By damixx
Mon Jun 16, 2003 7:18 pm
You could sit here with your service manuals all day man; The mpc 2000 and mpc 3000 are two totally different machines. The software is very different. In fact R linn made his own software upgrade for the mpc 3000 for improvements; you lose some sequence memory but hey; with clever coding he got it done.
Digital audio is largely about algorithms and samplings of musical signals. These signals are represented as 1s and 0s, like computer code, and then they are converted to analog wave forms and amplified as music. When you're dealing with logic-based formulas and computer code, it's hard to understand how one digital signal processor (DSP) could produce a better, or more natural, sound than another and why it should cost more.
Buzz Goddard, vice president of Harman International's Lexicon subsidiary, says that the way parts are laid out on a circuit board is largely what determines the actual sound. "Twisting a diode 90 degrees when you place it on a circuit board can affect the product's signal-to-noise ratio, and understanding how only comes from experience," he says. This kind of attention to sonic detail can't be applied to mass-produced products with a shelf life of two years, he says.
The quality of the engine, on the other hand, is fairly irrelevant to the sound, Goddard maintains. "The quality of a DSP engine is like a Pentium chip. It either works or it doesn't. It's the software you write that determines how things sound," he says.
Most DSP circuits use canned programs because they're inexpensive. The result is a very 2-dimensional, processed sound that many people have come to associate with digital signal processing. The DSP modes found on low- to midpriced receivers simulate acoustical environments like stadiums, concert halls and jazz clubs–but not well. Custom DSP software allows manufacturers to manipulate parameters not even available with electromechanical devices–things like room acoustics, correcting for imperfections in transducer technology in loudspeakers and adding psychoacoustic phenomena.
The research into these new areas and the intensive, time-consuming nature of writing software for DSP circuits is what makes Lexicon's DC-1 surround-sound processors sell for $2000 to $4500. The three processors use the same box, but the software inside determines retail price. "It's the same reason I pay $300 for Microsoft Office when the actual CD-ROM only costs $2 to make," Goddard says.
While Lexicon's surround-sound processors are all-digital products, CD players have to convert digital signals to analog output, a process that produces noise. Theta Digital sells CD products ranging from a $700 digital-to-analog converter to an $11,000 2-piece 5A CD player, which includes DAC and CD transport. The sound-quality differences between CD players, according to Theta president Neil Sinclair, are attributable to three areas: computing power, choice of power supplies and circuitry.
Mass-market CD players use digital decoders with limited intelligence and a fixed microprocessor. Theta Digital uses high-speed programmable digital processing chips, and, as a result, they can do a more complete job of decoding the digital signal. Midpriced CD players don't have the computer power to deal with time and phase, which results in a lower-resolution output. Theta CD players incorporate Motorola's 56000 series chips, which deliver 48-bit processing for a manufacturing cost of about $100 a chip. A mass-market CD player, by contrast, typically packs a 20-bit processor that costs about $2 to $3.
Using separate power supplies and transformers for digital and analog circuitry is also important to the final result. Isolating power supplies minimizes the amount of spurious noise that occurs when the signal goes from digital to analog and analog to digital. Theta's $11,000 CD player is actually three separate chassis: a digital section, an audio section and the transport. Sinclair says they do it that way so that noise doesn't radiate from one section to another. The flagship system also uses Class A analog circuitry, as opposed to the more common and less expensive Class A/B type, which produces less distortion and a more controlled signal.
U could sit there with your manuals all day man. And make yourself believe that the same sound quality is coming out of both machines (LOL) I know it sounds arrogant but there is a difference in build and quality. The mpc 2000xl sounds shitty. It really does; but if you hook it up to a good mixing board u can make it sound great. Well; ill leave it at that; because I have an mpc 4000; I used to own the 2000/xl and the 3000. I can tell you that the sound quality of the mpc 4000 rivals any sampler/drum machine out on the market today. It really is impressive.
Digital audio is largely about algorithms and samplings of musical signals. These signals are represented as 1s and 0s, like computer code, and then they are converted to analog wave forms and amplified as music. When you're dealing with logic-based formulas and computer code, it's hard to understand how one digital signal processor (DSP) could produce a better, or more natural, sound than another and why it should cost more.
Buzz Goddard, vice president of Harman International's Lexicon subsidiary, says that the way parts are laid out on a circuit board is largely what determines the actual sound. "Twisting a diode 90 degrees when you place it on a circuit board can affect the product's signal-to-noise ratio, and understanding how only comes from experience," he says. This kind of attention to sonic detail can't be applied to mass-produced products with a shelf life of two years, he says.
The quality of the engine, on the other hand, is fairly irrelevant to the sound, Goddard maintains. "The quality of a DSP engine is like a Pentium chip. It either works or it doesn't. It's the software you write that determines how things sound," he says.
Most DSP circuits use canned programs because they're inexpensive. The result is a very 2-dimensional, processed sound that many people have come to associate with digital signal processing. The DSP modes found on low- to midpriced receivers simulate acoustical environments like stadiums, concert halls and jazz clubs–but not well. Custom DSP software allows manufacturers to manipulate parameters not even available with electromechanical devices–things like room acoustics, correcting for imperfections in transducer technology in loudspeakers and adding psychoacoustic phenomena.
The research into these new areas and the intensive, time-consuming nature of writing software for DSP circuits is what makes Lexicon's DC-1 surround-sound processors sell for $2000 to $4500. The three processors use the same box, but the software inside determines retail price. "It's the same reason I pay $300 for Microsoft Office when the actual CD-ROM only costs $2 to make," Goddard says.
While Lexicon's surround-sound processors are all-digital products, CD players have to convert digital signals to analog output, a process that produces noise. Theta Digital sells CD products ranging from a $700 digital-to-analog converter to an $11,000 2-piece 5A CD player, which includes DAC and CD transport. The sound-quality differences between CD players, according to Theta president Neil Sinclair, are attributable to three areas: computing power, choice of power supplies and circuitry.
Mass-market CD players use digital decoders with limited intelligence and a fixed microprocessor. Theta Digital uses high-speed programmable digital processing chips, and, as a result, they can do a more complete job of decoding the digital signal. Midpriced CD players don't have the computer power to deal with time and phase, which results in a lower-resolution output. Theta CD players incorporate Motorola's 56000 series chips, which deliver 48-bit processing for a manufacturing cost of about $100 a chip. A mass-market CD player, by contrast, typically packs a 20-bit processor that costs about $2 to $3.
Using separate power supplies and transformers for digital and analog circuitry is also important to the final result. Isolating power supplies minimizes the amount of spurious noise that occurs when the signal goes from digital to analog and analog to digital. Theta's $11,000 CD player is actually three separate chassis: a digital section, an audio section and the transport. Sinclair says they do it that way so that noise doesn't radiate from one section to another. The flagship system also uses Class A analog circuitry, as opposed to the more common and less expensive Class A/B type, which produces less distortion and a more controlled signal.
U could sit there with your manuals all day man. And make yourself believe that the same sound quality is coming out of both machines (LOL) I know it sounds arrogant but there is a difference in build and quality. The mpc 2000xl sounds shitty. It really does; but if you hook it up to a good mixing board u can make it sound great. Well; ill leave it at that; because I have an mpc 4000; I used to own the 2000/xl and the 3000. I can tell you that the sound quality of the mpc 4000 rivals any sampler/drum machine out on the market today. It really is impressive.
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