Conference hips::uk_audioo

477.0. " DCC and MD "DOA," long live DAT? " by SUBURB::POWELLM (Nostalgia isn't what it used to be!) Tue May 17 1994 13:20

            Copied from Studio Sound April 1994 issue - the Martin Polon
    column  - without permission.
    
            FUTURE FORMATS: THE REAL COST OF ILL-CONCEIVED MARKETING.
    
            For many reasons the recording Studio today, while not exactly
    an endangered species, is not the financially stable proposition it
    once was.    Let's face it, the consumer audio business is functional
    but the relatively steady-state status of the record industry is not
    creating prodigious numbers of studio sessions prepping or recording
    new groups.  And one of the worst moves made by the world record
    industry - in conjunction with the shakers and movers who populate
    the world's consumer audio manufacturers - has been to entertain the
    battle between the MiniDisc (MD) and the Digital Compact Cassette
    (DCC) formats.
    
            The problem is, it is difficult to calculate whose death could
    really be occasioned by a clash between two formats destined to be DOA
    (Dead On Arrival) - if the current level of interest prevails.
    Unintentionally and only by inadvertent error, the public have received
    a faint message from the 'sell' campaign for the two formats that maybe
    the Compact Disc itself is somehow flawed and on its way out.  And the
    record companies carry some of the blame for secretly hoping that one
    or both of the new formats would replace DAT and-or bring about
    the'still birth' of Recordable Compact Disc and subsequently end their
    home copying 'paranoia' forever - since neither the DCC or MD formats
    deliver anything close to sonic perfection.
    
            In a recent survey of advertising lineage in newspapers and
    editorial comment from July 1993 to early 1994, less than 1% of the
    space devoted to audio electronics was dedicated to MD and DCC.  In
    fact, the survey team considered the MD-DCC numbers to be
    'statistically not important.'
    
            Of the editorial material in the 'general' press as opposed
    to the specialist audio press, the same survey in the same period
    indicated that positive comments about either system were far less
    than expected - averaging less that 50% of the total.  Even within
    the consumer audio press, negative commentary focused on high price
    tags, high blank media costs, psychoacoustic encoding and bit-rate
    reduction techniques, and the paucity of prerecorded titles both in
    terms of numbers and of titles focused on the more mature buyers
    who could afford the formats' prices.
    
            Many record stores that had devoted prime retail space to
    MD and DCC upon release. have since rethought their posture and
    either removed these products to a less important location in the
    store - thus freeing the space for the fast moving CD and
    Cassette titles or else reduced the size of the stock or removed
    DCC and MD altogether.
    
            The same audio industry 'experts' who heralded the inception
    of MD or DCC last year are now announcing that DAT is DOA in the
    consumer electronics audio marketplace of the 1990s.  At the January
    1994 Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES), several well-known
    'experts and spokespersons' for major audio equipment manufacturers
    delivered sombre pronouncements as to the passing of the DAT format
    for home recording.  Curiously, these same manufacturers avoid
    reporting what retailers still acknowledge - that is that DAT sales
    are still 'respectable' in the advanced audiophile marketplace.
    In fact, some US stores specialing in DAT have moved their
    clientele up to so-called broadcast and recording-studio-quality
    DATs at twice the price of consumer gear.
    
            The superior characteristics of DAT still attracts those
    enthusiasts that the record companies insist do not exist: the
    'original recordist.'
    
            The same pronouncements as to the demise of DAT suggest that
    CD/R will be delivered 'still-born' to the consumer marketplace and
    that even the CD is 'dead' for the car market.  The assumption
    offered at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago is that since
    the'new' MD players utilise a 4-disc 'clip' that allows CD Changer-like
    performance, there is no need for the larger and bulkier trunk-mount
    CD Changer for in-car use.  As to the inability of CD/R to survive
    introduction to the consumer market, there is less clear prognosis
    from audio the current $3,000 price floor, anything is possible in
    this 'best of all possible worlds'.
    
