Sony Turns the CD Blu

[admin]

Sony has announced a "new" CD format. Enabled by advances instituted when they created Blu-ray, the new Blu-spec CD is designed to reduce jitter and therefore increase fidelity of the music reproduction. Sony claims that the new Blu-spec CD offers quality similar to the master. The big surprise of this announcement is that the new Blu-spec CD will work in existing CD players.

Discuss "Sony Turns the CD Blu" here. Read the article.

 

[jamie2112]

Yeah umm good luck with that Sony....

 

[jonnythan]

Yeah umm good luck with that Sony....

I dunno, sounds pretty cool to me.

"Still, with SACD, DVD-A, HDCD, and more already on the market (and not exactly raking in the big bucks), is Blu-spec CD anything more than just another way to get the public to associate "Blu" with "Quality?"

Well, yes. Try playing that SACD, DVD-A, or HD-CD in your car or at your friend's house.

 

[j_garcia]

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49105

Like I said, with CD sales in a huge slump, it sounds like a gimmick to give it a little more time on the shelves. Music CDs will likely go the way of vinyl in a few short years - a niche product rather than a mainstream one, so it will be around but it won't be such a large presence IMO.

 

[swestbom]

Let me get this straight, it is still 16/44.1 PCM with two channels but the disk medium is cool?

Yeah right! and I should put pyramids over my cd player as well.

 

[swestbom]

I dunno, sounds pretty cool to me.

"Still, with SACD, DVD-A, HDCD, and more already on the market (and not exactly raking in the big bucks), is Blu-spec CD anything more than just another way to get the public to associate "Blu" with "Quality?"

Well, yes. Try playing that SACD, DVD-A, or HD-CD in your car or at your friend's house.

Almost all SACDs are hybrid you can play them in your car or at a friends house, on your computer, etc. etc. You just don't get the SACD layer, you get the CD layer. DVD-Audio was the turkey format, that is why it died.

 

[jonnythan]

I did not know that.

 

[phlakvest]

Do they work better than a regular cd with a coating of green ink on the edge?

Am I correct in thinking the 1's and 0's on the disk are the same as the ones on CD's only "better"?

I agree with j_garcia. It sounds like a way of boosting CD sales by riding the coattails of blueray.

 

[gliz]

just how "in the tank" are cd sales anyway? I have as of late been buying CD's like a mad man

 

[j_garcia]

I don't have the numbers, but sales are definitely down over the last 2 years. We are not talking small percentages either, we are talking in the 20-30% range year over year.

 

[wiyosaya]

Sounds like a gimmick to me. Another article I read said that they will play in regular CD players, yet they will cost approximately $25 (US) each.

I might pay that much if it were a Blu-ray audio disc, but for a CD that might sound better than the non-blu version, I doubt I would be willing to pay it.

IMHO, Sony is charging too much of a premium for the Sony brand in general. People pay the price, but I think that paying for the Sony brand with marginal increases in quality will become passe. Years ago, Compaq did that in computers. They eventually had to bring down their prices to the competitors.

 

[Audioholics]

They will look awesome next to my 78rpm, 8-track, DCC and Minidisc collection.

 

[808htfan]

I wonder how these would compare to XRCD?

 

[Drag0nFly]

I wonder how these would compare to XRCD?

Or SHMCD. Seriously, what is Sony smoking?

 

[gliz]

I am not ready to give up my cd's I don't want to seem them go, but they will. There is just a big disconnect for me with downloaded music. I like to read the CD jacket while I am listing to my new casting crown's cd. I like to have something in my hand for my money. I do own an MP3 player though I just rip my cd's I have though (at a high bit rate I might add). Like an old friend, I will miss them when they go, and alas, they will

 

[j_garcia]

I don't think they will go completely, just like vinyl did not leave us; it will just sort of be the arena of collectors and weirdos

 

[itschris]

I still buy CD's because I don't want to pay the same price of lossy copies of music.

 

[jinjuku]

I am not ready to give up my cd's I don't want to seem them go, but they will. There is just a big disconnect for me with downloaded music. I like to read the CD jacket while I am listing to my new casting crown's cd. I like to have something in my hand for my money. I do own an MP3 player though I just rip my cd's I have though (at a high bit rate I might add). Like an old friend, I will miss them when they go, and alas, they will

I like the fact that I have loss-less original with a CD. I buy almost all my CD's used either locally or off of Amazon. Gotten some tremendous deals (especially classical music, dirt cheap).

 

[Biggiesized]

I wonder how these would compare to XRCD?

I was wondering the same thing.

At least with XRCD24 I can HEAR an audible difference. It's quite astounding what you can do with the redbook spec.

 

[AVphile]

So the Blu-spec CD titles are being released with no talk of Blu-spec players?