|
|
Article: Battle of the bit-buckets.(DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD)
- Article from:
- Popular Science
- Article date:
- September 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Bonnier Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
NEARLY 17 YEARS after touting the compact disc as the perfect audio medium, music labels and electronics makers are setting out to improve it. This fall, two new audio formats debut under the names DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD--and they're mutually incompatible. They're championed by--surprise, surprise--those veteran foes of the VHS-Beta wars, Panasonic and Sony.
Both formats are technically capable of reproducing multichannel surround sound and carrying text, graphics, and Web links. But codevelopers Sony and Philips view Super Audio CD primarily as a high-end audiophile system for two-channel stereo, like the two-speaker system you may have in your living room ...