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Amir Majidimehr, founder of Madrona Digital, gives his presentation titled “Video for Audiophiles” to a packed house.

by Jerry Pomeroy he offsite event started prior to the to listen to the sound change as differ- Pinnacle, Abekas Video and Microsoft: scheduled meeting. Members ar- ent things are done: the Fleetwood Mac over his carrier. He has been part of rived early to set up chairs, food and track was killer. three Emmy awards and as many pat- equipment. The “audiophile grade” The meeting offered a great learn- ents. folding chairs will be a standard at ing experience for the approximate 35 The purpose of this article is not to meetings from now on: the club pur- attendees as well as an opportunity for present the info from the meeting but chased 6 while the other 19 are on loan Amir Majidimehr the founder of Mad- only a short recap of what happened from members, they will all be stored at rona Digital to demonstrate what makes with some examples. The subject of the the church. There was a grazing table this store unique. It takes great under- meeting was Video for Audiophiles the harboring a plethora of veggies, wine, standing to select and converge digitally slide show was presented on a rear pro- cheese cold cuts and bread. Those arriv- based system into a communicating jection screen in the lobby: narrated by ing prior to the masses were treated to network. Amir. The bulk of the meeting was one of Bruce’s R2R tapes that he do- There are lots of people that have taken up by this excellent power point nated to Madrona Digital: it was played completed training from technology presentation in witch you could hear a on the stores 2 channel system in the developers; we in the Puget Sound area pin drop. Then people floated in and lobby. Before the meeting began the are fortunate to have someone that has out of different demonstrations around Levinson/Revel system was tweaked by been in the forefront of developing the the store. some of the members. It is always fun technology. Amir has worked for Sony, The presentation began by listing

Pacific Northwest Audio Society, P.O. Box 435, Mercer Island, WA 98040 ● www.audiosociety.org several differences between Video and the finished product. One of the reasons play to the same lighting as that in the Audio. Video being comprised of pic- it is easier to verify video calibration studio when originally filmed. There are tures it is easier to measure the quality than audio is that of industry standards. few audio calibration standards; re- of an image rather than more subjective Tools used during filming like SMPTE cording studios and engineers try to audio. In short what you are trying to color bars. These can then be placed on achieve “their” unique (best) sound. get in video reproduction is the same home software such as DVD and Blu- Amir spoke of compression presentation or as close as possible to ray. This allows for calibration of your MPEG2, 4 and VC1 that was developed what the director and editor put down as entire home system from player to dis- at Microsoft under his direction. He did

2 Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter December 2011 a great job of explaining it. I have added the example below to help illustrate how compression works. A little understood facet of video is compression yet this is critical to the end item. Rather than do allot of math and lose most readers. It takes a lot of data to make multiple images resolution of 1920 x 1080 at 24 fps. Your 50GB Blu-ray would be full in a matter of minutes without utilizing video compression. Compression on a still image is rather simple it works by identi- fying all the sequential pixels in a row (or block) that are the same color. This only requires the start and end point (pixels) and a color number. Compressing of “image to image” (movement) is more com- plex. Imagine a ball rolling across the screen with a fixed background. The pixels in the background re- main the same in each frame while the red ball moves across in front of them. A term unused in the presentation but fits well at this point is motion adaptive compres- sion Assume for simplicity the ball stays the same color and size mov- ing at the same speed. If one had a fast enough processor and good enough software all you would have to change in the images would be at or near the leading and trailing edge of the ball. In this scenario most of the pixels on the screen are defined by compression. Blu-ray is the best source available to the average consumer, even then you are only watching about 5- 10% of the actual data. The bottom line being: Compression algo- rithms and the speed of the proces- sor largely determine the quality of the image you see on your display. Amir’s presentation also in- cluded sections on displays, 3D technology and HDMI. He also showed Keith Yates Design Group acoustic analysis of their “big” room. The demo of Keith Yates software analyzing the room’s low frequency distribution was really good. These were exceptional (Continued on page 4)

Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter December 2011 3 (Continued from page 3) mode and didn’t have a problem filling tainly lives up to the Keith Yates graph- graphics showing frequency/sound the screen with light even with shut- ics of the room. pressure in several different quantities tered 3D images. This 3 chip DLP The evening was a lot of fun. There of subwoofers in the room. The Soft- makes astounding images not only in were several new faces at the meeting ware determines the best location for 2D but the 3d is mind blowing. The and some of those joined the club that the subwoofers based on how many you JVC Synthesis sound system was cho- evening. I was able to talk to many have. sen for the acoustically treated room. members and not stray far from the The Talk was extremely well re- The sound is very dynamic yet doesn’t grazing table. This certainly was a ceived and all were able to learn from sound like the horn based system that it meeting to remember. one of the great digital masters. Amir is. The bass is very smooth and cer- has a much better understanding of these concepts and is able to explain them simpler than I ever could. This article is pail compared to his presenta- tion. During the last part of the meeting the systems in the store were demon- strated to the members. The house sound system was on display: it utilizes the wall as the speaker. The analog sys- tem utilizing R2R tape, Levinson Pre- amp and No.53 mono block amplifiers with Revel Salon2 speakers. The great demo of the evening was going the big theater room. This is the compilation of things discussed in the earlier presentation. Lighting the 17’ wide screen would be a challenge for a normal projector but the Sim2 Lumis 3D Back lighting reveals serious acoustic treatments behind the acoustically transparent puts out up to 3,000 lumens in the 2D fabric on the side walls of the large home theater.

by John Stone

his year’s holiday meeting will sic. Prizes will be given to the “best” website www.audiosociety.org. If any include a little something for eve- holiday music and for the “funniest” of you have special relationships with ryone. While this meeting usually in- holiday music based on a popular vote. nearby dealers, manufacturers, or any cludes a raffle, this year’s party will To play all of this wonderful music, other audio subject matter expert, think have a gift exchange. Bring almost we will be auditioning the Eximus DP-1 about talking to them about presenting anything with an audio/video theme. DAC/Preamp. This new product from at a future meeting. CDs (good or bad), DVDs, T-shirts, April Music sounded great at the Rocky For those of you who attended last LPs, audio (DIY) parts, you name it. Mountain show this year, so we’re all month’s wonderful meeting at Madrona Everyone in attendance will put their excited about hearing this brand new Digital in Bellevue, or even if you name in a hat and then select from the piece in our reference system. Music couldn’t attend, you’ll be pleased to pile of goodies based on when your will be “served” up from Gary Koh’s know that Amir Majidimehr name is drawn. As we will not be sell- latest laptop server. (Madrona’s President and Founder) has ing raffle tickets to raise money this The club’s Executive Committee is posted a copy of his presentation Video year, consider paying your 2012 dues at also soliciting your ideas for meeting for Audiophiles, on Madrona’s website. the December meeting, and including topics for the next year. If there’s Check it out. an additional small holiday donation to something you’d like to hear, or a topic www.madronadigital.com/Library/ the club. of interest that we haven’t covered, VideoForAudiophiles.html In addition to the gift exchange, we please seek out any Committee member Thanks again to all the folks at will be playing a lot of holiday music. at the next meeting, or just drop any of Madrona for hosting the meeting. Please bring your favorite holiday mu- us an email using the links on the club’s

4 Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter December 2011 by John Stone

