[jmserre]

Now that everyone has satisfied their curiosity and has gone through one or more 5.1 or 7.1 systems.... I suggest a simple inexpensive experiment. Try to watch a movie in a really good 2.1 system (i.e. your Bryston stereo system plus a sub). Amazing, eh?

Nap.

Hello, just to jump on this thread to say I am patiently waiting for the release of the SP 3.0.

You can see my current system at:

http://musiqueenmulticanaux.com/

In the (hopefully) most polite and respectful manner I will say that I completely understand that many people will invest in a 2 channel systems for many good reasons.  I have many good friends that have excellent such systems and I enjoy visting them and listening to their excellent systems.

But in my case I really do prefer listen to music in multi-channel (SACD, DVD-A and Blu-ray).  I think in my own search for what sounded best  I discovered that for me a sense of the 'projection' of the different instruments is very important.  The most obvious example of this is the difference between a trumpet (focus sound) and a french horn (wide open sound).  To simplify a bit I feel on two channels instrument like French Horns, double-bass etc. always sound wrong (or too weak).  But on a good multi-channel recording (and yes there are a lot of bad ones) things sound closer to the real thing than on 2 channel (for my own ears).

So in my own case I will be very happy to try a SP3 as soon as one is available to try at a audio shop in my corner of the world (Montreal Canada).

Cheers and happy listening.

[RonCH]

Hi, 

Happy to report we hope to show the final prototye at the upcoming CEDIA show (Sept 23rd) and be in production shortly after that.

james

Hi James,

This has put me in a quandary and I hope you can help me.  I have just been contacted by my dealer here in Switzerland that after 6 months I can finally have an opportunity to demo a BP16 and a BDA-1 (btw - what's going on with your distributor here?).  Should I buy them or a SP3.0? It's going to cost me about 6.5K Swiss for the BP16 and BDA-1.  My question I guess is how much is the SP3.0 going to cost? Then I can decide if I'm better off buying the BP16 and BDA-1 plus some receiver or is the SP3.0 a better buy.

thanks

Ron

[Phil A]

Hi James,

This has put me in a quandary and I hope you can help me.  I have just been contacted by my dealer here in Switzerland that after 6 months I can finally have an opportunity to demo a BP16 and a BDA-1 (btw - what's going on with your distributor here?).  Should I buy them or a SP3.0? It's going to cost me about 6.5K Swiss for the BP16 and BDA-1.  My question I guess is how much is the SP3.0 going to cost? Then I can decide if I'm better off buying the BP16 and BDA-1 plus some receiver or is the SP3.0 a better buy.

thanks

Ron

If your preference is 2-channel from multiple sources (i.e. CD transport, PC) , I'd say go with the BP16 and BDA-1.  If you already have a good CD source which can pass via the bypass of the SP3 that may suffice.  I would not expect the DACs in the SP3 to perform the same as the BDA-1.  I would expect the 2-channel preamp section of the SP3 to be improved vs. the BP16.

[Daniel Datchev]

Hi RonCH,
If I were you I would buy BP26, or SP2 if I were a movie fan.

[alexone]

Ron,

the price of a SP3 depends on its configuration. but i GUESS that the basic version can come close to 10.000 Euros...

al.

[Napalm]

Anyone thinking about Blu-Ray discs as a source of high quality multichannel sound worth a $10000 prepro/preamp should google "Cinavia".

Nap.

[whanafi]

Anyone thinking about Blu-Ray discs as a source of high quality multichannel sound worth a $10000 prepro/preamp should google "Cinavia".

Nap.

Interesting - the industry is attempting another stealth DRM.

The gap between people thinking they are buying something and the content creators assuming they are licensing just gets bigger.   

It's not "my" music collection, it is "their" music, and "they" are letting me use it, as "they" see fit, and for as long as "they" permit.

[James Tanner]

Interesting - the industry is attempting another stealth DRM.

The gap between people thinking they are buying something and the content creators assuming they are licensing just gets bigger.   

It's not "my" music collection, it is "their" music, and "they" are letting me use it, as "they" see fit, and for as long as "they" permit.

That's one of the reasons why storing your music in FLAC may be a good idea

james

[Napalm]

Well, while DRM is not a nice thing to do to paying customers, my biggest issue with this one is not the DRM per se, but how it works. The garbage they add to the sound ("watermark") is not removed (filtered out) by the player at playback time. It will go all the way to the speakers and your ears.

So why would anyone take bluray "high definition" sound seriously when they intentionally add garbage/distortions to it.

It flies against the selling point of bluray format - "higher quality".

What's next, watermarking the image with stripes and blinking pixels?

Then I guess no one should invest in more than a "whatever is the cheapest setup on sale at Bestbuy" for playing this garbage.

Nap.

[Napalm]

That's one of the reasons why storing your music in FLAC may be a good idea

james

Hi James,

This "Cinavia" is pretty much equivalent to those old CD protection schemes where they were intentionally recording defective sectors in order to prevent copying. It is degrading the signal, so why would I want to archive or do anything with this garbage. The best approach is to not buy/use it at all.

