A universal audio player is a machine that will play four distinct music-delivery formats: DVD-Video (which can be used for audio only), DVD-Audio, SACD, and compact disc. Each has its specific requirements -- some of which necessitate a unique set of hardware specifications -- that enable it to interface with your system. Although it has been heralded for quite a while now, and there have been sightings (much like the Loch Ness Monster up to this point), universal players are available now from several manufacturers, and in time for the Christmas buying season.
You can think of the universal audio player as, first and foremost, a DVD player. This will make its use comfortable for most consumers once they get used to a few additional connections and operational differences. The DVD-Video performance will be identical to what you’re used to with your DVD player. You’ll connect to your TV using composite, component, or S-video cables, which will allow the video portion of the signal to get to your monitor.
The universal audio player will have a digital output for the audio signal that will interface with the digital input on a receiver or A/V processor (or digital-to-analog converter for pure two-channel audio). This digital output will send a signal encoded with Dolby Digital or DTS surround sound for your external decoder to unravel. There will also be two-channel analog outputs for conventional stereo playback, if you choose to use it that way. All this is standard operating procedure for DVD, and is carried over to universal audio players. But there’s more.
The differences come in when playing back multichannel DVD-Audio and SACD. With a few exceptions (which will be explained below), these formats interface with the outside world via a set of six-channel analog outputs. These six cables (usually RCA types) carry the full 5.1 signal -- front left and right, center, left and right surround, and subwoofer (or LFE, for low-frequency effects). They must have a corresponding six-channel input, which can be found on most modern receivers, A/V processors, and purpose-built multichannel preamps. The six-channel analog outputs will carry DVD-Audio, SACD, and an internally decoded Dolby Digital or DTS signal.
Note on the Dolby Digital and DTS signal via the six-channel outputs: Most older DVD players relied exclusively on external decoders for this function, but universal audio players have internal decoding. This internal processing can be utilized via the six-channel outputs, which will take the place of the digital connection to external decoders such as a receiver. It’s your choice which to use. Since I use a multichannel preamp (without its own decoding), I use my source player’s internal decoding exclusively. If you’re using six-channel outputs, it is redundant to use the digital connection too, unless there are specific processing features in your receiver or AV processor not present in the universal audio player that you wish to use.
Choices, choices
Below is a listing of currently available universal audio players. You’ll have to check with your local dealer, but at the time of this writing, these were readily available (or will be very soon) in most markets.
Pioneer should be credited for blazing the trail for universal audio players. Though their first player, the DV-AX10 ($5000, when available), did not play back multichannel SACD (instead, SACD via this machine was two-channel only), it was compatible with all the formats listed above. More importantly, it was almost two years ahead of its time. Pioneer’s current offerings are the DV-47Ai ($1200) and DV-45A ($700). Both players offer a full suite of features, including 192kHz/24-bit audio DACs, PureCinema progressive-scan video, and full bass management. The DV-47Ai adds a proprietary digital output (for SACD and DVD-A) for use with Pioneer’s upscale receivers. It should be noted that the "i-link" will not currently interface with other manufacturers’ gear.
Onkyo has in its stable the DV-SP800 ($1000). Features include 192kHz/24-bit audio DACs and the company’s proprietary Vector Linear Shaping Circuitry (VLSC), which was included "to remove unwanted pulse noise for a smoother analog output signal." The DV-SP800 is Onkyo’s top-of-the-line DVD-Video player as well, evidenced by 108MHz/12-bit video D/A converters.
On the upper end of the price scale for the players included in this list is the Marantz DV8300 ($1600). The host of performance-enhancing features includes Cirrus Logic 192kHz/24-bit digital-to-analog conversion, Marantz's proprietary HDAM (High-Definition Amplifier Module) output stages, as well as "a separate power transformer for the audio circuit, and a zero-impedance copper grounding plate for the analog multichannel output." Marantz specifies the DV8300 with "full bass management for DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, and SACD discs."
Although scant little information is available on the Teac/Esoteric DV-50 at this time, it is undoubtedly the most ambitious of the universal audio players currently available. Built like the proverbial tank in the best Esoteric tradition, the DV-50 includes user-selectable digital filters and a chassis designed to provide shock-resistant playback of all the currently available audio formats. As can be garnered from the DV-50's $5500 price -- and evidenced by its almost 50-pound net weight -- it is a serious machine. 200212_yamaha.jpg (11611 bytes)Look for a review here in 2003.
