Audio Format Wars :: essays research papers fc

Audio Format Wars          Before buying a sore car, acquire married, or adopting a new audio formatit is wise to ask a few questions, peer under the hood, and ask the advice ofsomeone you trust. Will the new format satisfy your needs not only now but,also in the future? Will it look (and sound) as good on only the mornings afteryou first met?     The analogue cassette is an old and rely versatile friend that wentwith you on those morning jogs and cruised in the car with you on Friday nights.However, the powers that be, have declared our trusted friend to be in the lastphase of the life cycle. Its successor must sound better, work better, andhave new features such as a digital display for song titles. There arecurrently two formats competing to be the consumers next choice for sound on thego. They are Philips Digital blockheaded Cassette (DCC) and Sonys Mini Disc (MD).What exactly is digital recording? The definition i s, "An electronicformat that is designed to duplicate sound, while affording extremely accuratecontrol everyplace any changes you might wish to make in the recording" (Mclan &Wichman,1988). In simple terms it means that the digital circuitry samples thesignal and then reproduces what it has seen. The flavor of the recordingdepends on the sampling rate of the machine. The sampled signal is then encodedto the tape or disc in 1s and 0s, just like a computer plough drive would encodeinformation. However, the biggest advantage of digital recording is the factthat it eliminates tape "hiss" that is usually found present in analoguerecordings.     In the Eighties, a Philips invention captured the limelight. TheCompact Disc introduced us to a new era of digital sound, or "perfect sound."In the nineties another Philips invention has interpreted centre-stage, the DigitalCompact Cassette (DCC). DCC is the marriage of the analogue cassette to Dig italAudio. Together they form a union that combines perfect sound, high convince andgreater versatility. " DCC is a strong suit on which audio information is digitallyencoded and which reproduces CD quality sound" (Philips Electronics, Sound &Vision, 1995). A number of features have been incorporated into DCC tapes anddecks to achieve CD like sound and convince. DCC decks can locate a chosentrack on either side of the tape because track and time codes are put down onthe tape. This combined with autoreverse, which is standard on all DCC decks,makes track access effortless but, not as fast as a CD. Another irresistiblefeature of DCC is the text mode.