Topic: Glass CD

[RebelRebel]

http://www.dvd-recordable.net/Article3034.phtml
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20061021p2a00m0et027000c.html

A Japanese sound boffin has come up with a glass CD which he reckons does not warp, distort, and looks and sounds nicer than those nasty plastic creations.

Speaking to Mainichi magazine, inventor Suenori Fukui said that by imprinting the data onto handmade glass the CD lasts much longer.

He said that he wanted to make a CD which could be passed onto his grand children, assuming of course they have the players to read the formats in the future.

He said that plastic CDs were not completely transparent, information on them cannot be read perfectly. They are also susceptible to bending or warping if left in sunlight or humid areas, which leads to sound distortion.

The main market he is flogging them to are audiophiles who are more likely to notice the sound difference, or at least think they can. The first thing to be released on a glass CD is an audio recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air on a G String".

[cwfen]

I always liked the title of that Bach piece... 

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I really have to question the wisdom of putting that much effort into improving a 16-bit optical media format.

[BC]

I really have to question the wisdom of putting that much effort into improving a 16-bit optical media format.

Are SACD and DVD-a/DVD-v written to multilayer discs? Just wondering if a glass disc could be applied to these digital formats too.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

DVDA and DVDV are just data formats so they could be put to any media that will host a UDF file system.  Multilayer just looks like a bigger disk volume.

So yeah I can see your point.  I just think that optical ROMs are going to eventually be eclipsed by other forms of storage. 

[joekar]

Looks nice......

98700yen = 829 US dollars

A bit pricey..but I'm sure they will come down in price...eventually

I sure they sound amazing..

As soon as the porn industry adopts the medium , they will drive price down so us audiophiles can enjoy music on glass....cool

Peace,
jk

[beefstew]

but just imagine if u dropped it....

[BobW]

I've always wondered how much data must be dropped before it becomes audible at all.
Synch and data algorithyms are there to handle this.
So....I wonder when someone who is NOT vendor sponsored will measure and do psychoacoustic testing on scatched and damaged discs in low-end and high-end players.
I'd really love to see valid scientific data that quantifies and justifies archival discs.
Even a study that tests .WAV vs CD playback, MP3 at high (160kHz) bitrates, etc.

Has anyone ever seen independent data?
Some days, I feel that virtually all audio information is from an infomercial.
And worse, that the "100,000 mile tire" of audio is also being kept under wraps, awaiting a marketing plan.