The Yamaha DVD-S2300 ($1000) sports a host of audio/video goodies such as Faroudja’s DCDi video processing (the only universal audio player with such capability) and full bass management. The player’s hefty build quality, especially for the price, has garnered the player a ton of pre-production Internet buzz. The gold finish in the picture may or may not be available in North America; write Yamaha and tell them you want it!
200212_integra.jpg (8237 bytes)Integra has come to the party with the THX Ultra Certified DPS-8.3. Equipped with 192kHz/24-bit audio DACs and built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoding, the Integra has some features designed purely to augment audio performance. For example, critical signals are routed through heavy-gauge cables (as opposed to circuit boards, which are prone to noise pickup according to Integra). The DPA-8.3 retails for $1200, and it's another player you'll see reviewed on SoundStage! in 2003.
There are several more players from various manufacturers that I am unclear about in terms of availability and/or actual production. The Apex Digital AD-7701 was a second-generation machine. There’s been a promised replacement, but I have not seen one. Luxman was reportedly producing two players as well, but I have not turned up any availability in North America. I expect more players to crop up at next year’s CES, and of course the SoundStage! Network will report on all of them.
Universal audio players are an exciting development for those looking to be surrounded by all the currently available multichannel-music formats. But please check with each manufacturer to ensure that a particular player’s bass-management functions will satisfy your system’s needs. If not, you can use the Outlaw Audio ICBM to compensate for any deficiencies.
http://www.soundstage.com/surrounded/surrounded200212.htm
Monday, May 28, 2007
Put the Compact Disc Out of Its Misery
This spring, the compact disc celebrates the 20th anniversary of its arrival in stores, which puts the once-revolutionary music format two decades behind Moore's Law. The IBM PC, introduced about a year and a half earlier, has been revved up a thousandfold in performance since 1983. But the CD has whiled away the time, coasting on its Reagan-era breakthroughs in digital recording and storage. The two technologies, the PC and the CD, merged not long after their debuts—try to buy a computer without a disc player. But the relationship has become a dysfunctional one. The computer long ago outgrew its stagnant partner.
To the new generation of music artists and engineers, "CD-quality sound" is an ironic joke. In recording studios, today's musicians produce their works digitally at resolutions far beyond the grainy old CD standard. To make the sounds listenable on antiquarian CD players, the final mix is retrofitted to compact disc specs by stripping it of billions of bits' worth of musical detail and dynamics. It's like filming a movie in IMAX and then broadcasting it only to black-and-white TV sets.
It doesn't have to be this way. The modern recording studio is built around computers, Macs or PCs. Beefed up with high-performance analog-to-digital converters and super-sized disk drives, they digitize music up to 192,000 times per second, storing it as 24-bit data samples. That "192/24" standard captures more than a thousand times as much detail as the CD's "44.1/16" resolution. Moreover, this music data is just another computer file, an icon on a desktop. Double-click it, and it plays. It would play on your home computer, too, if you could get your hands on it. All you would need to enjoy studio-quality sound at home are high-end speakers or an amplifier with digital connections to your computer. That's the "digital hub" scenario touted by Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and others. Plug everything into a home network, load up the computer with tunes, and press play from anywhere in the house. A three-minute pop song in 192/24 format fills about 200 megabytes of hard-disk space, which means Dell's latest 200-gigabyte drive could hold nearly a thousand of them.
But instead of gearing up for digital home hubs, record companies have rolled out two more shiny-disc formats: DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD. Both sound great, but you're forgiven if you haven't heard of them. Following the radical makeover of consumer electronics in the past two decades, these discs have wandered in like Rip Van Winkle, unaware how behind the times they are.
In sound quality, at least, each disc brings the listening experience up to modern standards. DVD-A, developed by an audio industry working group, pumps up the old CD format 500 to 1,000 times in data density to match that now used in studios. SACD, on the other hand, is based on a new form of digital recording developed by Sony and Philips that converts sound waves into bits (and back again) more smoothly. Both bring studio data to the listener, bit for bit, and include extra surround-sound channels for home-theater systems. Properly engineered, their improvement over CD sound is striking. Can the average person hear the difference? Instantly. As Fred Kaplan noted this past summer in Slate, it's enough to make you buy new speakers.
Yet both kinds of discs, despite being developed in the 'Net-head late '90s, are odd throwbacks to the pre-PC era. Most obviously, they're the same size as the original CD. Can you name any other digital device that hasn't shrunk in 20 years? The players for them are bulky, closer in size to Sony's first CD decks than to Apple's iPod, which holds 400 albums rather than just one.
Flip one of the players over, and you'll find another retro sight: analog output jacks. To prevent buyers from running off bit-for-bit copies of the new discs, gear-makers have agreed not to put digital ports on either DVD-A or SACD players. Yet old-fashioned analog connections erode pristine digital sound and are prone to interference from televisions, lights, and computers—the objects they'll be placed next to in modern homes.
