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In Reply to: Still researching, but it seems nearly all benefit from modding - but one company spurns clock upgrades! posted by John C. - Aussie on April 7, 2007 at 19:20:08:
This mechanism is the latest incarnation of their first VRDS mechanism:The goal of the VRDS transport is to eliminate any vibration of the disc, as well as to correct small inconsistencies in disc flatness. It accomplishes these tasks by clamping the disc with a circular plate that runs the full diameter of the disc.
According to Esoteric, this also serves to reduce read and timing errors. Construction highlights of the UX-3’s VRDS-NEO include a duralumin turntable and a bridge made from 10mm SS400 steel.
The following is copied without permission from Teac's own documentation:
VRDS-NEO Mechanism:
Ultra-high-precision turntable system
When a SACD or DVD disc is played, the higher-speed rotation required for playback causes increased and unwanted vibrations. These vibrations cause the disc surface to shake, making it difficult for the laser pick-up to accurately read the data.
The VRDS turntable is designed to physically correct all vibrations and completely stabilize the disc so that adverse effects during high-speed rotation can be minimized. High-speed rotation also necessitates that the spindle shaft be more rigid. The turntable, (the heart of the VRDS mechanism), is supported by several high-precision, highly rigid mechanical components.Coreless motor with no rotational irregularities
ESOTERIC has developed a long-life three-phase brushless spindle motor for high-speed rotation. Development of the magnetic circuit, consisting of a neodymium magnet structure, was completed through numerous tests and scientific validations, including magnetic field analysis. The optimized magnetic circuit minimizes rotational irregularities in the motor and makes it possible to reduce fluctuations in the motor drive current, thereby lessening any effects on audio circuits and other areas that may be subject to the injection of noise.
Duralumin turntable
During Super Audio CD (SACD), or DVD playback, the maximum rotation speed is approximately 4.5 times greater than the rotation speed during conventional CD playback. To ensure that the turntable can handle this high-speed rotation, ESOTERIC selected duralumin as the turntable material. This material is best known as the outer body material used in hi-speed hi-elevation aircraft. ESOTERIC has developed new technology for processing duralumin into lower mass with higher precision. As a result, P-03 Universal enables smooth turntable response and stable data acquisition properties by preventing disc vibration. The turntable is dyed a black color in order to absorb any diffused reflections of the laser beam from the pick-up.
Rigidity and precision are significantly improved by the use of highly specialized ball bearings used in the spindle shaft bearing assembly
A pair of precise ball bearings, is used in the spindle shaft bearing unit and a pre-load is applied to the bearing inner rings to
significantly reduce rattling and shaft shaking during use. This dramatically increases the precision of the bearing unit and greatly improves rotational and positioning accuracy. As a result, the correlation precision between the disc and pickup is improved—a factor which is closely related to transport performance and data acquisition. ESOTERIC has collaborated with a bearing manufacturer and has newly specified and developed an original bearing optimized exclusively for the VRDS-NEO mechanism. A pair of ceramic ball bearings support precisely controlled turntable rotation from low speed to high speed.Massive bridge unit made from SS400 steel supports the turntable and spindle unit
The precision and rigidity improvements to the turntable and spindle alone will not ensure good results if the bridge supporting them has not also been improved. Therefore, ESOTERIC selected 20 mm (3/4”) thick, SS400 steel for the support bridge. Any vibrations originating from the spindle during rotation are subsequently attenuated by the mass of the bridge.
Advanced pick up technology --- thread servo section
ESOTERIC developed an ingenious component structure for driving the pickup lens and a horizontal sled structure to move the pickup unit with an extremely high level of accuracy. This system ensures that the laser optical axis is always positioned at the very center of the pit track for optimal reading. These modifications to earlier VRDS mechanisms (P-0), make it possible to minimize the adverse effects of disc surface shaking and eccentricity at higher rotational speeds.
Pickup structure designed to prevent laser optical axis tilt during lens movement
Optical pickups in ordinary players are designed so that the lens hangs from a wire or a group of wires. This design is not only low in rigidity, but allows the laser optical axis to tilt away from a vertical orientation to the disc as the lens moves. When this occurs major error correction is required (data is lost and must then be interpolated). In contrast, the pickup used in the P-03 Universal (and in other ESOTERIC players), has a shaft-sliding structure that prevents the laser optical axis from tilting, even when the lens is moved. ESOTERIC has also increased the rigidity of the parts supporting the lens on a horizontal platform.
Although this is expensive to accomplish, ESOTERIC design implementation greatly improves data acquisition and eliminates
the need for off axis error correction.Speed feedback-controlled sled transport with superior response and minimal extraneous pickup lens movement
In order to provide a very high-performance pickup capable of smooth, continuous movement, a proprietary hall element sensing-type three-phase brushless motor is used in the sled transport. Powerful electronic speed feedback circuits control this sled mechanism.