            Dolby S cassette decks, especially the multi motor, multiple
    head models upsteam from more conventional implementations, are
    beginning to gather momentum and could challenge any new digital
    format introduced.  This is especially true in terms of the
    compatibility with the public's trusted Philips' analogue-cassette
    format and because of the high quality of the recorded sound.  Those
    of us in the pro-audio business must not forget that the number of
    record releases utilising Dolby SR, the professional progenitor of
    Dolby S, has equalled or outnumbered those done in the digital domain
    for four of the last five years worldwide.
    
            Those promoting the 'information superhighway' have announced
    that any and all of these formats are obsolete anyway since the direct
    digital delivery of audio on 20 or so digital channels will replace
    buying music on prerecorded formats.  Apparently, music copyright
    holders believe these pronouncements since they have gone back to
    US Congress for a new royalty package designed to deal with
    audio'infomania' amongst other things.
    
            In a recent US study of audio hardware sales to focus on the
    success or failure of MiniDisc and-or DCC turned up some interesting
    numbers.  For example, at one of the top consumer audio equipment
    retailers in a major East Coast city, there have been 12 Minidisc
    units with recording features sold during the last six months.  On
    the other hand, there are 24 DAT machines on back order, with nearly
    50 DAT machines already sold during the same time period.
    
            One factor ostensibly invisible to most in the world's audio
    industry is that the traditional connection between Japanese
    development of new audio products for the Nippon domestic market and
    its enthusiastic and affluent audiophiles has been more or less broken.
    So has the traditional product release and development cycles of
    'year one in Japan with debut at the Tokyo Hi-fi Show, year two in
    England and Europe with introduction at Festival Du Son and the
    London Hi-fi Show and year three in the United States with release at
    the Winter or Summer CES.
    
            Another factor that influences the development of new audio
    products in Japan is the recessive state of the Japanese economy,
    and the impact that has had on the well-paid audiophiles who used to
    be the number one target of Japan's audio equipment makers.  Aside
    from the issues raised above, as Japan's audio makers have 'gone
    global' in their outlook, fear of loss of employment has refocused
    Japan's 'salary men' from their hobbies to the more prosaic issues
    of economic survival.  With this change, Japanese equipment makers
    trying to contend with their economic retrenchment, have less lassitude
    in new product introduction.
    
            Make no mistake about it, each of the Japanese equipment
    manufacturers will survive financially with whatever product line it
    takes to do so.  Whether it is CD/R, DAT, DCC, Dolby S, MD or some
    other newer format, the big equipment-makers will commit to a winner
    and have, in fact, already 'hedged' most, if not all, of their 'bets'
    on the one system or the other.
    
            A savvy US record-store owner offered her opinion recently:
    'one factor that is being completely overlooked is the reaction by
    women to both these new formats.  Contrary to popular male belief,
    women do not just spend their lives buying recordings but .... the
    women have absolutely no interest in MiniDisc and virtually no
    interest in DCC.  Despite the presence of nearly 300 titles for MD,
    they are all pointed towards a male youth market.  What the
    marketeers forget, is that young women have and keep more money than
    the young men by a long shot.  And with few of the 300 titles pointed
    towards to over 30s, no-one with any affluence has any reason to
    consider the format .... since none of the content is pointed in
    their direction!  Yet the hardware is all priced well beyond
    the affordability of the young males targeted by the content.'
    
            We end where we began: the adoption of a reliable single
    standard for any product area will make adequate profitability for
    all concerned.  The best example of this are the Philip's analogue
    audio cassette and the Sony 3.5-inch diskette.  Both have become
    universal standards.  Not to mention that a new standard digital
    audio format for portable recording and playback would give the
    entire music industry from recording studio to record store a major
    league shot-in-the-arm - even if it should turn out to be Minidisc,
    with PASC encoding.
                                                                           
    
    
    	Verbatim except for typo's
    
    	I hope this is of interest to someone.
    
    				Malcolm.

    Thanks Malcolm, it was of interest to me.

Why not standardize on a 96kHz DAT and get decent sound quality (and not
throw away information !!)

DjF

    Gidday folks, 
    
    Has anybody reviewed/know about the Pioneer DAT machine that works at
    96khz sampling?
    
