Acoustics
An interesting interview with Bill Dudleston, Cheif Designer and Owner of Legacy Audio on Room Correction, DSP and EQ. It's a short interview but contains some very wise words!
Legacy Audio uses Xilica processors in their Whisper XD series. This is also the DSP recommended by Procella Audio for their P610 and we sell it in our online store.
Bill's favorite DSP so far is from Dirac, one we can't wait to try out in our new HTPC!
Home Theater Geeks, one of our favorite podcasts, had a fascinating interview recently with Sontia's CEO Chris Vernon. The topic was their new Stable Phase Techology (SPT), a speaker correction approach which has debuted in one of LG's Soundbars. SPT is a process which characterizes the performance of an amplifier / speaker system through a large number of sophisticated electrical and acoustical tests. Their approach is unique in two aspects:
Sontia appear to be targeting mass produced consumer goods with their approach. Chris Vernon, their CEO, makes it very clear during the interview that he sees a great opportunity to improve the sound quality of the tablets, soundbars and other devices that the vast majority of non-audiophile people use every day to consumer music. That's not to say that their technology may not be beneficial for the high end, just that they are not focusing on it as a business model. From the podcast it sounded like it would be unlikely for there to be an SPT processor similar to what DEQX are offering due to the unique aspects of Sontia's approach as mentioned above. However that's not to say that an enterprising audiophile company might 'embed' Sontia in a product for the high end market. We'll have to wait and see!
Please watch the video podcast or listen to the audio stream; like I said I found it fascinating!
RED have announced their REDRAY 4K player. 4K or UltraHD is a high definition display format that offers 4x the resolution of 1080p.
So far RED have: 4K cameras, the REDRAY player, REDCINE-X PRO and the ODEMAX content delivery system. Viewed in totality it looks like a play to control the whole 4K ecosystem, from content creation through content delivery with their products.
What's clear is that whilst the technology might be there there is not a clear answer from the industry as to how the content will be delivered. Some think on optical disc, via 4K enabled blu-ray format whilst others are betting the house on downloads. Jerry Colliano, of Home Theater Review, has written an insightful article, the title of which says it all: UltraHD sets are coming but long before UltraHd content.
A number of clients have mentioned to us that they are 'waiting to see what happens with 4K' before investing any serious money in projectors or new TVs. From our perspective it seems like it's going to take 2 or 3 years - at the minimum - before a stable ecosystem appears for 4K. And it will be even longer before prices come down to the same level as they are for 1080p today. What's clear to us is that if there is the opportunity to get a significant quality boost by switching to a new display then you should go ahead. It's going to be a while before 4K displays come down to reasonable prices and maybe just as long or longer before a large catalog of 4K material is going to be available.
