For the last three days, I’ve talked about video, so
today I’ll talk about about the other half -- audio. In particular, I want to divulge
some discussions I had with people over the last few days.
On Tuesday night, I was at dinner when I heard a gentleman
at the table proclaim that amazing strides had been made in loudspeaker technology in the
last three years, insinuating that hardly anything at all had been done in the years, let
alone the decades, before. "Is he serious?" I thought. "Doesn’t he
know about all the work that’s gone on before?" Unfortunately he was in the dark
and very serious.
Being quite interested in loudspeaker technology and
reasonably well informed, I dropped into his conversation and tried to explain to him that
much of today’s technology is not that new at all, and, despite the fact that
tremendous strides have been made in manufacturing, most of the speakers he’s seeing
and hearing are using technology invented decades ago -- including the speakers he
distributes, which he seemed to hold so dear to his heart. He wouldn’t have any of
it, though, and basically told me that I didn’t know what I was talking about. So
that was that.
What a relief today, then, when I could sit down and talk
to two of the best speaker designers on the planet and talk about loudspeaker technology,
both old and new, and even learn a few things about the history of loudspeakers that I
didn’t know before.
One of those designers was TAD’s Andrew Jones, one of
the brightest bulbs in the business. When I told Jones the story about the gentleman at my
dinner, he just laughed and started to tell me about things that people think are new but
have been around for a long, long time. For example, I didn’t know that
Pioneer had diamond tweeters in the 1990s. He also told me about this frequency-response
chart he has from 1934 that has accurately labeled data about the sonic results of
recessions and peaks at various points across the frequency range -- things some speaker
designers, let alone audiophiles who think that everything has been invented in the last
five years, don’t even know. Andrew promised to send me that chart. And he told me
many other things, including details about driver technologies, tweeters, and even some of
his own designs that he worked on years ago.
I also got to talk to Paul Barton, a man often credited
with starting the Canadian loudspeaker industry. For years now I’ve been talking with
Paul, who has filled me in on the history of loudspeaker design. Today, though, he talked
about ideal in-room response of loudspeakers, and what he said was largely based on the
exhaustive research that was done in the late 1980s and early 1990s at Canada’s
National Research Council under a project called Athena. Barton was part of that project,
and the information from it is as relevant today as it was back then. In fact, after I
talked to Paul I had a meeting with some of the people from Paradigm/Anthem, and they told
me that the information gleaned from the Athena project forms the basis for the
state-of-the-art room-correction system in their D2 processor that’s being released
this month.
So, while the gentleman at dinner might think that
everything happened yesterday, we should all remember that there have been clever people
working on speakers for many decades -- people who actually developed much of the
technology that audiophiles often take for granted, or sometimes mistake as new.
* *
*
On the first day of CES I visited the Las
Vegas Convention Center and saw the tremendous backing companies are giving to the Blu-ray
format. And even though the "format war" is far from over, it seems to me that
based on support and consumer excitement, things are tipping toward Blu-ray's favor. In
contrast, HD DVD seems stagnant.
So, on the third day of the show, I slipped
over to the AVN Expo to get the adult film industry's take on the subject, something I've
done for the last three years. Once again I met with Joone, founder of Digital Playground,
one of the most technologically progressive companies in the industry. His insights into
the matter were quite interesting and, I believe, quite telling.
Digital Playground would like to see Blu-ray
succeed, based mostly on the fact that each Blu-ray disc has greater storage capacity than
an HD DVD and that, in turn, allows for longer films without awkward breaks and, as well,
more extras and other features. Joone also sees the scales tipping in Blu-ray's favor, and
he predicts that by year's end Blu-ray's sales will climb and HD DVD's will start to taper
off. Blu-ray appears to have a lot of momentum right now. However, that still won't mean
that everyone's going to be playing high-definition discs at home. Joone believes that
regular ol' DVD will stay strong for another three to four years -- after which it will be
supplanted by one of the high-definition formats.
So, while the Blu-ray-versus-HD DVD format war
is far from over, based on what I see here, Blu-ray has the best chance of being declared
the winner -- so much so that I'm confident that consumers can buy a Blu-ray player now
and rest assured that the format won't be obsolete in a year -- or three.
* *
*
In the world of flat-screen video displays, there have been
tremendous leaps and bounds in terms of the size and quality, so much so that it seems
manufacturers like to play a game of video one-upsmanship. For example…
…Panasonic showed a 150" 1080P plasma display,
the world’s largest. Roger Kanno is skeptical that it will ever become a
"real" product sold in stores, but, whatever the case, it was at CES 2008.
On the other hand, Samsung didn’t want to compete on
size -- instead, the LCD display above measured just over 100". However,
Samsung was touting that it has four times the number of pixels that a 1080P set does,
which is purported to increase resolution. We’re not exactly sure how that happens
with 1080P-based material, but it still looked darn good.
Last year, people were crowded around Sony’s
super-thin OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display. In 2007, Sony was the only company
with one, and that display was only about 9" wide. However, this year Sony is back
with 11" and 27" models, but…
…upstart Samsung countered with their own OLED
displays -- in 14" and 31" sizes.
* *
*
The HD DVD/Blu-ray format war is finally coming to a head.
And if this year’s CES is any indicator of what’s to come, based on promotional
efforts, Blu-ray’s definitely trying to take the lead – and might be succeeding.
The Toshiba-championed HD DVD booth was large, but its
activity level can be summed up in one word: dead. On the other hand…
…the Blu-ray booth was jammed and full of excitement,
mostly due to the giveaways and the elaborate displays featuring the television show The
Simpsons...
… the Pirates of the Caribbean movies...
…and 300. Furthermore, in terms of support, the
only HD DVD players we’ve seen have been from Toshiba and one that’s been
promised by Onkyo. However, Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, and many other manufacturers all
have Blu-ray players available now. This war may be over soon.
