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The Glass CD There is a major sonic difference, with the Crystal CD sounding markedly superior in every way. In dynamics, notably, though several Any record producer who cares of the pieces on the conventional about the quality of audio disc were not exactly lackluster. production will tell you the Pianist Akiko Grace and her same thing: there’s a big bassist play Delancey Street difference between the sound of Blues with a verve and the digital master recording an energy that made it that is sent to the pressing difficult to believe we plant, and the stamped were listening to a Red polycarbonate discs Book CD. Another jazz that come back from trio, on track 11, had us the plant. Indeed, exclaiming. Soprano va r iat ions f rom Hiroko Kouda, singing plant to plant, or Mozart’s Allelulia from even batch to batch, the Exultate Jubilate, was are often cited. as smooth as one could That may puzzle wish, with a natural sheen anyone who feels that is definitely not a CD secure in the belief artifact. Minoko Honda’s haunting that “bits are bits,” and version of Amazing Grace may not have there should be no such been a purist natural recording, but on analog-like variations. In the glass CD her voice seemed to pick actual fact, the Compact Disc is an analog medium. That is to up an extra dimension. Why a free version? There were some disappointments, say, though the information on the disc is digital, it is stored in analog form because analog is so much more compact. For example, it is more economical to express how many “zeros” will go by before the next “one” than to record all those zeros individually. The number of zeros will be represented by the length of a pit in the disc surface…and that length is an analog value. Is there a better way to press a CD? A Japanese recording organization, Memory-Tech, thinks it has found one: glass CDs. Instead of injection-molding polycarbonate, the company uses a precision metal stamper In the diagram at right, resin is Memory-Tech had inevitably, the fault of the original sent us For an years early now, demo, we have with been musical publishing, engineers on our rather Web site, than a the free Crystal PDF CD selections version of pressed our magazine. on conventional CD technology. and on The a Memory-Tech reason is simple. Crystal We know CD. you’re looking Although for the information, music samples and are from There that is was almost a considerable certainly why difference, you’ve come “Columbia to visit our Music site. And Entertainment” that’s why (actu- but we we give complained away what that some neither competitors actually consider ally Denon, to be a not startlingly Sony Music), large you won’t sounded amount good. of information…for We have since free. received see any mainstream company adopting new samples, We would and give the it all news away is for good. free, if the we could Crystal still CD stay process, in business. because it has Recent figures indicate that each issue some is getting obvious downloaded drawback. One as many drawback as 100,000 Glass times, substrate and that figure keeps growing. is weight. A Crystal Disc weighs 32 g, Yes, we know, if we had a nickel for each exactly download… double the weight of a polycar- Truth is, we’re in the business of helping bonate you CD. enjoy That music translates at home into added under the best Metal possible stamper conditions. And shipping movies too. cost. We’ll Glass do breaks, what we too. need Then to do in order to get the information to there you. Glass substrate is cost. Making one is a time- Of course, Resin we also want you to read our consuming published process: editions taking too. We perhaps five hope that, having read this far, you’ll want minutes to read per on. disc as opposed to under five Metal stamper seconds. The company says it can turn sandwiched between the metal stamper (already pitted to represent the music) Gold layer out 300 discs a day at present. Memory- Tech will charge you 100,000 Yen (about and the glass substrate. They are pressed together to bond, while ultraviolet light cures the resin. The disc is now inverted, and a thin layer of gold is applied to the Gold layer Resin Glass substrate Protective layer Label C$1230) just to make the metal stamper which is at the heart of the technology. That doesn’t sound so bad, as long as the actual price per disc is affordable. In fact resin. A protective sheet is added, and it’s 21,000¥, about C$230 per disc! once more cured by UV, and finally the Resin Is that way beyond the means of the label is applied. Glass substrate market? Well, duh! But then again per- 76 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine Gossip&News