The real deal-breaker is that a stand-alone player is the only kind available. By manufacturers' consensus, there won't be any network ports on the players, nor will there be any DVD-A or SACD drives available for computers. Some makers are promising a digital link from the player to a home-theater console, but it'll be deliberately incompatible with any of the jacks on a computer. In bringing the CD up to date with the PC, the music industry is also trying to split the two technologies asunder again.
It's no wonder that gearheads who buy the latest, greatest everything have ignored DVD-A and SACD in favor of MP3 players and CD burners. Computer-friendly music formats let you archive hundreds of albums on a laptop, create custom playlists that draw from your entire collection, and download them to portable players smaller than a single CD jewel box. Today's fans want their music in a form that fits the pocket-sized, personalized, interconnected world of their computers, cameras, phones, and PDAs. Asking digital consumers to give that power back in exchange for a better-sounding disc is like offering them a phonograph needle.
Paul Boutin is Wired's managing editor for blogs.
http://slate.msn.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2076336
To the new generation of music artists and engineers, "CD-quality sound" is an ironic joke. In recording studios, today's musicians produce their works digitally at resolutions far beyond the grainy old CD standard. To make the sounds listenable on antiquarian CD players, the final mix is retrofitted to compact disc specs by stripping it of billions of bits' worth of musical detail and dynamics. It's like filming a movie in IMAX and then broadcasting it only to black-and-white TV sets.
It doesn't have to be this way. The modern recording studio is built around computers, Macs or PCs. Beefed up with high-performance analog-to-digital converters and super-sized disk drives, they digitize music up to 192,000 times per second, storing it as 24-bit data samples. That "192/24" standard captures more than a thousand times as much detail as the CD's "44.1/16" resolution. Moreover, this music data is just another computer file, an icon on a desktop. Double-click it, and it plays. It would play on your home computer, too, if you could get your hands on it. All you would need to enjoy studio-quality sound at home are high-end speakers or an amplifier with digital connections to your computer. That's the "digital hub" scenario touted by Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and others. Plug everything into a home network, load up the computer with tunes, and press play from anywhere in the house. A three-minute pop song in 192/24 format fills about 200 megabytes of hard-disk space, which means Dell's latest 200-gigabyte drive could hold nearly a thousand of them.
But instead of gearing up for digital home hubs, record companies have rolled out two more shiny-disc formats: DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD. Both sound great, but you're forgiven if you haven't heard of them. Following the radical makeover of consumer electronics in the past two decades, these discs have wandered in like Rip Van Winkle, unaware how behind the times they are.
In sound quality, at least, each disc brings the listening experience up to modern standards. DVD-A, developed by an audio industry working group, pumps up the old CD format 500 to 1,000 times in data density to match that now used in studios. SACD, on the other hand, is based on a new form of digital recording developed by Sony and Philips that converts sound waves into bits (and back again) more smoothly. Both bring studio data to the listener, bit for bit, and include extra surround-sound channels for home-theater systems. Properly engineered, their improvement over CD sound is striking. Can the average person hear the difference? Instantly. As Fred Kaplan noted this past summer in Slate, it's enough to make you buy new speakers.
Yet both kinds of discs, despite being developed in the 'Net-head late '90s, are odd throwbacks to the pre-PC era. Most obviously, they're the same size as the original CD. Can you name any other digital device that hasn't shrunk in 20 years? The players for them are bulky, closer in size to Sony's first CD decks than to Apple's iPod, which holds 400 albums rather than just one.
Flip one of the players over, and you'll find another retro sight: analog output jacks. To prevent buyers from running off bit-for-bit copies of the new discs, gear-makers have agreed not to put digital ports on either DVD-A or SACD players. Yet old-fashioned analog connections erode pristine digital sound and are prone to interference from televisions, lights, and computers—the objects they'll be placed next to in modern homes.
The real deal-breaker is that a stand-alone player is the only kind available. By manufacturers' consensus, there won't be any network ports on the players, nor will there be any DVD-A or SACD drives available for computers. Some makers are promising a digital link from the player to a home-theater console, but it'll be deliberately incompatible with any of the jacks on a computer. In bringing the CD up to date with the PC, the music industry is also trying to split the two technologies asunder again.