    Also, has anybody got any pointers to microphones: reviews/ for sale
    etc, I am looking at cardiods for live small jazz/ chamber
    concert/performances.
    
    Also looking for a high speed Revox B77...........anyone know of one
    around?
    
    many thanks fjeff

    
    	Whaja wanna high speed Revox for den?
    
    	Do you mean 15/30 IPS?  Do you mean IEC or NAB Eq machine?
    
    	I have a virtually brand new Revox 7.5/15 IPS IEC machine, but what
    are you thinking?
    
    				Malcolm. (830-2864 or Malcolm Powell @REO)

    Yup, 
    
    Your machine is the one Iam looking for....not sure about the NAB or
    IEC eq yet....I'll have to enquire in NZ as a collegue is about to buy
    one as well...so we have to decide which machine type to buy.
    
    cheers fjeff
    
    DTN 865 3922

    <<< Note 477.6 by UFHIS::JMASLEN "The wheels fallen off your day yet?!" >>>
                          -< Revox Reels are a dying breed. >-
                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    
    	Have to take issue with that bit Jeff,  Revox are still selling the
    jolly old B77 MkII AND the PR99 open reel jobbies.  They will go on
    doing so until you can "cut and splice" on DAT without a digital editor
    too, I reckon!
    
    				Malcolm.

    I've recently bought a Marantz DD-82 DCC player and am VERY pleased with it.
    
    It was in What-Hifi's 1993 awards as best tape deck for �500-750, and
    was orignally sold for �650.
    
    I got it from a mail order firm in the back of What-Hifi for �180.
    Richer Sounds will be selling them for 199.95
    
    If anything, making digital recordings of CDs sounds better than my CD
    player. This is beacuse my CD player is a 6 year old multibit, whereas
    the DCC player has the latest bitstream DACs, giving much grater
    clarity. The improvement is such that I now use the monitor button on
    the DCC deck to take the digital output from the CD player and use the
    bitstream DACs to listen to my CD collection.   
    
    Apart from spot-on recordings, the feature of a DAC upgrade is an
    unexpected bonus.
    
    Huw.   
    
     

    
    How much are tapes?  How do they compare with DAT/Mini-Disc prices?
    
    Ta,
    Richard.

Huw,

What digital inputs does it have?  The little fiber optic TOSlink or a  
coaxial phono?

Cheers,
Rob.

    >> How much are tapes?
    
    Blank tapes are �~4 mail order, or about �5-6 in the high street.  
    minidiscs seem to be �~7 mail order.
    
    >> What digital inputs does it have? The little fiber optic TOSlink or
    >> a coaxial phono?
    
    Both.
    
    In all it has 3 Inputs: Analogue phono, digital coaxial phono & fiber optic
    
    It has 4 outputs: Analogue phono (fixed), variable level analogue phono,
    		      digital coaxial phono & fiber optic.
    
    Huw.
    
    PS. it also has Dolby B&C for analogue tape playback.

Although I am unable to describe the exact operations, I have read that you
could make regular tapes DCC compatible by boring a hole in the cassette.
Where and how big? I can't tell you but I am sure of the possibility.

    >>make regular tapes DCC compatible by boring a hole in the cassette
    
    Well, I had a go at this the other night. It works, sort of......
    
    It requires three holes in the cassette case. They are about 3mm
    diameter, and about 2 mm deep, they can be 'blind'. i.e you need not
    bore right through the cassette shell. Best thing I found was a Vero
    board track cutter which makes holes about 3.5 mm. I assumed that the 
    position of the 3 holes told it 1) DCC 2) Writeable/no-protect 3) D90
    
    The player was conned into thinking they were DCC tapes. I tried six
    tape types in all, the best being a MAXELL XLII (Cr02), this would play 
    but would skip and drop out, a bit like a dirty CD player. Some tapes
    eg. TDK MA would play back with complete silence.
    
    I guess that the DCC's equalisation bias and tape particle hysteresis 
    characteristics are not matched by analogue tapes. I guess I'll stick
    to proper DCC tapes at four quid fifty a throw.
    
    Huw.