n October, I accompanied my wife artists such as Herbie Hancock and motions. I couldn’t have been more and another couple to Dimitrios among others. The wrong. The second song, from the first Alley in downtown Seattle to hear The group’s commercial success peaked note, just took off and soared. The rest Crusaders. Over the years, I’ve heard with their 1979 release Street Life, of the show gave my toe a real workout, some of their more popular tracks occa- which peaked at #18 on the pop and judging by the enthusiastic ap- sionally on the radio, but I’m sad to say chart. The group continued to record, plause after each number, the rest of the that it took this long to hear the legen- until 1991, but following the departure small crowd felt the same. dary group live. Many of you are very of several of the members, the group and Wayne Henderson took turns be- familiar with this group and their long disbanded. In 2003, founding members tween numbers telling delightful stories and colorful history, but for those of Sample, Felder, and Hooper reunited of how the group came together in the you, like myself, who are less familiar and released Rural Renewal, which also early days, their musical influences, and with the group’s accomplishments, al- featured guest appearances by Ray some colorful tales of their celebrity- low me to fill in a few of the blanks. Parker Jr. and . studded recording sessions in LA dur- These blanks were filled in for me by Fast forward to Seattle 2011. On a ing the 70’s. The show ended, every- the garrulous and engaging members of quiet Thursday night, original members one was satisfied, and after the MC the group during the show. Joe Sample, , and Wayne thanked the band, he told everyone in Starting out in the audience that if various no-name they didn’t mind being groups in re-seated, they could in the late 50’s, attend the late show childhood friends for free. After about pianist Joe Sample, five seconds of discus- drummer Stix sion, we decided to Hooper, saxophonist stick around. Wilton Felder and Although I was very trombonist Wayne satisfied with the first Henderson relocated show, the group was to in now fully warmed up 1960, and formed the and ready to really now-famous group boogie. Playing such known as the Jazz crowd pleasers as El- Crusaders. Their first eanor Rigby, Scratch, recording Freedom Put it Where You Want Sound, (a jazz record) It, and The Young Rab- sold 50,000 copies in bits, put the concert 1961!! The prolific over the top. I’ve group recorded a since seen several con- number of for cert videos on You- . Tube of The Crusad- Their style during this ers, and yeah, they period was , were better in 1970, R&B, and soul. In but it doesn’t matter, 1971, the group’s because I wasn’t aware name was shortened of the Crusaders in to simply The Crusaders, and the origi- Henderson were joined by Joe’s son 1970. Its now 2011, I am aware of the nal members were joined by Bass gui- Nick on bass guitar and Doug Belote on Crusaders, and they are fabulous. They tarist Robert “Pops” Popwell and gui- drums. The group started out slowly, are still actively touring, so if you get tarist . With these new and my initial feeling was that I was the opportunity, go (and stay for the members came a new sound known as seeing a group of aging musicians who second show). jazz-funk, made popular at the time by were tired and just going through the

Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter December 2011 5 by Joe Pittman

e will have Jerry Pomeroy’s new Oppo BDP-95 modified by John Tucker/Exemplar Audio at the January meeting. We will try to get a stock BDP-95 to compare it to and we’ll play CD’s, SACD’s and FLAC music files from USB thumb drives and eSATA drive. We may also have one or two other DAC’s to compare. The Exemplar modified player which John calls the Expo 95 is shown in my smallest reference system. The flat panel displays the Oppo’s USB drive interface (a display is necessary to navigate the music files) which is very user friendly. The Expo 95 retails for $3500 and performs in the cost-no- object category in my opinion.

by Joe Pittman

t was September 30, 1972 and I was with the multi-channel mix. at a Pink Floyd concert at the HEC In addition to the quadraphonic Edmunson Pavilion at the University of effects at the concert, there was a large Washington, Seattle, WA. Little did I screen above the band on the stage (rare know that the group would play “Dark at the time) with an image of the moon Side of the Moon” for the first time in rising on the first number to coincide the Seattle area, as it had not yet been with the heart beat. The entire concert released (it would later be released in was a mesmerizing multi-media event. March 1973). This was for me the best live rock The balcony of the pavilion had concert of my life and that’s why this loudspeakers all around and the heart box set is so special for me. The in- beat of the opening number “Breathe (In cluded Blu-ray Disc is worth the consid- The Air)” circled the audience (all of us erable admission cost. The 2011 remix in festival seating), it was awesome. As sounds the best so far. the documentary in the Immersion Box Expensive, but highly recom- Pink Floyd’s The Dark Sode Of The Set points out, all of the Pink Floyd mended for you Floyd fans. Moon—Immersion Box Set concerts on this tour featured a “Quadraphonic” set-up, so it is impor- tant to note that Dark Side of the Moon was always intended to be experienced

by Joe Pittman

Online music sales to grow 7% in 2011 Gartner estimates that worldwide sales of music through online transactions will grow to $6.3 billion this year, a 7% in- crease over 2010's $5.9 billion. The market research firm forecasts that online music sales will increase to $7.7 billion a year by 2015, reflecting the growth of iTunes and Spotify, while sales of CDs and other physical formats for music will decline from $15 billion in 2010 to $10 billion in 2015.