It's no wonder that gearheads who buy the latest, greatest everything have ignored DVD-A and SACD in favor of MP3 players and CD burners. Computer-friendly music formats let you archive hundreds of albums on a laptop, create custom playlists that draw from your entire collection, and download them to portable players smaller than a single CD jewel box. Today's fans want their music in a form that fits the pocket-sized, personalized, interconnected world of their computers, cameras, phones, and PDAs. Asking digital consumers to give that power back in exchange for a better-sounding disc is like offering them a phonograph needle.
Paul Boutin is Wired's managing editor for blogs.
http://slate.msn.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2076336
How to Transform a CD-ROM Drive into a Car CD Player
To be used as CD player, the CD-ROM drive doesn't need to be connected to the computer. This way, it is possible to easily transform a CD-ROM drive into a Car CD player. Sounds crazy? Not so. With this tutorial you will be able to have a CD player in your car without spending almost anything.
The CD-ROM drive to be use may be of any type, from the first models ("1x") until the most modern ones ("60x"). The only prerequisite is that the drive needs to have is an earphone plug and volume control. And practically all CD-ROM drives have that.
There are two great advantages in transforming a CD-ROM drive into a Car CD player. First, who will want to break your car window to take CD-ROM drive? And, secondly, since any type of CD-ROM drive can be used, you may take an old drive that is just dusting away in your house (for instance, a 2x drive from an old 386 computer), which brings the cost down to almost nothing.
To install a CD-ROM drive in the car, you will need a female power plug, to be used to fit into CD-ROM drive power plug (that plug can be cut from an old power supply) and a voltage regulating integrated circuit called 7805, that may be easily found at electronic parts stores. You will also have to buy a heat dissipator for the 7805 (sold at the same store).
The car battery is a 12 V one, but the CD-ROM drive needs two voltages to work: 12 V and 5 V. The 7805 circuit is able to convert a 12 V voltage into 5 V (its pin 1 is for the input, its pin 2 is the grounding, and its pin 3 is the 5 V exit). Figure 1 shows the plan for the connection. The grounding pin should be connected to the wires of the plug grounding and the negative pole of the car battery, what is done by simply connecting that pin to the metallic body of the car.
All you have to do is to make the connections shown in the above schematics (don't forget to isolate all connections with insulating tape) and you are set: you will have a CD-ROM drive working as CD player in your car.
The audio output will be made using the earphone plug. To listen to a CD, you will have to use earphones. To have the sound come through the speakers of the car, you will have to buy an amplifier with RCA inputs and a stereo P2 (mini jack) x stereo RCA cable (the same type of cable used to connect Discman units to amplifiers). The stereo P2 plug (also known as mini jack), which is the one used for the earphones, should be fit at the earphone output of the CD-ROM drive, while the RCA plugs should be fit at the input of the amplifier. The volume control will be made using the volume control in the CD-ROM drive.
A last warning: in most CD-ROM drives, the reproduction button (play) and the advance button (skip) are on the same key. In other words, to skip a track, all you have to do is to press the play button.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the CD-ROM drive in use as a car CD player reproduce MP3 files?
No. If not connected to a computer, the CD-ROM drive will only work to play audio CDs. Music CDs in the MP3 format are recorded in the CD-ROM format. To read it, the unit forcibly needs to be connected to a computer. MP3 songs are not played by the CD-ROM drive, but rather by the sound card of the computer, and the machine processor is responsible for transforming the MP3 format into an audio format. Car CD players that play MP3 have a dedicated processor capable of reading the CD-ROM format and of converting MP3 files into audio ones. Since the common CD-ROM drive doesn't have such processor, it can not play MP3 files.
Can the same adaptation be made so CDs may be played in a domestic sound system?
Yes. To do so, the sound system must have an auxiliary input channel. However, to prevent the sound from getting distorted, you will have to use the audio output at the back of the CD-ROM drive and nor the earphone output, as mentioned last week. To do this, you will have to take the audio output cable from the CD-ROM drive and solder two RCA plugs - a black or white one (left channel) and a red or yellow one (right channel) – at the end that should be connected to the sound card of the computer. If you don't know how to do that, contact an electronics technician. To feed the CD-ROM drive you may use a power source from an old PC. One important detail: AT power sources have an on-off switch, but the ATX ones don't. If you will use an ATX power source, you will have to make a pin-14 connection (green wire), from the main plug of the source to any black wire to turn it on.
Won't the CD oscillate too much?
That will depend on the unit used (its manufacturer and model). Of course you cannot expect a CD-ROM drive to have the same stability of a car CD player. Remember that our tip is to assemble a car CD player spending nothing (or almost nothing). If you used our tip it is because you are possibly not willing to buy a car CD player.
Why should the connection between the CD-ROM unit and the amplifier be made using the ear phone output and not the one at the back of the unit?
