MiniDisc Panasonic Equipment Notes
- H.D.E.S. Panasonic, having developed some parts of their ATRAC1 (SP-mode)
encoder independently of Sony, touts it in their Minidisc
equipment. Beginning with the SJ-MR200, they have been refering to their
"H.D.E.S." (High Density Encoding System) feature. This is basically
Panasonic's ATRAC1 algorithm, and of course it's fully compatible with
the ATRAC of Sony and Sharp.
Panasonic Singapore describes it as follows: "This system has three major advantages over ATRAC and other conventional encoding systems. First, it uses advanced bit allocation. Second, it assures more precise attack signal detection. And third, it uses high precision quantization technology. The result is an expansive, exceptionally high quality sound with virtually no noise."
What's left out of course is (1) Which ATRAC is it being compared with? (Is it Sony's or Sharp's, and which version?) and (2) Does it actually sound better, objectively? Without published test results it is difficult to say whether Panasonic has made an actual advance, or whether they are simply making the most marketing hay of their effort to develop their ATRAC.