wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (02/25/85)
The saga continues... For those of you who were interested in the much-discussed CompuSonics floppy-disk digital audio recorder, there is another article about it in the February '85 issue of AUDIO TIMES, a trade paper. I'll paraphrase and quote selections: COMPANY COAXES FIVE MINUTES FROM FLOPPY-BASED DECK Compusonics has expanded the play/record time capability of its prototype floppy disk-based digital audio recorder to five minutes of mono music -- two minutes more than was possible six months ago. Last May, the company announced that it had developed a digital audio recorder that uses floppy disks, as well as a hard disk-based studio multitrack digital recorder. At least one studio has already taken delivery of a Compusonics pro system, while the consumer unit, the DSP-1000, is to be shipped this fall, according to the company. The suggested retail price is to be $1495, rather than $1200 as originally announced. [They had a non-playing prototype at last June's Summer CES, and conceded that it would only play 3 minutes of mono if it worked. A working model, with only 5 minutes playing time, was at the Winter CES.] Still the company plans to take orders for the DSP-1000 this June and deliver machines in time for the fall selling season, according to company vice president John Stautner. Stautner tells AUDIO TIMES that a new disk drive, higher density diskettes, and a higher density data compression circuit -- a proprietary Compusonics design -- will provide 45 to 50 minutes of play/record time on a 5 1/4-inch diskette. Yet Stautner concedes that 10 minutes is the longest time the company has so far obtained in the lab. .... Also at last month's show the company was demonstrating a prototype play-only car stereo version of the consumer machine. The unit was mounted behind the seat of a pickup truck, while a remote control panel was dash-mounted. ...the main purpose behind the mobile unit is to test the trackability of the disk drive mechanism when used in a moving vehicle. ***End of article*** [Editiorial comment and opinion: don't hold your breath on this one...] Regards, Will Martin USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA