NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/audio/15454

Text File | 1992-11-20 | 2.6 KB | 52 lines

Newsgroups: rec.audio
Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!agate!doc.ic.ac.uk!rhbnc!andy
From: [e-mail]
Subject: MD recording quality
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: RHBNC
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 17:51:44 GMT
Lines: 42

Something that I haven't seen mentioned before in this group is the fact
that the quality of MiniDisc home and studio recording will inevitably
differ.  How audible the differences will be I don't know, but the
difference will certainly be there.

 The reason for this is that pre-recorded MDs will make use of a
professional format converter, which will perform real-time conversion into
ATRAC.  These, at $35K each, will probably never even be seen by people
outside the music industry.  The ATRAC converter to be found in consumer
products, especially the smaller personal units where the power consumption
of the ATRAC chipset is significant, will not be as sophisticated as that
found in the professional unit.

 So, what does this mean?  Well, take the case of someone who buys the
lastest album on CD for use in his home hi-fi, and then records it onto MD
so he can listen to it on the move, or in the car.  The MD copy will sound
inferior to the same album bought on MD, because the pre-recorded MD will
have had the conversion into ATRAC performed using the professional format
converter, whilst the home copy will have used the ATRAC encoder from the
portable MD player.

 The difference in the quality of encoders is made possible from the fact
that the ATRAC standard fixes the number of sub-bands into which the signal
is to be split, but specifically does not fix the accuracy with which
signals in each of the bands will be coded.

 Finally, it's possibly worth noting that while this difference does exist,
it won't matter much in practice.  MiniDisc is not meant to be a format for
home use, but rather one to extend the lifetime of the WalkMan beyond that
of the analogue cassette (whose sales are predicted to decline) and into the
digital era.  ATRAC with either encoding system isn't going to rival DCC,
let alone CD, but that's missing the point - MiniDisc's are immensely cute,
amazingly small and compact, and are a great improvement over analogue tape
in terms of sound quality, and over both analogue tape and DCC in terms of
access time and durability.

andy
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