Pirating of Blu-ray – We’ve been hearing about the horrors of pirating on the high seas, but now we also have to deal with Asian hi-res pirates. They are ripping new hi-res Blu-ray discs, and then using a bootleg software called AVCHD they mass-produce optical discs with 720 lines horizontal resolution (like broadcast HDTV) instead of Blu-ray’s 1080. They’re lower resolution than Blu-ray, but still offer a sharper image than a standard DVD, and many users won’t be able to tell the difference. The illicit copies are both cheap to make and tough for consumers to identify. The Wall Street Journal suggests you might be able to tell they’re not Blu-ray because Blu-ray discs attract fingerprints easier than the pirated discs. The U.S. chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association Promotions Committee said that in creating the specs for Blu-ray, “we were very serious about trying to stem the tide of pirate discs regardless of where they were in the world.” Uh huh.
Bluetooth and Alternatives – Bluetooth – the widely-used technology for short-distance wireless signals, such as to headphones and wireless speakers – has some problems. It uses both Advanced Audio Distribution Profile for stereo and SBC compression, adding noise and reducing the dynamic range. If the audio it is transmitting is MP3 files or some other format already compressed, the chain of compression and decompression can add serious distortion. Sennheiser has developed an alternative called Kleer. They claim it has less processing delay and draws about one-tenth the power required by Bluetooth, lengthening battery life. However, it operates in the 2.4GHz band, which also serves Wi-Fi and microwaves and has become extremely crowded. Some of the better wireless headphones are now using the less crowded 5.8GHz band.
Mark Levinson’s First SACD Player – Harman International has a solution for the Mark Levinson brand component fans who have been waiting for an audiophile-grade SACD player. The Model 512 will be shipping later this month and has fully balanced outputs as well as unbalanced. DSD conversion is done at native form thru DSD DACs (instead of PCM DACs) and each channel utilizes a pair of 24-bit D/A convertors for standard Redbook CDs, and 1-bit/2.8224Mhz DSD convertors. The player has two separate, custom-designed power supplies, and a memory buffer between the transport and Direct Digital Synthesis circuit diminishes jitter. Its back panel has both XLR and RCA output jacks, an Ethernet port, RS-232 and IR ports, and two mini-plug terminals. Two additional points might be of some importance to possible buyers: The SACD player is two-channel only and it is priced at $22,000.
