[redshifter]

check it out! i just got this email from my buddy who works in the home theater showroom at the seattle design center:

Quote:

Mark, My sony rep just gave us a product rundown for 2003, and this item caught my eye--I know you're into this stuff. Sony is releasing the worlds first SACD portable player, although not in the US. It is supposed to retail for about 100,000 yen when it is released on 3/31/03. Here are some specs from the presentation he gave: D-SA888 SACD Walkman Plays Super Audio Compact Discs and Compact Discs New Direct Stream Digital (DSD) encoding eliminates the distortions of decimation and interpolation filters G-ProtectionTM Ultimate Skip Protection Slide-In Disc Loading Mechanism CD-Text Compatible LCD Remote Controller with New Luminous BackglowTM Display CD-Size Case with Lightweight Magnesium Die-Cast Chassis MD Link Optical Output Dual DiscreteTM optical block with one laser optimized for SACD, another dedicated to CD Twin fixed pickup laser tracking assembly Accurate Complementary Pulse Density Modulation (ACP) system for SACD playback S-TACT Synchronous Time Accuracy Controller reduces clock noise, minimizes jitter 8-output Current Pulse D/A Converter

here's the link to the press release (it's loading really slow right now):
http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/corpcomm/news/consumer/

no pics yet

but he also said there will be a cheaper line of sacd discman in bright colors geared towards teens that will also play low bitrate mp3s. in any case, this is great news, right?

 

[Duncan]

Quote:

Forbidden You don't have permission to access /SEL/corpcomm/news/consumer/ on this server. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apache/1.3.19 Server at www.sel.sony.com Port 80

It sounds great, as long as they use better head-amps than their current crop of players... If it were to be an E905/D777 SACD hybrid... i'd be the first in the queue

 

[coolvij]

I could care less...........there's gonna be a line-out, since Sony always has MD links doing double duty as line-outs!

AT LAST! ME HAPPY!

This really is *great* news.

too bad it's april 1st and I trust none of ye......

 

[krayzie]

Happy April Fools!!!

 

[TimSchirmer]

lol...almost had me going on that one...but we are years away from a portable SACD...nice try though

 

[redshifter]

well, at least i fooled duncan and coolvij.

Quote:

he also said there will be a cheaper line of sacd discman in bright colors geared towards teens that will also play low bitrate mp3s

that line was the giveaway.

anyway, happy april fool's day everyone!

 

[blr]

Nice try, didn't work on me.

I personally don't see any point of developing portable SACDP.
Just think of the anti skip compression (not to talk about the headamp). Why on earth bother with decoding SACDs just to stuff everything in a buffer with lower bitrate than an ordinary CD.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Well there are PCDPs with 10s linear antishock, double that buffer and you can have 5s linear antishock for SACDs at a stretch (or something like that

)

Anyway, I think a pSACDp would help proliferate the format if and when it comes out.

 

[blr]

Well, actually Joe if I remember correctly the data rate of an SACD is more like 5-6 times that of an 16/44.1. This means that with these bufferes you'll have something like 1.5-2 sec. uncompressed memory which is pretty useless in most practical situations.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Hey I'm not off by that much! I said *double* the buffer... and you'd get 3 sec. something if the bitrate is 5-6 times that of CD as you say

 

[blr]

Yeah, but 3 sec is still not enough. Have you tried walking with a 3 sec buffer portable. You get skips quite often.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Well you can always make the buffer bigger

Besides what does it matter if you're really walking around~

In that case compressing down to CD level bitrate would be quite acceptable--use linear antishock only when you're hardly moving and the environment is quiet

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally posted by redshifter Slide-In Disc Loading Mechanism

 

[blr]

Quote:

Originally posted by Joe Bloggs Well you can always make the buffer bigger Besides what does it matter if you're really walking around~ In that case compressing down to CD level bitrate would be quite acceptable--use linear antishock only when you're hardly moving and the environment is quiet

Which equals a normal CD portable with 10 sec linear anti skip, i.e. again why bother with SACD.
Also, there is always the question of the headamp and the rest of the analog part.
Finally, there will be only 0.1% of the users or so that will bother to get good enough phones to take advantage of the better sound quality.

All in all, not worth it IMO.

 

[coolvij]

you didn't get me!!!

I had a disclaimer right in there......

Quote:

too bad it's april 1st and I trust none of ye......