CES: THE LULL BEFORE DIGITAL
The 1982 Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago opened on June 6th, and by the time the Show closed on the 9th, over 70,000 attendees had filed into the cavernous spaces of McCormick Place, and the exhibit rooms at the McCormick Inn and the Conrad Hilton hotel--or so claims the EIA, which states that this is a new high in attendance, some 19% above last year.
--Sony showed off its DAD.
--Philips flashed compact system for digital discs.
However encouraging these attendance figures may appear, I heard considerable grumbling from manufacturers who said they didn't see many dealers and thought there was a particular dearth of West Coast dealers.
After the opening day, more grumbling (especially among audio manufacturers) was generated by the obvious concentration on video in general, video games in particular. There was little doubt that video games were proliferating like the proverbial rabbits, and there was a Klondike frenzy to get to the video-game gold fields. Many feel this product category hasn't even begun to reach its high-water mark; more than a few also believe the boom will prove to be a short-lived phenomenon and go the way of CB radio. I dunno, fellas--there are an awful lot of kiddies with indulgent parents in this country.
Quite a number of the audio contingent in the Conrad Hilton (new headquarters for "high-end" audio) complained about the small size and the generally atrocious acoustics of their demonstration rooms. This reporter can certainly confirm both. I went into demo rooms where speakers I know to be of excellent quality sounded like screechy caricatures of their usual selves.
As a general observation, the Show was not a gloomy reflection of a recession, but neither was it an upbeat Show with a lot of buying activity.
There were no technological breakthroughs that might have stimulated the industry. Oh, yes-there is the promise and undoubted potential of digital audio. Some people thought a few maverick companies might jump the gun and make an unscheduled early foray into the digital lists, but such was not the case. There were indeed DAD (digital audio disc) player prototypes from most of the larger Japanese manufacturers. There even was a working demonstration of the Sony/ Philips DAD unit playing Phonogram (Decca, DGG and Philips) digital compact discs. On Sunday, June 6th, Sony gave a special briefing on the status of the DAD for some members of the audio press corps. They had on hand such luminaries as Mr. A. Suzuki, General Manager of the Consumer Digital Audio Project in Tokyo, several other audio department heads from Tokyo and Mr. Roland Martin, Senior VP of Sony of America. Although a bit disappointed in the briefing's limited scope, we were made privy to some interesting points about the DAD. For one thing, Sony and its licensees have all made successful DAD players in modest quantities. Sony/CBS in Japan is scheduled to set up DAD "cutting"(it is really a photo-etching process) and pressing plants by September of this year. Phonogram is said to be stockpiling DADs in its new plant in Hanover, Germany, drawing on the hundreds of digital tape masters in their Decca, DGG and Philips catalogs.
The official launch of the Sony/Philips DAD is September of this year in Japan. Sony stated there will be many models of the DAD players, plus software, at the Japan Audio Fair in October. European introduction will be roughly the same time, with the U.S. market to be opened early in 1983.
Although it would appear that Sony could market the DAD systems much sooner than the above schedule, they are acutely aware that the DAD system must work flawlessly from "Day one, Play one." Any form of the glitches which so plagued the laser videodiscs would be disastrous.
Sony revealed that the typical DAD players will retail for about $1,000 with the cost of the discs between $15 and $18-in other words, somewhat on the order of present audiophile discs. One must keep in mind that, with the DAD impervious to most scratches, dust, fingerprints and even gloppy soft drinks, and with the "no-wear" character of the no-contact laser playback, the discs can last forever.
The negative aspect of the Sony meeting was their admission that neither RCA, CBS, WEA nor any American record company had indicated it would set up DAD cutting and pressing facilities. With a depressed record industry, warehouses bulging with unsold analog discs, and a huge capital investment in conventional pressing facilities, the advent of the DAD is not arousing much record-company enthusiasm. I would also point out that the total number of digital tape masters thus far produced by American record companies is fairly limited.
Sony gave me a good demonstration of the DAD via their player reproduced through their Esprit components. Larry Poor, who heads up the Esprit program, played a Phonogram recording of the "Great Gate of Kiev" from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." The great climaxes came over very cleanly, with huge impact; in rests and quieter spots, not a trace of hiss was heard! However, one must note that the complete lack of noise on the DAD unmasks every detail and makes the excesses of multi-miking technique even more objectionable. Still, this is not a reflection on the technical excellence of the DAD system.
There was other digital activity at the SCES. Sony showed their PCM-F1, and Hitachi exhibited their digital audio recorder, priced at $3,500, while Sansui exhibited their TriCode PCM digital audio processor. The Sansui processor uses the standard EIAJ digital encoding of 14-bit linear quantization and 44.056k sampling rate. The TriCode has the unique feature of record and playback of digital tape at one-third normal VCR speed-the EP speed in the VHS format and Beta Three in the Betamax format-without deterioration of the signal. Signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range is quoted as 84 dB, with d.c. to 20-kHz frequency response and THD of less than 0.007%. Sansui pointed out that at one-third of normal VCR speed, the cost per minute of TriCode digital recording is less than that for metal-particle cassettes and that the price of the TriCode PCM would be "comparable" to some of the other PCM processors on the market.
A great deal of interest was shown in the new Technics SV-100 digital audio processor. This unit also uses the standard EIAJ digital encoding, and it can be used with VHS, Beta or any other videocassette format. It is about the same size as the Sony F1 but is a bit lighter, weighing about 8 lbs. with battery. One of the main reasons for the keen interest in this PCM unit is its anticipated price of approximately $1,000. It is said there will be production models at the WOES in January.
JVC again showed its PCM unit which uses metal-particle audio cassettes. Here we have a rather offbeat sampling rate of 33.6k, which gives bandwidth to 16 kHz, with a recording time of 60 minutes. There's no further word on production, yet. Optonica also showed an experimental PCM cassette recorder using metal-particle audio cassettes. This is a multiple scan system utilizing 18 tracks, a number of which are redundant, that is for error correction. No other details or indications of production of this digital recorder were available.
In the face of all this digital recording activity, the analog open-reel recorder might seem like a dying breed. However, there have been significant improvements in several models of open-reel recorders which make them newly attractive. For example, Tandberg has a new 10 1/2-inch reel unit that, with their Dyneq circuit and running at 15 ips, achieves a signal-to-noise ratio close to 78 dB at 0-VU. Revox has updated their B-77 recorder with more convenience features and with improved circuitry for wider frequency response, less distortion, and better S/N ratio. Teac and Akai also have a number of new open-reel models, some with EE tape capability.
While these units can't match the digital recorders in a number of areas, there is one facility the open-reel units have that is likely to keep them on the scene for quite a long while to come: The ability to easily edit via razor blade cut-and-splice technique. This is vitally important to many semi-pro and even amateur recordists. Present digital recorders using videocassettes cannot be edited at all or can be spliced only with great difficulty. The chances of a reasonably priced digital editor appearing on the market are quite remote at this time; pro editors cost around $40,000.
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(adapted from Audio magazine, Sept. 1982; Bert Whyte )
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