Vibration isolation for spindle motor system and sled moving system
The spindle system, which may generate fine vibrations during rotation, is isolated from the sled moving system. Since the sled mechanism requires very delicate movement control, this isolation from high-frequency vibrations is another ESOTERIC implementation that ensures superior data read and acquisition.
High-precision mechanism and new software controlled servo system for superior playback
This precision-machined proprietary mechanism combines with new system software to provide optimal servo control for each type of disc.
Wasn't sure if you'd be interested, so included it on the off-chance...
DevillEars
Follow Ups:
DevillEars, you have let me down another track. As I mentioned before the P-03 etc are over the top for me to digest, but maybe the UX-1 MK2 is worth following up. Google search reveals heaps of foreign posts on this so it obviously has a following.John (being led astray yet once again!)
Do not criticise the idiots in this world - we need them as they make the rest of us look so much better :-)
I'm also afraid that I'm not able to comment on their UX-1 Mk2 as I've only seen it on static display at our local audio expo last August (The P-03 being the "star of their firmament" at the time).Besides, I'm more into 2-channel audio-only and am very happy with my old Theta pairing of Data Basic II and Gen Va, so have'nt gone out of my way to seriously investigate universal players.
Maybe some further googling will elicit more useful and relevant info...
DevillEars
Not sure about that UX-1 Mk2. I eventually dug up the following, apparently unbiased, review at "Secrets of Home Theatre" which casts some doubt on the video ability (which everyone raves about on the much less expensive Denon) but makes only passing reference to the audio. However it appears to be describing the Mk1, not the Mk2. I quote (without permission):The Teac Esoteric UX-1 Universal DVD player represents the most expensive player we’ve tested to date. I am generally not very fond of boutique players (definition: made in small quantities, sophisticated appearance, very expensive). Some consist of a rebadged mid-line player with a spruced up audio section and a pretty packaging but really nothing special in terms of performance. I was almost afraid of what I might find with this player in those regards, but thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised.
The UX-1 is an original player from the ground up. If I were to compare it to anything else design wise, it has some striking similarities to the rare Samsung HD-1000, but these are loose similarities. The player is a work of art and without a doubt the nicest looking and best built player I’ve ever seen. The entire outer shell is made of brushed aluminum, and even the tray is made of the same material. The connectors on back are enormous and as solid as anything I’ve ever used. Even the buttons on the front face plate and their backlighting would make most players envious.
But for the Benchmark, those things don’t mean much. At the end of the day, it is about video performance, and this is where boutique players very rarely, if ever, fair well. The UX-1 may be the new exception to that rule.
The UX-1 uses a Mitsubishi MPEG decoder coupled with a Genesis FLI-2310 video processing chip. Just to get the bad news out on the table; the player does suffer from the macroblocking problem commonly associated with this chip. In fact, it is probably one of the worst with the issue so far and probably only second to the previously mentioned Samsung HD-1000. Using my reference scene from A Bug’s Life, the artifacts were clearly visible and quite distracting. If you are considering this player be sure to test it out first on your display if possible, as the problem only manifests itself with certain displays and may not affect yours.
The player features component progressive outputs, via BNC connectors, and via DVI with support for 480p, 720p, and 1080i with HDCP compliant displays. It also has full support for PAL playback in these modes and another bonus, full PAL to NTSC conversion. It is very rare that a manufacturer actually tells you that they support this feature but Teac included the option in its setup menus.
Attention to detail does not stop there either. When playing back via DVI there are some nice features for set-up, including selection of RGB mode. Here you can select either PC RGB levels or Studio RGB levels. The problem is, the Studio RGB levels are set incorrectly. The engineers at Teac set the black and white levels to digital 16 and 235 appropriately, but unfortunately they cut out the head and toe room that allow for below-black and above-white content. I am working with their engineers now to resolve this issue, and they have been very responsive on trying to get the problems worked out. This is extremely rare for a high line outfit in my experience, and I applaud them on their wiliness to support their product to the utmost degree.
The Faroudja implementation is extremely good here with only one small caveat. There is no support for 2-2 processing with NTSC material. The player does however support 2-2 processing with a PAL output, which is completely appropriate. But there is a lot of 2-2 based video material authored in the NTSC format so I hope that they will add this with a future firmware.
On the core side the player is good, but not perfect. There are no signs at all of Y/C delay, and the video frequency response is superb. Via the component outputs, the white level is spot on at 100 IRE, but again the player has issues with below-black information. There is also has some pixel cropping on the left and right side of the image that is a little excessive. I am working with their engineers to get this solved.
The player has no chroma issues at all, and the chroma filters and cross color suppressor settings of the Faroudja chip all seem to be set appropriately.
