Timothy Stockman wrote:
> I think Pat's referring to post-CD digital formats such as SACD and
> DVD-A.  

Right, red book was invented before computers. At least it sure seems 
like that, they could have trivially added stuff to make it far better, 
but it was a major improvement when direct Digital Audio Extraction 
became possible.

> If I understand correctly, Sony mandated that no consumer SACD
> player would output an unencrypted digital signal.  And DVD-A defines a
> "down-sampled" unencrypted digital output.  All ways the industry
> attempts to keep the digital information locked up on the disc and give
> you access to only an analog output.

Of course, they failed. There was always the "analog loophole" where all 
you need is a six channel PCM audio card running at 88.2 or 96 kHz
to make "digital" copies that are indistingishable from the original. 
Assuming of course, that the SACD or DVD-A actually had something other 
than Red Book audio on them in the first place.

> The average consumer seems quite content to live with analog
> interconnection. 

Sadly the average consumer has no clue what audio quality is.

I think a more fundamental problem with multi-channel for audio 
(separate from movie soundracks) is that there is no standard mix, so 
even if you could get 5 audiophile speakers in the room (talk about zero 
WAF) you don't and can't know where to place them.

If I had been king of audio, I'd have said "the standard is two big 
front speakers, a subwoofer and two (or three) spacial ambience speaker.
The spacial speakers do not have to be full range.

-- 
Pat Farrell
http://www.pfarrell.com/

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