Category Archives: Audio

Magical speaker cables

Posted on September 13, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Numbers Watch, which should be on the required reading list of anyone interested in the statistics constantly flung out by the media, draws attention to ‘a speaker cable with an integrated battery’ that apparently costs ‘just over ten thousand dollars’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Cables, Mysticism | Leave a comment

AIX 8200: not quite a DVD-Audio test disc

Posted on September 8, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Well, I remain on my so-far fruitless search for a DVD Audio disc with useful audio test signals. I had my hopes up for the AIX 8200 Start Here disc, which I just bought today from Rockian Trading for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Testing | Leave a comment

Room deadening and CRT projectors

Posted on September 2, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Gary from Spectra Engineering in Western Australia writes: An idea for your reader Dave would be to add some acoustic deading material to his sound room. This would cut the reflections and make the Bass sound field more even throughout. … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Equipment, Video | Leave a comment

Room size and bass

Posted on August 27, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Dave from Cheltenham writes: I came across a comment on an audio website recently that said something to the effect that a small room or a large room will reduce bass response from speakers. I have a pair of Tannoy … Continue reading →

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Recording 96kHz, 24 bit PCM to DVD

Posted on August 24, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

I had this wonderful idea for an article, which I promptly put to the editor of Australian HI-FI and which he equally promptly accepted. The idea: Obviously recording LPs to CDs is old-hat. But now that DVD burners for computers are coming … Continue reading →

Posted in Analogue, Audio, DVD | Leave a comment

Dithering?

Posted on August 22, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Dithering has two meanings. The first is what I’ve been doing lately, although I have submitted my latest Institute of Public Affairs Reviewcolumn, plus a lengthy piece to Australian HI-FI on … dithering. In this latter context dither is noise added to … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, How Things Work | Leave a comment

Wow, what a find! Free audio analysis software

Posted on August 8, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

The poor freelance audio writer simply cannot afford to buy all the test gear he would like. Golly, even something as mundane as 250 watt 8 ohm resistors for testing power outputs cost around $AUS100 each … and this writer … Continue reading →

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Comparing the comparable: High Resolution audio vs the CD

Posted on August 8, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve just uploaded to my Home Entertainment pages my 1999 comparison of a Chesky recording. Comparing a recording with itself? Why? Well, one is on DVD in high resolution 96kHz, 24 bit PCM, while the other is merely a CD, 44.1kHz, … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, CD, DVD | Leave a comment

Copying files with DRM

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

The always interesting Gene Expression Blog has an interesting discussion on the futility of Digital Rights Management on music files.

Posted in Audio, Copyright | Leave a comment

S/PDIF Misconception

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

A couple of nights ago I installed CyberLink’s new PowerDVD 5 Deluxe. Good stuff — with some worthwhile improvements over version 4.0, particularly software DTS decoding (this was previously an optional extra). But I couldn’t work out this ’24/96 LPCM Direct Output’ … Continue reading →

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