That is because car amplifiers don't usually have volume control. If you use the output at the back of the CD-ROM drive – which doesn't have volume control either – the sound from the amplifier will always be at its loudest. We believe that this is not convenient. If you should use the output at the back of the CD-ROM drive only if you are to connect it to a pre-amplifier, equalizer, mixer, or home sound system, since they have volume control.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/71/2
The CD-ROM drive to be use may be of any type, from the first models ("1x") until the most modern ones ("60x"). The only prerequisite is that the drive needs to have is an earphone plug and volume control. And practically all CD-ROM drives have that.
There are two great advantages in transforming a CD-ROM drive into a Car CD player. First, who will want to break your car window to take CD-ROM drive? And, secondly, since any type of CD-ROM drive can be used, you may take an old drive that is just dusting away in your house (for instance, a 2x drive from an old 386 computer), which brings the cost down to almost nothing.
To install a CD-ROM drive in the car, you will need a female power plug, to be used to fit into CD-ROM drive power plug (that plug can be cut from an old power supply) and a voltage regulating integrated circuit called 7805, that may be easily found at electronic parts stores. You will also have to buy a heat dissipator for the 7805 (sold at the same store).
The car battery is a 12 V one, but the CD-ROM drive needs two voltages to work: 12 V and 5 V. The 7805 circuit is able to convert a 12 V voltage into 5 V (its pin 1 is for the input, its pin 2 is the grounding, and its pin 3 is the 5 V exit). Figure 1 shows the plan for the connection. The grounding pin should be connected to the wires of the plug grounding and the negative pole of the car battery, what is done by simply connecting that pin to the metallic body of the car.
All you have to do is to make the connections shown in the above schematics (don't forget to isolate all connections with insulating tape) and you are set: you will have a CD-ROM drive working as CD player in your car.
The audio output will be made using the earphone plug. To listen to a CD, you will have to use earphones. To have the sound come through the speakers of the car, you will have to buy an amplifier with RCA inputs and a stereo P2 (mini jack) x stereo RCA cable (the same type of cable used to connect Discman units to amplifiers). The stereo P2 plug (also known as mini jack), which is the one used for the earphones, should be fit at the earphone output of the CD-ROM drive, while the RCA plugs should be fit at the input of the amplifier. The volume control will be made using the volume control in the CD-ROM drive.
A last warning: in most CD-ROM drives, the reproduction button (play) and the advance button (skip) are on the same key. In other words, to skip a track, all you have to do is to press the play button.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the CD-ROM drive in use as a car CD player reproduce MP3 files?
No. If not connected to a computer, the CD-ROM drive will only work to play audio CDs. Music CDs in the MP3 format are recorded in the CD-ROM format. To read it, the unit forcibly needs to be connected to a computer. MP3 songs are not played by the CD-ROM drive, but rather by the sound card of the computer, and the machine processor is responsible for transforming the MP3 format into an audio format. Car CD players that play MP3 have a dedicated processor capable of reading the CD-ROM format and of converting MP3 files into audio ones. Since the common CD-ROM drive doesn't have such processor, it can not play MP3 files.
Can the same adaptation be made so CDs may be played in a domestic sound system?
Yes. To do so, the sound system must have an auxiliary input channel. However, to prevent the sound from getting distorted, you will have to use the audio output at the back of the CD-ROM drive and nor the earphone output, as mentioned last week. To do this, you will have to take the audio output cable from the CD-ROM drive and solder two RCA plugs - a black or white one (left channel) and a red or yellow one (right channel) – at the end that should be connected to the sound card of the computer. If you don't know how to do that, contact an electronics technician. To feed the CD-ROM drive you may use a power source from an old PC. One important detail: AT power sources have an on-off switch, but the ATX ones don't. If you will use an ATX power source, you will have to make a pin-14 connection (green wire), from the main plug of the source to any black wire to turn it on.
Won't the CD oscillate too much?
That will depend on the unit used (its manufacturer and model). Of course you cannot expect a CD-ROM drive to have the same stability of a car CD player. Remember that our tip is to assemble a car CD player spending nothing (or almost nothing). If you used our tip it is because you are possibly not willing to buy a car CD player.
Why should the connection between the CD-ROM unit and the amplifier be made using the ear phone output and not the one at the back of the unit?
That is because car amplifiers don't usually have volume control. If you use the output at the back of the CD-ROM drive – which doesn't have volume control either – the sound from the amplifier will always be at its loudest. We believe that this is not convenient. If you should use the output at the back of the CD-ROM drive only if you are to connect it to a pre-amplifier, equalizer, mixer, or home sound system, since they have volume control.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/71/2
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