HAMBURG (dpa) – Ones and zeros can really sound good, as anyone who has a CD player or has downloaded MP3 files from the Internet knows.
It’s also the hottest thing in amplifiers: digital amplifiers. The manufacturers say these devices will deliver completely authentic sounds, and, what’s more, they’re as clear as a bell. The market is certainly filling up with different models, many of them only suitable for audio-freaks with a large disposable income.
The latest novelty on the market is powered by what Sharp calls its One-Bit-Audio technology, which the Japanese producer is now fitting in a new range of stereo decks.
“One-Bit-Audio finally realises a centuries-old dream: the completely authentic reproduction of natural sound,” says Helmut Engel, manager of Sharp Electronic Europe in Hamburg. “The development of One-Bit-Audio has meant the digital gap in the car sector has now been closed.” By “gap”, Engel means the widespread analogue power amplifiers, which in the new Sharp units are replaced by digital high-frequency switches.
Using these means a considerably more precise reproduction of the music is achieved which does justice to every tonal nuance, “the noise of hitting the key or a string, as well as each instrument’s natural sound,” as the producer enthuses.
In addition, they require smaller casings and produce far less warmth – and everyone who has ever had an overheated stereo unit explode at a party will appreciate that.
The technology’s name is descriptive enough, as it can register 2.8 million frequency changes in the tone signal per second. In layman’s terms this is a One-Bit-Signal. “One-Bit makes a whole new and true-to-life reproduction possible: that’s why we christened the technology with this simple name,” says Engel.
Digital amplifiers per se are not all that new. Last year, TacT Audio release a complete digital amplifier system with the name TacT Millennium MK II. “The TACT Millennium amplifies a digital signal and couples it directly to the loudspeaker without converting it into the analog domain at all,” says Karsten Petersen, sales and marketing director at TacT Audio in New Jersey.
“A CD is etched with 44,100 information sequences a second, which the music interprets as a series of temporally spaced voltages. These sequences contain the value, a sequence and the timeframe. If one of these quantities becomes distorted, sound quality suffers.”
The TacT Millennium MK II avoids such distortion which is why the dynamic range and timbre are consistently good. Besides that the TacT Millennium consistently produces an extraordinarily low level of noise and interference. “Despite its fully digital construction, its outstandingly neutral and musical sonic characteristics render further debate on solid state vs. tube, Class A vs. Class A/B, analog vs. digital, etc., irrelevant,” says Petersen.
“The extremely short signal path removes another veil of coloration inherent to conventional designs and adds a new sense of realism.” The new sense of realism is one thing; the price tag is quite another. The Millennium MK II costs 19,500 marks (9,000 U.S. dollars).
More affordable is Sony’s digital-audio-video system DAV-S500. “This is an all-round device with satellite loudspeakers and subwoofer that doesn’t only play DVDs, CDs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs, but also reproduces high-resolution multichannel-super-audio CDs,” says Myriam Hoffmann at Sony Deutschland in Cologne.
The heart of the system is the S-Master digital amplifier which works with 20-bit resolution. A so-called S-TACT impulse generator provides a crystal-clear, true-to-life reproduction of audio signals. The system also scores points for its low energy use and reduced heat generation.
“We already had a system with a digital amplifier on the market last year and the good sales strengthened our resolve to continue down this path,” says Myriam Hoffmann. “All in all, the trend is heading towards digitalisation and that is noticeable in the hi-fi segment as well.” The DAV-S500 unit will cost somewhere in the region of 2,000 marks and will be available from August 2001.
Once the dissonance has been weeded out, there’s only one thing left to spoil enjoyment of the music thatis if a stereo system does not look the part. “State-of-the-art technology is not enough on its own if the design speaks another language,” says Sharp manager Engel. “That’s why our One-Bit products are designed with the harmony of form and function in mind, in other words high-end for all the senses.
