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| Letters -- April 2005 AVTAC versus Bent Audio? April 22, 2005 To Ross Mantle, How does the AVTAC Pasiphae compare to Bent Audio's offering? They seem to use the same technology. Howard First off, the Bent unit is no longer available, so I guess I'll have to use the past tense. It did indeed contain the same S&B transformers as the AVTAC, and had an optional remote for volume control and source switching. The differences were that the Bent remote functions were motorized rather than relay-switched as in the Pasiphae, there was no display, and it lacked a number of other functions that the Pasiphae has, including phase-switching and ground-loop configuration....Ross Mantle SACD is dead? April 18, 2005 To Ross Mantle, Your obituary seems a bit premature. Check this link, if you have not already. The careful development of higher-resolution formats would seem to be the goal of audiophile consumers and writers alike, especially when it provides multichannel capability (in theory, and possibly in practice, the only way to truly provide sonic verisimilitude). It is not very comforting to read dismissals of a nascent technology simply because it has not had (like MP3) a meteoric rise in a culture more concerned with convenience and ultra-low cost than ultimate quality. The accountants that steer the course of corporate giants might well conclude from your message that no one really cares about present high-resolution formats and that CD is "good enough." I am not so sure that mourning SACD/DVD-Audio after one show is a good means of ensuring the future development of hi-rez audio. SACD has my support, and I hope that the format is given the time to mature. M. Blackburn I don’t like the state of affairs with regard to SACD any more than you do. The continuing efforts by the dedicated few to produce SACD titles in the double digits per year are indeed laudable, but not sufficient to sustain the format. In the face of Sony’s Betamax-like strategy, which emphasizes restrictive licensing, proprietary digital interfaces, and copy-protection over widespread adoption, the survival of SACD was about as likely as Betamax from the start. The future of high-resolution with multichannel capability, on the other hand, is not in doubt. My crystal ball says that digital media will move away from spinning discs to solid-state and virtual media very soon, and the concept of a proprietary physical format will become outdated. There will be only data and flexible data-processing equipment capable of reproducing the music at whatever resolution it was recorded. The low-cost and high data-carrying capacity of these media will encourage high-resolution recording and distribution, leading ultimately to the fidelity Nirvana that we all want. Of course, one can never be too careful about making predictions, especially about the future....Ross Mantle Next "TWBAS"? April 5, 2005 To Jeff Fritz, When is the next "The World's Best Audio System" going to appear? What will you be testing? You have an interesting website that is informative and entertaining. I would like to see more "TWBAS" installments though. Jimmy Speight The next installment of "TWBAS" will be published on April 15th. The subject of the article is the Esoteric P-01 SACD transport, D-01 monaural DACs, and G-0s master clock -- a digital front-end that costs a whopping $63,000. Thanks for the compliments on Ultra Audio; we're proud of what we've been able to provide readers, and there's lots more planned....Jeff Fritz
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