by Anton Shilov
11/05/2008 | 02:55 PM
During the last decade a lot of attempts to improve audio quality and improve sales of audio equipment were made, but virtually all of them were not successful. Sony has decided to offer yet another technology that can, according to the firm, improve quality of conventional audio CDs.
Sales of audio CDs have been declining for several years now since they cannot offer much higher sound quality compared to MP3 records sold by online stores like Amazon or iTunes. More advanced standards, such as super audio CD or DVD audio have not become popular, whereas Blu-ray disc audio is not used by anyone at all. Sony on Wednesday introduced its so-called Blu-spec CD standard, which, while maintaining compatibility with existing CD equipment promises higher quality of audio.
The Blu-spec CD uses blue laser instead of infra-red laser for recording, which automatically means more accurate data pits, which causes less distortion in the optical read-out process. According to Sony, this should improve quality of audio even on already available CD players.
Since standard-wise Blu-spec CD is just a CD with different recording technology, the discs themselves will still hold 650MB – 700MB of data, even though theoretically it is possible to expand the capacity to 800MB or even beyond, but compromise compatibility with certain players or drives.
The reasons why Sony decided to implement blue-laser diode (BLD) recording technology is simple: the company needs to unify replication equipment for various media and using blue-laser diodes is one of the ways to do that. In theory, Sony can also introduce Blu-spec DVD over time, if it finds it necessary. It should be kept in mind that BLDs are more expensive than infra-red lasers, which will inevitably be translated onto the end-user price.
The first 60 pre-recorded Blu-spec CD titles will be available late in December, 2008. The price of such discs will be in the range of ¥2500 - ¥4200 ($25.5 - $42.8), which is considerably higher than the price of CDs recorded with infra-red laser.
Blu-spec CD is a trademark of Sony, which means that such discs will only be available from its recording companies.