AES San Francisco 2010
Workshop Details

W13 – Progress in Computer-Based Playback of High Resolution Audio

Chair:
Vicki R. Melchior, Audio DSP Consultant – Boston, MA, USA
Panelists:
Bob Bauman, Lynx Studio Technology – Costa Mesa, CA, USA
James Johnston, DTS Inc. – Calabasas, CA, USA
Andy McHarg, dCS Ltd. – Cambridge, UK
Daniel Weiss, Weiss Engineering Ltd. – Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract:
With the continuing decline in discs as music sources and concurrent growth of electronic distribution, computers and network attached storage (NAS) are now rapidly evolving as front end components in place of traditional transports and players. Computers have long been useful within mastering workflows, though not always loved, and their introduction into high quality music systems raises a new range of engineering challenges.

Intrinsic to computers are problems of EMC, switching noise, dirty power, jittered clocks, crosstalk, driver and operating system variability, protocol incompatibilities, and software errors, to name a few. These may directly influence audio quality. Of special importance, for example, are the design as well as system configuration of digital audio interfaces (USB, Firewire, S/PDIF, WiFi, Ethernet etc), D/A conversion, and data processing, along with clocks and power sourcing.

The panel in this workshop are active in the design of these systems and will discuss some of their results and thoughts regarding the most salient factors for optimization of sonic performance in this area.

Saturday, November 6, 2:30 pm — 3:30 pm (Room 130)