zokuchou Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 http://www.cnet.com/news/poll-whats-the-worst-audio-format/ Not sure if anyone saw this. MD fairs pretty well in the comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecrab Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Thanks, I had not seen it. If they are going to include 8-track, that should "win" as the worst every time. The formats I have heard are LP (and 45s), 8-track, Cassette, CD, DVD, MD, DCC, and MP3. As I do not listen much to music on a computer, I won't speak to the various formats used in that environment. I feel like at some point I surely must have heard DAT and R2R, but I cannot recall when. Maybe not. Anyway, of the ones I noted, 8-track is by far the worst, although low-quality MP3s might challenge it. I find SP MD (292) to be excellent, at its best comparing quite well to CD. For the very brief time I had a DCC deck, I thought that sounded even better than MD - not really surprising since it has less compression. The comments were great, enjoyed browsing through them a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philippeb Posted March 31, 2014 Report Share Posted March 31, 2014 of the ones I noted, 8-track is by far the worstFrom a hardware point of view, yes, I agree, 8-track cannot be challenged. From a software point of view, the encrypted Hi-MD System File and its elegant "Loose one bit, loose all your data" design deserve consideration. Sorry, I could not resist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted March 31, 2014 Report Share Posted March 31, 2014 From a software point of view, the encrypted Hi-MD System File and its elegant "Loose one bit, loose all your data" design deserve consideration. Surely, had HiMD really caught on (Atrac-X got used by a lot of Cinemas and the like?), I think Sony would have eventually released the tools that their service department clearly had available for fixing users' busted disks. We're just victims of a failed commercial enterprise, not inherently bad technology. They correctly saw that encryption was the only way forward to protect IP, and they happened to be the first to actually implement it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Another MD fanatic Posted April 3, 2014 Report Share Posted April 3, 2014 Please excuse my ignorance here but what was Atrac-X? As regards all the other formats, both past and present, one thing has never changed. In the beginning there was the wax cylinder. These were ridiculously expensive to the average man in the street (imagine ONE SONG costing a weeks wages) and they were also fiddley to operate. Then along came the flat disc, dead simple to use and at least a little bit cheaper. Yet the sound quality of a cylinder is far superior to a 78 of similar age, I know because I've heard some. We all know which one took off, wax cylinders had finished by the 1920's but the flat disc is still with us (in vinyl). Cost and convenience will win every time, sound quality doesn't come into it. Just look at how many people are listening to low bitrate MP3's on their phones. All of which I find a bit sad really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted April 3, 2014 Report Share Posted April 3, 2014 Atrac3+ (himd) is the simple case (2 channels) of the multitrack format AtracX. I have a suspicion they sold that technology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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