Author Archives: Stephen Dawson

Denon bringing proper mutichannel SACD, and future DVI to these shores

Look forward to the introduction by Audio Products Australia of the Denon DVD-A11 everything* player this month. Recommended retail price: $3,999. I am drawing here on information about what I take to be the equivalent US model, the Denon DVD-5900. … Continue reading

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Did you know: MP3 is ‘Studio Quality’?

 Got a chuckle out of this ‘explanation’ of MP3 in the manual of an inexpensive Conia DVD player I’ve been reviewing. Talk about overstating the quality of MP3! Sure, at 128kb/s MP3 is quite indistinguishable from the CD source for … Continue reading

Posted in Audio, Codecs, Compression, Portable | Leave a comment

New article up – Killer CDs

A superficial reading of the specifications of a CD-ROM drive can generate a fearsome number. The now standard 52x read speed suggests a disc running at 24,000 rpm, with a linear velocity at its edge of over 150m/s (that is, … Continue reading

Posted in CD, How Things Work | Leave a comment

Calling Virginia!

The statistics on hifi-writer.com show that the highest volume of visitors, by region, come from North America (not surprisingly, closely followed by Oceania, which is where I am). And for the past couple of weeks the biggest number of visits … Continue reading

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My Denon DVD-2900 review on-line

The DVD User Group has come to arrangment with Sound and Image magazine to reproduce some of the magazine’s hardware reviews on-line. My review of the Denon DVD-2900 DVD player is now there (you need to become a member — … Continue reading

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Damping Factor – not as important as I thought

The damping factor of amplifiers is a measure that has fallen out of favour in recent years. Many brands don’t specify it any longer. I had long considered it an important specification, since a low damping factor can lead to … Continue reading

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Infrasonic squirms

Some experimental types have been working out the effect of infrasonic sound on people’s emotional states. The recipe: take a seven metre long pipe, stick a ‘long throw’ bass driver (woofer) therein a third of the way down, then drive … Continue reading

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The CRT projector lives

Yesterday I finished a review of the Barco Cine 7 LT projector, which should appear in a couple of weeks in the ‘Livewire’ section of The Age newspaper. I had thought that CRT projectors were big, heavy and expensive. The … Continue reading

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Australian radio and TV stations

If you want a list of all Australian radio or TV stations, including their frequencies and power outputs, these are available on the Australian Broadcasting Authority Website. In particular, for radio go here, and for TV go here.

Posted in DTV, Misc | Leave a comment

Keeping off the radio

Perhaps it was a mistake, but today I turned down doing a radio interview. Seems someone over in Western Australia had published an article on this most exciting topic: cleaning your hi fi. I had to ask for clarification from … Continue reading

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