Audio Format Wars :: essays research papers fc

Audio Format Wars          Before buying a new car, getting married, or adopting a new audio coiffeit is wise to ascertain a few questions, peer under the hood, and ask the advice ofsomeone you trust. Will the new format satisfy your needs non only now but,also in the future? Will it look (and overweight) as good on all the mornings afteryou first met?     The latitude cassette is an old and trusted 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 decl ared 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 thick(p) Cassette (DCC) and Sonys Mini record book (MD).What exactly is digital arrang ing? The definition is, "An electronicformat that is designed to duplicate sound, while affording extremely accurate operate on over any changes you might wish to make in the recording" (Mclan &Wichman,1988). In simple terms it means that the digital circuitry samples the designate and then reproduces what it has seen. The quality of the recordingdepends on the sampling rate of the machine. The sampled manoeuver is then encodedto the tape or disc in 1s and 0s, just same(p) a computer disk drive would encodeinformation. However, the biggest advantage of digital recording is the factthat it eliminates tape "hiss" that is usually found play in analoguerecordings.     In the Eighties, a Philips invention captured the limelight. The contract Disc introduced us to a new era of digital sound, or " faultless sound."In the nineties another Philips invention has taken centre-stage, the DigitalCompact Cassette (DCC). DCC is the marriage of the analogue cassette to DigitalAudio. Together they form a summation that combines perfect sound, high convince andgreater versatility. " DCC is a medium on which audio information is digitallyencoded and which reproduces CD quality sound" (Philips Electronics, leaden &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 chosen drag on either side of the tape because cartroad and time codes are recorded 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 attractivefeature of DCC is the text mode.