifier are priced at $7,000 each. Also available are the YBA2 preamplifier and the 70-watt/ channel YBA2 power amplifier. With design and construction similar to that of the YBA, units, they are priced at $3,500 each.

---------- (not shown) Lexicon CP-1 Digital Audio Environment Processor

Lexicon Inc. of Waltham, Mass. is preeminent in professional audio for its digital delay lines, digital reverberation and effects processors, and other sophisticated digital signal-processing equipment. Several months before the WCES, Lexicon was kind enough to demonstrate in my video room a "breadboard" prototype of their new consumer audio product, which debuted at the CES as the CP-1 Digital Audio Environment Processor. Lexicon is licensed to use Dolby Pro Logic circuitry for decoding Dolby Surround programs, and the CP-1 Pro Logic unit is entirely digital. In addition, Lexicon has used their expertise in digital signal processing to incorporate 12 derived software programs in the CP-1: Three for "Panorama" mode, three for "Re verb." three for "Ambience," and three for "Surround Sound," including Dolby Pro Logic. What I heard was very impressive-not only the decoding of Dolby Surround movies, but also such things as the reproduction of dummy head binaural recordings through loudspeakers (uncanny phantom images appeared to the left and right of the listening position). Unlike other processors, this all-digital unit operates in true stereo mode. In its ultimate embodiment, it would feed left, center, and right front speakers; left and right side speakers, left and right rear speakers, and a subwoofer. All processing is controlled via wireless remote. The CP-1 will be available this month at a price of $1,200.

(adapted from Audio magazine, Apr. 1988; Bert Whyte)

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