SoundStage! CES 98 - Daily Picture

SoundStage!
Picture of the Day
Friday January 9, 1998 - Day Two
'Most memorable photograph(s) of the day'

Daily Coverage by Doug Blackburn and Doug Schneider
Digital Photography by Doug Blackburn using a Kodak DCS-210 Zoom Camera

Classic Records, Chesky Records and 3 hardware manufacturers held a joint press conference to announce high resolution digital audio discs (DAD). These will offer 24 bit, 96K sampling rate 2 channel music. A variety of titles including jazz, rock, and classical re-masterings and new recordings will be offered. Discs are expected to cost $29.95. One of the players to use with these discs (Resolution Audio) will cost $3,500. This player will have video outputs so that it can play DVD movie discs. The player will automatically re-clock to decode today's 16 bit, 44.1 Khz sampling rate audio CDs. There is lo loss of resolution when playing 16/44.1K audio CDs. These capabilities seem to make this new kind of combination player the first true universal playback device for digital discs of various types.

In the photo, David Chesky explains his company's commitment to having high resolution digital audio now rather than waiting for something to happen (development of a high resolution 2 channel audio digital format) that might never happen.

Hardware and high resolution 24 bit/96Khz software are expected to be available beginning in April 1998.