Battle looms between next-generation audio formats

11.30 am - By CLIFF JOSEPH

Sometimes it seems as though the Gucci-loafered executives who run the consumer electronics industry have got nothing better to do than sit around thinking up new ways to confuse people. They screwed up the introduction of DVD-Video for years by wrangling over different versions of the format, and they still managed to saddle us with that ridiculous regional encoding business. And now that DVD-Video finally seems to be taking off, they have decided to screw up the audio market as well.

There are no less than three "next-generation" formats for digital audio disks that are about to hit the market. In fact, two of these formats are already available, albeit in limited supply. The flagship HMV store in London's Oxford Street recently received its first Super Audio CD (SACD). It's a Rachmaninov compilation, tucked away in the bowels of the store's classical section, but there are plenty more SACDs on the way, and you'll no doubt be pleased to hear that Mike Oldfield has just released a Super Audio version of Tubular Bells.

Developed by Sony and Philips, Super Audio CD is a higher resolution version of the conventional audio CD format. Music stored on a standard audio CD has a sampling frequency of 44.1KHz, but Super Audio CDs more than double this to 100KHz. When CDs were first introduced, many musicians and hi-fi buffs argued that digital recording failed to capture the real atmosphere of a musical performance and that traditional analogue recording techniques were still superior. That's why there's still a small but solid market for vinyl albums recorded using analogue technology.

However, the increased quality of Super Audio CD finally allows digital recording techniques to match the quality of analogue recording. The classical guitarist John Williams is a diehard analogue fan, but he recently admitted to being a convert to digital, thanks to Super Audio CD.

"It really is a very special sound ... it's just like analogue. It does capture the warmth and depth that we aim for when we're playing live."

Another advantage of Super Audio CDs is that they have much higher capacity than conventional CDs. You can store 4.7 gigabytes of data on a Super Audio CD, compared with about 650 megabytes on a standard CD. This means that it's possible to include a standard stereo version of a recording alongside a multi-channel recording designed for six-speaker Surroundsound speaker systems.

There's even enough room to fit a conventional 44.1KHz CD recording on to the Super Audio disk as well, and this version of the recording will play quite happily on an ordinary CD player. The drawback, of course, is that you'll need to buy a new Super Audio CD player if you want to listen to the higher-quality Super Audio recording.

Sony already has a Super Audio player on sale for about £500, and it shouldn't be too long before prices come down to mass-market levels. But before you rush out and buy a Super Audio CD player, you might want to pause and consider DVD-Audio. This is another idea seemingly dreamt up specifically to confuse people, because DVD-Audio is completely different from DVD-Video. Most of the space on a DVD-Video disk is taken up by video, and that doesn't leave too much space for a high-quality audio soundtrack. "The Dolby Soundtrack on most DVD films isn't CD quality," says James Ball, of Creative Labs, a company well known for its computer peripherals and speaker systems. "DVD-Audio is a completely different format. There's no video on the disk so you've got a huge amount of room for audio and the quality goes way up."

The capacity and frequency range of DVD-Audio disks is similar to that of Super Audio CDs, so it would seem likely that the two types of disk will produce similar audio quality. Sony claims that its new DSD encoding system – Direct Stream Digital – can produce higher quality than that of DVD-Audio, which uses the same pulse-code modulation (PCM) technique as ordinary CDs. But until there are more disks and players available in showrooms, it will be difficult for potential buyers to make any real comparison.

And, as with Super Audio CDs, the chances are that you'll have to buy a new player if you want to use DVD-Audio disks. Most DVD players are video only and won't play DVD-Audio disks, so you'll probably need to buy a new player even if you've already forked out for a DVD-Video player. It is possible to get combination DVD-Video/DVD-Audio players, but these are still pretty rare and cost about £900. These dual-purpose players should start to become more common towards the end of this year, though, and by mid-2002 they'll probably be the norm.

There's one more format vying for your attention – one that you've probably already heard without even realising it. Developed by Digital Theatre Systems, the DTS format has been around since 1993, when Steven Spielberg used it for the soundtrack of Jurassic Park.

Many DVD films also have a DTS soundtrack sitting on the DVD disk alongside the standard Dolby soundtrack, although you'll need a DVD player or speaker system with a special DTS decoder built in if you want to hear it.

The company is now trying to expand into the audio market with DTS music CDs. You won't find any of these in your local record store, but there are quite a few specialist audio companies who sell DTS CDs over the internet. Digital Theatre's website (www.dtstech.com) lists Eric Clapton, Belinda Carlisle and Paul McCartney among the artists who have released albums on DTS.

A DTS CD won't work in an ordinary CD player, but you can buy DTS CD players on the Net, and you can also play DTS CDs in a DTS-compatible DVD player. Just to show how confusing all this is, there are plenty of DTS-compatible DVD players that can play DTS music CDs, but hardly any DVD players that can currently play DVD-Audio.

It's difficult to predict which format will win, but it will probably be a shoot-out between DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD. The DTS format is well supported in the film industry but seems too low profile to make much of a splash in the brand-conscious consumer-audio market. The popularity of DVD-Video should have given DVD-Audio a foot in the door, but the music industry is so terrified by digital technology that it's wasted years worrying about copy protection for DVD-Audio disks.

As a result, there are few DVD-Audio players available right now and it'll probably be another 12 to 18 months before there's a decent number of disks in high-street record shops.

That gives Sony and Philips a good year's head start with Super Audio CD. The first disks and players are already starting to appear, and Sony has the advantage of owning its own record company that can pump out Super Audio CDs of major artists such as Michael Jackson, Ricky Martin and many important jazz and classical artists.

"It's a tricky one to call," admits David Harold, of Videologic, a company that specialises in speakers and home cinema systems. "The advice I would give is to wait. The next generation of players will support all these formats." Many of Videologic's customers are hi-fi buffs who like to keep up with the latest developments, but these people seem to be standing back and not committing themselves to any particular format just yet.

So it's probably worth waiting a bit to see how this latest format war turns out. And that's probably how long you'll need to sort out the wiring for the six-, seven- or eight-speaker Surroundsound system you'll need to get the most out of these new audio formats.

- INDEPENDENT