When buying CDs I am especially careful that they are free of such schemes. As an example, Norah Jones "Feels Like Home" had to wait a couple of years until I bought it. It was initially available only with such a copy protection scheme, and while I liked the music I didn't agree to buying a garbage recording of it. As a side effect, I paid only half the price as by the time they removed the protection the record was now old and sold in the "2 for $25" bin.

I guess I should refrain from buying bluray discs from now on. If recording quality is compromised then I could as well watch it on "on demand" cable. I wouldn't miss anything.

Nap.

[James Tanner]

Hi Nap - how do you tell if the material has a 'protection' scheme?

I was refering to FLAC in the sense that it is not "owned" by anyone and therefore they can not change the 'rules' on you going forward.

james

[Napalm]

Hi Nap - how do you tell if the material has a 'protection' scheme?

I was refering to FLAC in the sense that it is not "owned" by anyone and therefore they can not change the 'rules' on you going forward.

james

Hi James,

CDs sold in Canada that featured such schemes had a logo on the back cover - like the one here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Control

and there was some fine print about it too.

I just made sure that I bought none of them 

Playback on plain CD players was relying on the unit's error correction, and attempts to "rip" them to MP3 for your walkman/ipod were failing with "bad sector" issues.

As for FLAC I agree with you that it is a "neutral" format. Until MS could decide to have special safeguards in Windows 8 that will not allow you to play it at all. Then you'll install Linux and after a couple of years it will be all the sound cards that have some hardware embedded s**t that DRMs you, and Linux wouldn't help either. Just check how they're retrofitting this "Cinavia" thing.....

Nap.

[whanafi]

That's one of the reasons why storing your music in FLAC may be a good idea

james

I fully agree, which is why I went digital years ago, and my files are stored as lossless FLAC. With dbPoweramp, I can convert back to WAV, or if coerced, even use Apple iPods by converting to their proprietary formats.  The point is to have choice, and FLAC gives me that.

The lightbulb went on after I had collected a substantial laser disc collection (remember those?) while in Hong Kong, only to discover that the technology dead-ended, and everything was coming out on DVD. 

I had already bought the films on VHS, then replaced them all with the higher quality LD.  Hollywood took the approach that it was the physical media that I had purchased, not the content. 

Which lasted right up until stores started selling used discs and people figured out how to copy DVD's, at which point they insisted you were only licensing the material, and they had the right to control the medium as well.  In came the dreaded Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and it became a crime to even attempt to manage the content yourself. 

So which is it?  If I have licensed the material, then I should be able to store it in any format I see fit, or have it replaced if the medium is damaged.  If it is purchased, I should be able to resell it, copy it for my own use, or generally dispose of it as I see it

Thank goodness CD's were used as a data medium on PC's or we would never have been able to liberate the music.

I have a great deal of music "trapped" on vinyl.  It is still usable, but the cleaning, flipping, and pops and clicks are something I just don't want to go back to.  In fact I hardly ever listen to vinyl, while I am constantly wandering through my digital collection.
I miss the cover art and the tactile feel of the LP's, but I don't miss the hassle.

[Napalm]

I had already bought the films on VHS, then replaced them all with the higher quality LD.  Hollywood took the approach that it was the physical media that I had purchased, not the content. 

Which lasted right up until stores started selling used discs and people figured out how to copy DVD's, at which point they insisted you were only licensing the material, and they had the right to control the medium as well.  In came the dreaded Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and it became a crime to even attempt to manage the content yourself. 

I take the approach that if they want me to "license" some more of this, then they have to agree to my side of license terms too. Like my money is not given to them, but just licensed for use in a single bank account (they can't transfer it to another account). Also I need to be given access to that bank account so that I can peek inside from time to time as to make sure that they don't use it for funding some terrorist activity or drug dealing. I should be able to block that bank account at any time I see fit. And I reserve the right to terminate the licensing at any time and with no reason - and withdraw my money from their account.

Sounds extreme? No it's not. It's just a mirror of the current bluray disc licensing terms.

Nap.

[Napalm]

Any idea on how to creatively incorporate this in the SP 3.0? Or as a separate "black box"?

http://www.osnews.com/story/23806/HDCP_Master_Key_May_Have_Leaked

Nap. 

[Napalm]

 

I guess this actually means that we'll have soon HDMI 1.5 with HDCP 1.4 to replace the broken ones.

And the SP 3.0 will be delayed once again.

Nap. 

[Napalm]

Hi James,

If by the next week you find your engineers busy with building some "lab use" boxes that have a HDMI input and coaxial/toslink outputs..... I want one of them too....

Nap. 

[1oldguy]

This just in on the SP3

http://whtmtm.ytmnd.com/

[Phil A]

This just in on the SP3

http://whtmtm.ytmnd.com/

I knew it

[Napalm]

In other news:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/intel-threatens-consumers/

Nap.