Timothy Stockman wrote:
> The CD, as originally developed by Philips and Sony, only has enough bits
> for 16-bit resolution, but Pacific Microsonics came up with a way to hide
> 4 more bits in the audio to allow 20-bit resolution. Problem is, very few
> CDs are recorded this way, so practically all discs are recorded at 16-bit
> resolution. Also, there are not very many CD players that have the Pacific
> Microsonics decoder, so most decks only extract 16-bit resolution.
>
> Many CD decks now output 20 or even 24 bits.
There are one or two more "Higher Definition" CD formats out there. One is kind of a
music DVD. Just what we need more competing formats. The first one I learned of is
HDCD
CDs. I own a DVD player that actually has an HDCD CD decoder in it. But I don't have
any
HDCD CDs.
So I can't tell you if there is a noticeable improvement in sound. There was a debate
here a while back where one person was claiming that the newer formats don't sound any
better than HDCD CDs and someone else argued that the latest format was much better
than
HDCD CDs.
No if only they could make a portable MD recorder that was capable of recording
standard
ATRAC and also MP3 files directly from a computer link, and still use plain ordinary
MDs.
Then MD might still have a shot.
I don't think that you have to be able to get 10 hours of music on a Mini Disc to make
it
worth it. MP3 files use less data space than ATRAC. So you could probably fit 2
hours or
so of music on an MD. At $1.50, considering the alternatives, that seems like a pretty
good deal to me.
BTW, I was just at my local Circuit City and didn't see one portable MD recorder or
player! They had a 15 pack of Fuji MDs for $30. I also saw some strange brand
(Classic??) of portable CD player that also played MP3 CDs and had 105 second buffer
for
$99.00!
The unit was kind of bulky (thick) and only had an analog line out. But with a player
like that, you would be using it to play 10 hours of MP3s in your car so you really
wouldn't need a digital output.
Larry
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