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From: cline@aero.ARPA (Ken Cline)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: low fidelity CD player?
Message-ID: <470@aero.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 24-Sep-85 21:40:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: aero.470
Posted: Tue Sep 24 21:40:43 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Sep-85 05:56:50 EDT
Reply-To: cline@aero.UUCP (Ken Cline)
Distribution: net
Organization: The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA
Lines: 72
Keywords: No Baloney, Alien Death Ray, Some CD Players are More Perfect than others
Summary: Compact Disc Player Terrorizes El Segundo

My friend's portable Sony Compact Disk player has some 'interesting'
properties that may or may not be typical for the device.  I would like to
hear to hear evidence to the contrary, but in the absence of such, I suggest
my tale be read as a warning, especially to the silver eared out there
(*everyone* knows that silver sounds better than gold, despite its need for
periodic cleaning).

.Here's what happened...
.
.The scene:
.
.The Guest arrives for an exciting afternoon of automobile maintenance and
.darts.  Before any alcohol has been consumed, he voices his need to purchase
.a new cd player with his newest plastic card.  Analog, and proud of it, I
.yawn, but by the time I open my eyes the Roommate has produced a portable
.Sony CD player. The Guest exclaims "this is a showdown."  Fearing not, I
.warm up my DC to light pre-amplifiers, check the power cords to my
.electrostatic speakers (for kinks which might impair their almost faultless
.sonic reproduction), and rev up the turntable.  The flimsy stereo micro jack
.interconnects from the portable are plugged into the "tape" inputs of the
.pre-amplifier. I laugh with glee at the thought of these puny magnet wires
.competing with my teflon insulated superpure audio cables.  Then, the Guest
.inserts a recording of Symphony Phantastique, foreshadowing the evil about
.to escape. The play button is carefully depressed, and the volume controls
.are adjusted.  We huddle in the sweet spot and listen...
.
.The result:
.
.   Almost instantly, I find myself in uncontrollable fits.  What is
.happening... Prepared to sue the Dentist for every penny he's worth, I
.stagger to my feet.  The sound.  The horrible sound.  My hands race to cover
.my ears, and the pain lessens enough for me to remember where I am, I
.recognise wonderful music behind the curtain of some cruel alien death ray.
.Staggering to my feet, I stumble out the door and collapse on the front
.lawn.  The death rays incapable of penetrating solid walls.
.
.   After a seemingly long time, the Roommate and Guest arrive on the porch,
.and they agree with me.  "Fatiguing," says the Roommate.  "This two bit
.orchestra has nothing on the Berlin Phil!" exclaims the Guest.  We reenter
.the living room and listen to Karijan conduct the music, reproduced from real
.vinyl.  Magic fill the air...
.
.   Meanwhile, the portable is analyzed, and the defect found to be a 770 kHz
.ringing only a few db down from the signal!  No wonder it sounded so
.terrible, so horrible.  Further tests confirm the worst, and the unit is
.returned.

-----------------

Seriously though...

This particular unit did exhibit a large 770 kHz component of the signal, as
well as the 20 kHz ringing we measured (and I HEARD!).  We all agreed that
the sound was not audiophile quality, although I do not know whether the
harshness, or "edge", we heard would be a problem in a car stereo or on
cheap headphones.  I personally could not stand to listen to for very long
because of the squeal - hissing is far less annoying to me.  We all felt
some discomfort in our ears after listening at a moderate volume level.

Has anyone else out there noticed similar problems with this player?  It
seems to me that the unit we tested had FAR LESS dynamic range than was
advertised.  However, when my roommate found he could return the unit in
exchange for cash, testing stopped.  Thus I have no experience with other
players of the same model.

If someone can convince me that this behavior was an anomaly I'll retract
my statements, but until then I'm going to listen to a portable cassette
player, and choose my home cd machine with care.

B>)	- Who was that masked man?

Ken Cline	Cline@Aerospace.ARPA


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