haps not. Memory-Tech itself markets calibration discs, and paying that kind of money for an industrial product is by no means outlandish. If you exhibit at hi-fi shows, you could do worse than one of these. But can the audiophile recording market bear such costs? Our guess is that it can’t, but perhaps that price is not fixed in glass, as it were. Wider adoption would certainly drop the price. The Crystal Disc adds no new information, unlike SACD, say. What it can do, potentially, is avoid the tremendous deterioration of the music encountered in the pressing process. It requires no special player. If the price can be improved enough, this could be the CD counterpart to 180-gram vinyl. Want your next music release on glass? Visit the Memory-Tech Web site: www.memory-tech.co.jp/eng/ The site doesn’t include anything about the Crystal Disc, but contact information is there. Let us know how it works for you. Klipsch Sells Aragon Who? Oh, so soon we forget! Aragon used to make some pretty well-regarded high end amplifiers and preamplifiers under the Aragon name, with Acurus as its (relatively) low-priced line. Now do you place them? This is the Aragon StageOne. A number of companies the size of Mondial Designs (the original parent corporate name) didn’t survive even the bursting of the dot-com bubble, never mind this year’s financial demolition derby. Mondial Designs folded in 2001, and the Aragon and Acurus names and intellectual property were snapped up by Klipsch, which seemed to be in a buying mood at the time. Need we mention that the mood at most companies has changed? Slashing and burning is more the trend now. Klipsch had shut down production four years ago, keeping the brand in “maintenance mode,” supplying parts and repairs, mostly. Now, improbably, it has found a buyer. And it didn’t have to look far from home. Two of its own engineers, Rick Santiago and Ted Moore, have left Klipsch in order to set up Indy Audio Labs LLC and take over design and production of Aragon and Acurus elec- tronics. It takes over support of legacy products immediately, and the new designs are expected in early 2010. By the way, the name “Indy” means more than the fact that the new company is independent. Its plant is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. We’re not sure, though, that the word “plant” is appropriate. The Indy site says that the name “Acurus” means Accuracy, designed in the US. Notice that it says “designed,” not “built.” We’re just saying. The UHF Reference Systems Equipment reviews are done on at least one of UHF’s reference systems, selected as working tools. They are changed as infrequently as possible. The Alpha system Our original reference is in a room with special acoustics, originally a recording studio, letting us hear what we can’t hear elsewhere. Main digital player: Linn Unidisk 1.1 Additional CD player: CEC TL-51X belt-driven transport, Counterpoint DA-10A converter with HDCD card. Digital cable: Atlas Opus 1.5m Digital portable: Apple iPod 60 Gb Turntable: Audiomeca J-1 Tone arm: Audiomeca SL-5 Pickup: Goldring Excel Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono 1.6 Preamplifier: Copland CTA-305 Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon W-5LE Loudspeakers: Living Voice Avatar OBX-R Interconnects: Pierre Gabriel ML-1, Atlas Navigator All-Cu Loudspeaker cables: Atlas Mavros with WBT nextgen banana connectors Power cords: Gutwire, Wireworld Aurora AC filters: Foundation Research LC-2 (power amp), Inouye SPLC. The Omega system It serves for reviews of gear that cannot easily fit into the Alpha system, with its small room. Digital players: shared with the Alpha system Turntable: Linn LP12/Lingo II Tone arm: Alphason HR-100S MCS Pickup: London Reference Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono 1.6 Preamplifier: Simaudio Moon P-8 Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon W-8 Loudspeakers: Reference 3a Suprema II Interconnects: Pierre Gabriel ML-1, Atlas Navigator All-Cu Loudspeaker cables: Pierre Gabriel ML- 1 for most of the range, Wireworld Polaris for the twin subwoofers. Power cords: BIS Audio Maestro, GutWire B-12, Wireworld AC filters: GutWire MaxCon Squared, Foundation Research LC-1 Acoustics: Gershman Acoustic Art panels The Kappa system This is our home theatre system. As with the original Alpha system, we had limited space, and that pretty much ruled out huge projectors and two-metre screens. We did, however, finally come up with a system whose performance gladdens both eye and ear, with the needed resolution for reviews. HDTV monitor: Samsung PN50A550 plasma screen DVD player (provisional): Pioneer BDP- 51FD Blu-Ray player Preamplifier/processor: Simaudio Moon Attraction, 5.1 channel version Power amplifiers: Simaudio Moon W-3 (main speakers), bridged Celeste 4070se (centre speaker), Robertson 4010 (rear) Main speakers: Energy Reference Connoisseur (1984) Centre speaker: Thiel MCS1 Rear speakers: Elipson 1400 Subwoofer: 3a Design Acoustics Cables: Atlas, Van den Hul, MIT, GutWire, Wireworld Line filter: GutWire MaxCon Squared All three systems have dedicated power lines, with Hubbell hospital grade outlets. Extensions and power bars are equipped with hospitalgrade connectors. ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 77 Gossip&News Gossip&News Feedback
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No. 87 CAN $6.49 / US $7.69 THE CD
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