Overall this is by far the best boutique player I’ve had the opportunity to test, but at this price point I wouldn’t expect anything else. It still has its shortcomings which I hope Teac works out, but its performance was far better then I expected. Stay tuned for our review on the audio performance, which is excellent.
John
Do not criticise the idiots in this world - we need them as they make the rest of us look so much better :-)
You wrote:"Not sure about that UX-1 Mk2. I eventually dug up the following, apparently unbiased, review at "Secrets of Home Theatre" which casts some doubt on the video ability (which everyone raves about on the much less expensive Denon) but makes only passing reference to the audio. However it appears to be describing the Mk1, not the Mk2. "
Firstly, any publication with a name like that has a definite and defined target audience that is implicit in the publication's title - and that audience will, at best, give equal weighting to both video and audio (as you are), or be more hung-up about the video side of things (both from a picture quality AND "latest feature count").
Publications with defined target audiences that are niches of a larger segment are, automatically and by design, "biased" as what they will look for and how they will assess what they find will be done from the perspective of their target readership. Also, the reviewers level of grasp of audio may be lower than the grasp of video and, in audiophile terms, may be woefully inadequate. That's "Challenge Number One"...
Challenge Number Two, on the other hand, is linked more to the different levels of "technological maturity" in digital audio and digital video.
Challenge Number Three is a by-product of No 2 and is the current "rate of technological progress" (as driven by market demand) between digital audio (minimal) and digital video ("maximal") resulting in multiple standards at the underpinning technology level. Examples of these include physical media (HD-DVD vs BluRay), encoding/decoding standards, compression algorithms (lossy vs lossless), display technology war (Plasma vs LCD), device to display connection (analog vs digital; connector-type; cables; etc).
So, what you are faced with is two parallel development processes:
1) Digital Audio (around since the early '80s)
2) Digital Video (virtually a 21st century phenomenon)The first is more mature, has survived format wars, and has seen the market split and segmented until (in 2-channel mode particularly) it has started to decline.
The second is still immature, is in the middle of format wars, lacks an obvious winner, etc.
So, given the above, what should someone do (with a balanced need for both good audio and good video performance)?
Well, pure logic dictates that, in an area characterised by rapid technological advances and multiple standards, one DOES NOT "buy the most expensive boutique models", but rather look for something with designed-in "future-proofing" - where the manufacturer has adopted a modular plug-n-play approach with the designed-in capability for these modules to be exchanged at a later date as the technology advances. This would justify the high initial cost as it would extend the useable life to give a reasonable ROI.
If no such "Utopian Device" exists, then settle on a lower cost compromise or "trade-off", where - right from the outset - one acknowledges that this is a temporary acquisition, is not OTT costly, delivers "state-of-the-art" functionality with acceptable quality, etc, etc....
The dilemma outlined regarding relative maturity of audio vs video is why I've kept the two totally separate - each in their own room with no component overlap. It's also why I've stuck to vinyl and red-book digital and ignored both SACD and DVD-A from a music program perspective, and why, from a movie watching slant, I have a Denon HTIB system which is more than adequate until the standards begin to stabilise.
Finally, the MP3 / download / iPOD / etc. fad looks set to stay and to expand into more than just audio. I spotted an article in HFN&RR on a new device from Meridian which will dock a video iPOD and upscale it's video picture to 1080P... So, your question needs to take into account another category of source medium - solid-state memory (also HDD-based) and source devices such as PC's, laptops, iPODs etc... This trend has the potential to see the Internet replace any and all physical media for both audio and video applications - making it even more inadvisable to buy OTT components...
I'm 10 years younger than you are (or, depending on perspective, you're 10 years older than I am) and - having seen some of my peers from university days begin to shuffle off this mortal coil - have stopped making long-term purchases...
I'm investigating a Esoteric UX-1 Limited edition - no modding required with that unit. Depends on how competitive the price ends up. Used ones become available from time to time and I'm chasing one at the moment. One trap is to make sure it is a 240V model that suits here + make sure it is region free. I must also check out it will play DVD-R burned discs. I'll use the highly modded Benchmark DAC1 with it for CDs.John
Do not criticise the idiots in this world - we need them as they make the rest of us look so much better :-)
Maybe if I dug deeply enough I could purchase one of these players. But it is completely against my instincts to spend as much as this, particularly when most of the software around is so relatively flawed and when such very good results can be achieved with far less outlay.But it is encouraging to see a company taking the problems posed by digital so seriously. We can hope to see a trickle down of the technology to less expensive players. But against that, according to TAS, the mechanisms in players have been little changed in the last decade except to become more flimsy and more plastic. That is not progress.
John
Do not criticise the idiots in this world - we need them as they make the rest of us look so much better :-)
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