6 Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter December 2011 January 12 PNWAS Meeting See: http://www.head-fi.org/ will demonstrate his new VRE-1c We will demonstrate the Exemplar t/576440/seattle-meet-front-panel- preamp. modified Oppo BDP-95 universal express-1-21-2012 for details player and show it’s quazi-server April 12 PNWAS Meeting capability. February 9 PNWAS Meeting Kara Chaffee with DeHavilland from Dan Wright from ModWright will Vancouver, WA will demonstrate her January 21 Head-Fi Meet demonstrate his latest electronics. 50A triode push-pull amps. At Front Panel Express 5959 Corson Ave South, Suite I March 8 PNWAS Meeting Seattle, WA 98108 Steve McCormack from SMc Audio

For more information call Cooksie 425 828 9104 or email [email protected] See http://eastsidejazzclub.com

Martin Logan SL 3 speakers, in excel- edge than the original paper cones. lent condition, for sale. Excellent re- WITHOUT the $700 in upgraded woof- views - see link below for more info. ers, these speakers, in similar condition, All black rails. Original boxes and ac- have recently sold online for about cessories. Single owner. These speaker $1600/pr. Pick up is in metro Seattle have very nice upgraded OEM ML near the interbay golf course. Inter- matched 10" aluminum woofers with ested? Please send an email to Andrew inverted dust cones, from several model at [email protected] and kindly in- iterations later (but spec'ed by ML as clude a phone number. Check out this replacements for SL 3's), which cost online ad (without the driver upgrades) about $700 for parts alone. The woofer for general pics, speaker details and install is clean. The speakers sound more third party reviews/ links: http:// warm, clear and fantastic; the new rossputin.com/blog/index.php/selling- Disclaimer: The Pacific Northwest Audio woofers are, IMHO, superior on several my-martin-logan-sl3. Thanks for taking Society does not endorse nor is liable for levels: cleaner, more refined and de- a look:) any advertisement in any way. Everyone is tailed with more bottom end punch/ cautioned to proceed at their own risk.

Pacific Northwest Audio Society Audioletter December 2011 7 Visitors Welcome! ship deems appropriate. Editorial Meetings are held on the second Thursday Club Website Editorial submissions are welcome. of every month at 7:30pm at 4545 Island www.audiosociety.org Content must be audio-related or of general Crest Way, Mercer Island, WA 98040. interest to the club in plain text or Word E-mail document format without automation PNWAS Mission Statement [email protected] To bring people with a common interest in (macros and scripts). We reserve the right US Mail music reproduced at its best, for their to edit for style, content, and length. Pacific Northwest Audio Society, PO Box mutual edification and pleasure. Editorial Deadline: two weeks before meet- 435, Mercer Island, WA 98040 To facilitate the exchange and dissemina- ing date. tion of accurate data concerning audio Annual Dues Publishing any editorial material is contin- equipment and musical recordings. $60 due each January. New members pay a gent upon the approval of the Executive Committee. To promote, sponsor, and cultivate the prorated $5 per month for remainder of highest quality reproduction of music in year. Disclaimer the home. Elected Officers Opinions in this Audioletter are those of their To encourage maintenance of high stan- President: John Stone authors; the Pacific Northwest Audio Society dards in the performance, recording and [email protected] itself does not endorse or criticize products. transmission of music. Vice-President: Darin Forkenbrock Copyright 2011 by the Pacific Northwest [email protected] Audio Society except as noted; all rights PNWAS Objectives Secretary/Treasurer: Bruce Brown reserved. 1. Provide a forum for meeting other audio- [email protected] No part of this publication may be reprinted philes and exchanging information on or otherwise reproduced without the written musical recordings and audio equipment. Committee Chairs permission of the 2. Demonstrate and compare equipment Editor: Joe Pittman and recordings. [email protected] 3. Give members opportunities to become Equipment: Terry Olson familiar with the techniques of audio [email protected] manufacturing, testing, repair, recording, Music: Vacant– Volunteers? broadcasting, etc. Refreshment: Vacant– Volunteers? 4. Explore related avenues as the member- PO Box 435, Mercer Island, WA 98040