Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!info-high-audio-request
From: jas@proteon.com (John A. Shriver)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Chesky's 128x oversampling
Message-ID: <13355@uwm.edu>
Date: 24 Jun 91 12:47:07 GMT
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Approved: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

I think the only thing "proprietary" about Chesky's 128X oversampling
is that they built their own A/D hardawre to do it.  They did this
over a year ago, before the DCS 900 was available.  Maybe a more
appropriate term would have been "exclusive", since at that time they
were producting the only CD's mastered through oversampling A/D's.
(I have no idea how many bits they are taking per sample.)

With the availability of the DCS 900 (and the Meridian 607), anyone in
the digital audio field can get the benefits of high-quality
oversampled A/D.  We can only hope that record producers will admit
that the present analog filtered non-oversampled A/D's are not audibly
perfect, and that they should replace them with this new generation
technology for future recordings.  (Unfortunately, the sad reality is
probably that half of them haven't even replaced their anti-aliasing
filters with the improved Apogee ones!  Moreover, most studios already
broke the bank going digital, and may well not have the bucks to
replace their Sony A/D's.  It's sad that mastering technology is so
far behind the reproducing technoliogy!)

The superiority of the DCS 900 is quite audible.  The Mercury CD's are
mastered with it, and I think everyone agrees that they are very close
in quality to the original LP's.  I have compared the Dvorak Cello
Concerto Mercury CD to an earlier (UK-only) Philips CD that was not
mastered through the DCS 900, and the differences are glaring.  (Both
CD's were mastered from the same 35mm mag-film master.)  

(As for that clipping, maybe someone should read that CD with the
CD-ROM player on their workstation and see if the data really is
clipped.)

{There are no blow-dried marketeers at Chesky.  Just the wild & crazy
Chesky brothers.  I can't comment on the sound of their CD's, but I
love their LP's!}